IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v10y2021i9p950-d631331.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

China Viewed by the West before COVID-19: Spaniards’ Perceptions and Knowledge of China as a Tourist Destination

Author

Listed:
  • Pedro Cuesta-Valiño

    (Department of Economics and Business Management, Universidad de Alcalá, 28802 Alcalá de Henares, Spain)

  • Antoni Serra-Cantallops

    (Department of Business Economics, University of the Balearic Islands, 07122 Palma, Spain)

  • José Ramón-Cardona

    (Ibiza Island Council University College of Tourism, University of the Balearic Islands, 07800 Ibiza, Spain)

  • Rafael Ravina-Ripoll

    (Department of Business Organization and INDESS, University of Cádiz, 11002 Cádiz, Spain)

Abstract

China is not only becoming a major international tourist destination, and it also has huge potential as an issuing market. Spain, meanwhile, has long ranked among the world’s top tourist destinations, and as an issuing market, it is gradually growing in importance. There is high potential for an increase in tourist flows between Spain and China in both directions. This paper analyses Spaniards’ perceptions of China as a country and as a tourist destination and their familiarity with the reality of this Asiatic country, before the first news about COVID-19. Likewise, it aims to identify possible factors that might inhibit Spaniards from traveling on holiday to China while also offering an initial insight into Spain’s future potential as an issuing market to China. For this purpose, 1063 interviews were conducted and analyzed. The results point to a strong potential intention by Spaniards to visit China, although it also reveals very little familiarity with the reality of China as a tourist destination, except for its two major symbols, Beijing and the Great Wall. The results also seem to indicate the existence of big travel inhibitors among certain segments, mainly related to the travel costs, politics and safety, environmental issues, and a lack of awareness of the quality standards of China’s tourist sector. Future studies should analyze the changes that the pandemic may have produced in China’s image.

Suggested Citation

  • Pedro Cuesta-Valiño & Antoni Serra-Cantallops & José Ramón-Cardona & Rafael Ravina-Ripoll, 2021. "China Viewed by the West before COVID-19: Spaniards’ Perceptions and Knowledge of China as a Tourist Destination," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-20, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:9:p:950-:d:631331
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/9/950/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/9/950/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Choi, Jeong Gil & Tkachenko, Tamara & Sil, Shomir, 2011. "On the destination image of Korea by Russian tourists," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 193-194.
    2. Yang, Jie & He, Jiaxun & Gu, Yingkang, 2012. "The implicit measurement of destination image: The application of Implicit Association Tests," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 50-52.
    3. Lee, Richard & Lockshin, Larry, 2011. "Halo effects of tourists’ destination image on domestic product perceptions," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 7-13.
    4. Yang, Chih-Hai & Lin, Hui-Lin & Han, Chia-Chun, 2010. "Analysis of international tourist arrivals in China: The role of World Heritage Sites," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 827-837.
    5. María M. Carballo & Jorge E. Araña & Carmelo J. León & Sergio Moreno-Gil, 2015. "Economic Valuation of Tourism Destination Image," Tourism Economics, , vol. 21(4), pages 741-759, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Víctor Mercader & Esthela Galván-Vela & Rafael Ravina-Ripoll & Cristina Raluca Gh. Popescu, 2021. "A Focus on Ethical Value under the Vision of Leadership, Teamwork, Effective Communication and Productivity," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-32, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tiziana Cuccia, 2012. "Is it worth being inscribed in the world heritage list? A case study of �The Baroque cities in Val di Noto� (Sicily)," RIEDS - Rivista Italiana di Economia, Demografia e Statistica - The Italian Journal of Economic, Demographic and Statistical Studies, SIEDS Societa' Italiana di Economia Demografia e Statistica, vol. 66(2), pages 169-190.
    2. Min Gon Chung & Tao Pan & Xintong Zou & Jianguo Liu, 2018. "Complex Interrelationships between Ecosystem Services Supply and Tourism Demand: General Framework and Evidence from the Origin of Three Asian Rivers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-21, December.
    3. Ruben Loon & Tom Gosens & Jan Rouwendal, 2014. "Cultural heritage and the attractiveness of cities: evidence from recreation trips," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 38(3), pages 253-285, August.
    4. Can, Ali Selcuk & