Chapter 1: Abstract This paper examines the relevance and importance of the Internet for researching information and

making on-line reservations for tourism products in Hong Kong. Most academic paper has addressed about Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) and the use of the Internet has focus on how suppliers of the online tourism demand and use of their consumer website in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods industry. This paper approaches the use of the Internet from a tourism demand perspective and looks at the profile of international visitors to the Hong Kong that use the Internet. 200 people were interviewed from 10 October 2010 to 30 October 2010 and were asked if they used the Internet to find information about the destination and if they made reservations. The sample had certain level of experience bias among those frequent repeat tour package visitors (FRTPVs) traveling comes from the Mainland China to Hong Kong and therefore one would assume that they would be familiar with the region and the tourism products, the results found that those repeat tour package visitors still used the Internet to search for information and make reservations. The study neglected the age group below 16 years old segment. The study had only 35% of the total sample using the Internet and although this may seem low the results from this investigation are relevant as they indicate that international tourists use the Internet and it is important for tourism service providers to maintain an up-to-date web page and have facilities for online reservations as people who use the Internet to search for information went on to make on-line reservations.

Chapter 2 Introduction Technology and more specifically Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) are being utilized by the tourism and hospitality industry globally. Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) heavily relies on web based promotion in targeting the highly interactive traveler. Hong Kong Hotel Association (HKHA) and the Travel Industry Council (TIC) have a web presence and linked to the HKTB website. Individual tourism operators, tourist attractions, event organisers, restaurants and hotels have been encouraged through their web pages and have a web presence, chiefly through links with the HKTB. Through their own webpage and these links tourism service providers in Hong Kong seemingly have access to the on-line population of the world. Most tourism service providers are local owned, small and medium size enterprises that have limited financial resources, expertise and time to establish and maintain an up to date website. However, the use of ICTs generally, and more specially Internet use by the tourism industry, is driven by tourism demand (Buhalis, 2003). The HKTB want to know how many visitors visit Hong Kong used the Internet firstly to gather information before
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travel and secondly to make reservations. This data was important to the HKTB to provide convincing evidence to the tourism service providers of the importance of either establishing and/or maintaining an up-to-date web presence. Hong Kong has a large volume of FRTPVs in the peak autumn and winter months originating mainly from Mainland China. International visitors have been steadily increasing over the last 10 years, attracting Business traveler, Leisure tourists such as FITs and family group from South East Asia. More importantly international visitors in the shoulder periods, either side of spring, from February to April, have lengthened the tourism season for all service providers. Leisure tourism has been slower to take off on the Internet with business travel representing the highest portion of travelers who are using the Internet to gather information on a destination and to make on-line travel reservations (Buhalis, 2003). The HKTB is chiefly a convention, exhibition, events, trade fair and package tour oriented destination attracting business travelers and family tour therefore a low level use of the Internet from Leisure tourist. Buhalis (2003) argues that leisure travel has been much slower to take off on the Internet than many industry analysts had participated because of the domination of package holidays. This argument of lower Internet use by the leisure traveler is relevant for Hong Kong which is dominated by packaged holidaymakers instead of FITs. This paper examines if distinctions exist for the level of Internet usage for different groups of visitors based on the demographic information provided by 200 questionnaires collected in Oct2010. The paper will provide a profile of visitors who use the Internet for destination information prior to choose a service and who make on-line reservations. Although the percentage of visitors who used the Internet was relatively small it will be concluded that tourism service providers in Hong Kong should maintain an up-to-date website and provide Internet reservation facilities.

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Chapter 3 Research on the Demand and Supply of Internet Use in Hong Kong The Internet as a marketing tool has been heavily promote by the Hong Kong Government as well as the HKTB but these has been lack of research on tourism demand and Internet use, with most of the research focusing on how suppliers of the tourism product in Hong Kong use the Internet. Milne and Mason (2001) reviewed the pros and corns of using the Internet to market community based tourism, web-raising awareness and the implication of this process on community development.

