A Study Of Foreign Tourist Perception Of Hangzhou-Strategic Model For Destination Image Competitiveness

Today,almost every tourism provider is caught in the web of finding the right promotional strategy and structure to handle the upended landscape and new consumer based economy.The Hangzhou tourism destination,although enjoying rapid domestic tourism growth is however also faced with this challenge as regards to international inbound tourism.A stronger and sustainable future that engages the tourists could be the solution to this.Given the significance of tourist in image creation and recreation,their perception could give useful insights.Hence,the study focuses on analyzing the foreign tourist perception of Hangzhou and thereafter proposes competitive strategies based on the discovered strength of the destination.Its aim is to identify foreign tourist perception about Hangzhou by measuring their satisfaction and motivation level from a series of Hangzhou attributes through satisfaction and importance analysis.The results showed Cultural sites,Green Environment,Beauty of scenery&landscape,Cleanness of Hangzhou,Safety and security,food,culture/history,sightseeing,receptiveness of residents,and scenic spots to be the most important satisfaction and motivation attributes respectively.The study reveals that perception "a priori" was based more on the beauty and landscape,while perception "a posteriori" was based more on culture even though information about it was limited;and in extension,inferential analysis showed culture to be the most significant.With the help of a post questionnaire,the study suggests four culture based strategies and proposes a strategic model for image competitiveness which could help place Hangzhou destination in an international position of advantage.In addition,the study also contributes by revealing Hangzhou to be a potential romantic cultural destination with the ability of attracting high educated young tourist across new international markets.