Chapter 4 Methodology Data was collected from October 2010 from all different tourist attractions of Hong Kong. People were approached randomly in cafes, restaurants, bars, beaches, museum, heritage sites, hostels, hotels, piers, airports, bus stations, theme parks and asked if they were visitors to the area. The sample size for this study is 200 respondents with 90% of the sample being male, and 10% female. FRTPVs visitors from China made up 65% of the total sample and international visitors 35%. The purpose of the survey was not only to ascertain if the visitor used the Internet for their trip, but to collect data on the following: 1. The type of online travel product use 2. Demographic information 3. The frequency of using internet service Four questions were included in the questionnaire that referred to Internet use and Internet reservations. Respondents were asked whether they had used the Internet to find out information, how had the Internet aided their reservation process, how many reservations they made and what exactly did they book. The data was analysed using SPSS statistical analysis of frequencies, means and crosstabs.

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Chapter 5 Profile of the Respondents The age breakdown of the total sample shows the majority of respondents were aged between 26 years of age and 45 years, however, the mean fell into the 26 45 age group. The demographics of the sample are shown in Table 1, which highlights age and gender.
Table 1. Age and Gender of the Sample Age Group 16 25 26 45 46 65 66 and above Total Male (n) 61 86 20 15 182 Percentage 31% 43% 10% 8% 90% Female (n) 7 6 4 1 18 Percentage 4% 3% 2% 1% 10%

International visitors were comparatively younger than frequent repeat tour package visitors traveling comes from the Mainland China. The majority of FRTPVs come from the Mainland China were aged 26 45 with most of the sample being aged 30 years and over. In contrast, more than half of the total sample of international visitor was aged lower than 30 years.
Table 2. Profile of Frequent repeat tour package visitors from China Region where FRTPVs live Beijing Shanghai Fujian Province Guangdong Province Other Provinces TOTAL Male 9 13 36 51 11 120 Female 1 2 2 3 2 10 Percentage 8% 12% 29% 41% 10% 100%

The majority of FRTPVs from China in all group, excluding those under 26 and those aged 45 years and older mostly come from the Guangdong Province. This may be due to the relative proximity of Hong Kong; it is within three hours of land traveling time by train and road. The relatively short distance allows residents of the visitor from Guangdong Province for a day trip or short-break holiday, with many have relatives in Hong Kong. Visitors from Fuijian Province and Shanghai are also prominent within the age breakdown of the FRTPVs shown in Table 2 cause of the short traveling distance, and strong business activity issue. Table 2 shows that FRTPVs from Guangdong Province travel to Hong Kong more than any other region, followed by visitors from Fujian Province and Shanghai. International visitors comprised 70 of 35% of the sample with the majority coming from Asia 37%. Visitors came from Asia and North America predominate 64% of the sample and other are evenly spread across all the other group as can be seen in Table 3. This signifies that Hong Kong is international tourist destination but still favor by the travel distance.

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Table 3. Profile of International Visitors Region where visitors live Male Female Percentage Asia 25 1 37% North America 18 1 27% Australia & New Zealand 8 2 14% Europe 7 2 13% Other Countries * 4 2 9% TOTAL 62 8 100% * Other Countries include visitors from Africa, South America, Middle East, Pacific and Mediterranean Islands

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Chapter 6 Use of the Internet to find out Tourist Information about Hong Kong Respondents were asked whether or not they used the Internet to find out tourist information about Hong Kong. Only 70 respondents or 35% of the total sample indicated that they did use the Internet with 130 respondents or 65% saying no, they had not. Although only a small proportion of visitors had used the Internet to collect information before traveling. This is indicative of the importance for information provided about Hong Kong to be available on the web as some visitors do access it and do use the Internet as an information source. One also needs to take into account that most visitors to Hong Kong has relatives or belongs to the FRTPVs mainland China or following tour packages and not be seeking any new sources of information via the Internet. Pearsons Rank Spearman Correlation test were conducted on the variable age and Internet usage. Neither test provided any significance using age as a descriptive variable which leads one to assume that a persons age is not a defining factor when using the Internet. Table 4 shows the cross tabulation of age and Internet usage across all age categories. Of the 70 respondents who had used the Internet to find out more tourist information, the majority 63% were aged between 16 to 25 years.

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Table 4 Ages of Respondents who used the Internet to find out more tourist information. Age Number within total sample who had used the Internet Percentage of total sample who had used the Internet 16 - 25 44 63% 26 - 45 22 32% 46 - 65 3 4% 66 Above 1 1% Total 70 100%

One can argue that most international tourists may typically join package tour and receive sufficient information from the tour operators and those domestic visitors has relative and majority are frequent repeat visitors. For those age over 45 years old are not familiar with information technology, prefer to gain information from traditional tour guide book. Majority of male had used the Internet to find out more tourist information than female with the result shown in Table 2. The result further address 70% of the total sample who had used the Internet had tertiary education level. This signifies that the education level has direct co-efficient linkage with the usage of internet to find tourist information.
Table 5. Internet Usage and Educational Background Education Level Number within total sample Percentage of total sample and who had used the Internet Primary 3 4% Secondary 18 26% Tertiary or above 49 70% Total 70 100%

Of the 70 respondents who had used the Internet, nearly all of them were traveling with other companions, partners, and family members or as part of group. The majority of people were traveling with one other person, although in some cases, 2 people traveling together scored relatively highly. Data on the number of people traveling and who used information from the Internet can be seen in Table 6.
Table 6. Internet Usage and People Traveling Number in group Number with Total Sample Number with total who had used Internet 1 62 13 2 98 50 3 18 3 4 14 2 5 or above 8 2 Total 200 70

For those respondents who had used the Internet to find tourist information it was important to assess where these respondents lived. Hypothetically, one would expect international visitors from far distance countries to use the Internet more than FRTPVs due to lack of prior knowledge of the area especially if they were a first time visitor to Hong Kong. A breakdown of regions and countries where these respondents lived can be seen in Table 7 and Table 8.
Table 7. FRTPVs from China who had used the Internet

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Region where FRTPVs live Number of respondents who had used the Internet Percentage of Respondents

Beijing 2 25%

Shanghai 4 50%

Fujian Province 1 12.5%

Guangdong Province 0 0%

Others 1 12.5%

Total 8 100%

For FRTPVs most users came from Shanghai, Beijing and other provinces. This could be seen as surprising as one would assume visitors, from regions located further away would be more likely to use the Internet. For International visitors, people from North America and Europe had the highest usage rate towards Asia Countries. Result may also affect by the usage of Internet as Internet World Stat (2010) and Nielsen (2010) report identifies that USA Internet average use in 2010 are also higher than other countries of the world. The test results of this survey eventually confirmed that there was direct linkage factor related to where visitors came from and the level of Internet usage.
Table 8. International Visitors who had used the Internet and the Country of Origin Region where visitors live Asia North America 20 49% Australia & New Zealand 5 12% Europe Other Countries 2 5% Total

Number of respondents who had used the Internet Percentage of Respondents

2 5%

12 29%

41 100%

* Other Countries include visitors from Africa, South America, Middle East, Pacific and Mediterranean Islands

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Chapter 7 Use of the Internet to made reservation Respondents were asked whether they had used the Internet to make any reservations. 49 respondents or 70% of the total sample who had used internet indicated that they had, with 21 respondents or 30% of the sample saying no they had not. Of the 49 respondents who had used the Internet to make reservations, 16% were domestic visitors and 84% international visitors. Table 9 shows where domestic visitors live and Table 10 shows where international visitors who made Internet come from.
Table 9. Visitors from Mainland China who Made Reservations on the Internet Region where live Number of respondents who had used the Internet and made reservation Percentage of Respondents Beijing 2 25% Shanghai 4 50% Fujian Province 1 12.5% Guangdong Province 0 0% Others 1 12.5% Total 8 100%

From the information in Table 9 you can see that the highest percentage of visitors from mainland China to Hong Kong who make reservations on the Internet came from Shanghai which does not correspond with the information from Table 7.
Table 10. International Visitors who Made Reservations on the Internet Region where visitors live Asia North America 20 49% Australia & New Zealand 5 12% Europe Other Countries 2 5% Total

Number of respondents Percentage of Respondents

2 5%

12 29%

41 100%

* Other Countries include visitors from Africa, South America, Middle East, Pacific and Mediterranean Islands

From the Table 10 result shows North America visitors are the most prominent group of international visitors who used the Internet to make reservations as well as the level of Internet usage for finding tourist information that can clear prove of their positive correlation between the two factors. Again there was a positive correlation between those samples who had made reservations over the Internet and traveling with others. Within the sample, 21% were traveling with another companion, 14% of traveling with 1 other, 5% traveling with 2 or 3 others and the remaining 2.5% evenly spread across all the other group size categories. These results has violate Buhalis (2003) claim that families do not use the Internet as much as other groups because of the complexity of family holidays making it hard to book in advance on the Internet.

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A cross tabulation was also undertaken on the variable age and those who had find tourist information via the Internet. The majority who had use the Internet were those aged between 16 to 25 years, which correspondence to 44 respondents or 63%, followed by aged between 26 to 45 years, which correspondence to 22 respondents or 32%. These results indicate that the younger age groups are using the Internet preferably than the older generation. The breakdown of ages and Internet usage is shown in Table 11.
Table 11 Cross Tabulation of Age and Internet Use Age Number of respondents Percentage of respondents 16 - 25 44 63% 26 - 45 22 32% 46 - 65 3 4% 66 Above 1 1% Total 70 100%

Respondents were then asked if they had indicated yes to the question: Did you make reservations on the Internet? They were then asked how many reservations they made. Table 12 shows that most people only made one or two reservations on-line. 18% of the total sample only reserved one item on the Internet with 61% make two reservations. The minimum number of reservations was 1, and the maximum 5, with the mean is 2.26 and the mean response rate being 61%. Although 75.5% of the total sample did not use the Internet or made reservation online but still consider as a remarkable influential issues in compare to the Nielsen (2010) global trends in online shopping reports result of the 20 percentage global consumer respondents prefer to shop online.
Table 12. How many Internet Reservation did you Make? Number of Reservations made 1 2 3 4 5 TOTAL Frequency 9 30 3 2 5 49 Percentage 18.37% 61.22% 6.12% 4.08% 10.20% 100.00% Percentage towards visitors who had used internet to find out more tourist information 12.86% 42.86% 4.29% 2.86% 7.14% 70.00% Percentage towards sample size 4.50% 15.00% 1.50% 1.00% 2.50% 24.50% total

There was a high correlation between the number of people who used the Internet to find tourist information, and then went on to make a reservation while on the Internet (refer to Table 13). It can be inferred that the Internet search was carried out for purpose of make reservation. Refer to Table 14, a total of 111 reservations were made on the Internet, with 33% of these being airline bookings, 28% for the accommodations, 24% for tourist attractions, 11 or 15% for events others. A cross tabulation was run on whether respondents who had used the Internet to find tourist
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information were the same people who had made reservations on the Internet. 70% of whose who had used the Internet had made reservations on the Internet. The information is shown in Table 13.
Table 13. Internet usage and Booking Made Internet Reservations Does Does Not 49 21 70% 30% Total 70 100%

Internet search for tourist information

Count % within internet tourist information

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Chapter 8 Type of Booking Made On-Line Respondents were finally asked what they booked online. Table 14 lists the items included in the questionnaire. For the item, most things this corresponds to the respondent having made flight, accommodation, events reservations over the Internet. Same as (Bhatia et al 2010) report addressed flight was the most common item booked online. These results show that for a high proportion of 67% internet reservation visitors do make booking on accommodation, tourist attraction, event and other services and majority services are owned and operated by small and medium size enterprises. For accommodation, tourist attraction and event providers in Hong Kong it can be concluded that they must have well developed websites and facilitate reservations via the Internet.
Table 14. What services did you reserve over the Internet? Reservation Service Categories Flight Accommodation Tourist Attractions Events Others TOTAL Frequency Percentage

37 31 26 11 6 111

33% 28% 24% 10% 5% 100%

Tests were run to see if the length of stay and using the Internet for tourist information and reservations showed any particular significance. Peasons Rank Correlation test proved that they have strong correlation between these two variables. Those who stayed less than 7 days tended to find tourist information less on the Internet than those who were staying for a shorter period of time. One can infer that those who stay for a shorter period of time may be first time visitors or traveling to more than one destination. It can also be assumer that those people who do stay for a long period of time (one week or more) either are backpackers or with relatives or friends in Hong Kong.

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Chapter 9 Conclusion With the consumers become more knowledgeable, price sensitive and familiar with using this medium, as the level of trust and security to make reservations increases and improvement in technology such as broadband, free mobile wi-fi service and the costs associated with accessing this technology falls (Buhalis, 2003) it can be concluded that more consumers will be researching and buying the tourism product online. In this study only 10% of the total sample used the Internet. This percentage can only increase in the future. This study has a bias in the most of the data was collected during the trade fair peak season period and was chiefly targeting domestic visitors to Hong Kong who are either familiar with the tourism product, who are repeat visitors, or attending trade fair or staying with friends and relatives. The results from this study are relevant as they indicate that the rate of visitors from mainland China and international tourists use the Internet for information search and reservation are both high and it is important for tourism service providers to maintain an up-to-date web page and have facilitates for online reservation to those consumers. The results also show that tourists in far distant cities and province of China as Shanghai, Beijing and Fuijian Province, have approximately the same level of Internet use as international visitors even though one would assume they are more familiar with the destination and the products on offer and the products on offer and it is relatively inexpensive and convenience for them to find through travel agents and their relatives. The finding of this study supports the claim that the use of ICTs in the tourism industry is driven by tourism demand (Buhalis, 2003). There is a lack of academic research of the profile of tourism consumers that are seeking and purchasing the tourism product using the Internet and yet tourism suppliers keep hearing that product and service must go online. It is hoped that this research can be built upon by other researchers investigating Internet use and tourism demand in Hong Kong especially as the dynamic world of ICTs penetrates all aspects of society.

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Chapter 10

Survey Questionnaire

Introduction Good day, My name is Norman, I am a Master Student of the University of Wales and currently conducting a research on the Tourism demand and the use of the internet of foreigner in Hong Kong. I would be appreciated if you could take few minutes of time for me to conduct a simple survey with you for my research study. Q1 In which regions do you now live? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Asia Australia & New Zealand European Countries North America Others * Mainland China ---- to Q2

* Others include visitors from Africa, South America, Middle East, Pacific and Mediterranean Islands

Q2 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Q3 12. 13. 14. 15.

In which city or province do you come from? Beijing Shanghai Fujian Province Guangdong Province Other Provinces Would you please tell me which age on this list youre in? 16 25 26 45 46 65 66 and above

Q4 What is your gender? 16. Male 17. Female

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Q5. 18. 19. 20.

Which of the following choice is best to describe your educational level? Primary Secondary * Tertiary or above

* Include Certificate, Diploma but exlcude Higher Diploma Education

Q6. What is your main purpose for coming to Hong Kong this visit? a.)Vocation 21. Shopping 22. Honeymoon 23. For particular hobby/sport 24. For particular event(s)/performance(s) 25. Accompnay business/ conference(s)/ exhibition visitor(s) for vacation 26. Vacation b. Business 27. Attend international conference(s) / exhibition(s) 28. Attend internal corporate meeting(s) 29. Attend internal corporate meeting(s) and company incentive trip 30. Other business purposes c. Others 31. Visit Friends / Relations 32. On way to main destination 33. Religious related activities 34. Other reasons Q7. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. How many people are you traveling with for this time of visit? Alone 2 3 4 5 or more

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Q8. How comfortable do you feel using computers, in general? 40. Very comfortable 41. Somewhat comfortable 42. Neither comfortable nor uncomfortable 43. Somewhat uncomfortable 44. Very uncomfortable Q9. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. How comfortable do you feel using the Internet? Very comfortable Somewhat comfortable Neither comfortable nor uncomfortable Somewhat uncomfortable Very uncomfortable

Q10. How satisfied are you with your current skills for using the Internet? 50. Very satisfied - I can do everything that I want to do 51. Somewhat satisfied - I can do most things I want to do 52. Neither satisfied nor unsatisfied 53. Somewhat unsatisfied - I can't do many things I would like to do 54. Very unsatisfied - I can't do most things I would like to do Q11. Have you use Internet for searching information for this visit? Yes to Q12 No Q12. Have you use Internet for making reservation for this visit? 55. Yes 56. No Q13. Have you book any product(s) or service(s) for this visit? 57. Yes 58. No

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Q14. Which product(s) or service(s) do you book for this visit? 59. Accommodation Reservation 60. Events Reservation 61. Flight Reservation 62. Tourist Attractions Ticket 63. Others Q15. How many booking and reservation have you made for this visit? 64. 1 65. 2 66. 3 67. 4 68. 5

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China,

China, India will lead region's online reservations boom, http://www.travelweekly.com/article3_ektid209470.aspx eCommerce in China: the Case of Travel, http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/1138/1/fulltext.pdf Strategic use of information technology in the tourism industry, http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/1123/1/fulltext.pdf Online tourism market is booming in China, http://www.eturbonews.com/print/14137 Online hotel reservations continue shift from online travel agencies to supplier sites, http://www.eturbonews.com/2873/online-hotel-reservations-continue-shift-online-t Nine Things (Not 10) That will drive travel distribution http://www.tourismwallawalla.com/marketing/PCWI_Trends_Article2010.pdf Top 20 Countries with the highest number of Internet Users. http://www.internetworldstats.com/top20.htm in 2010,

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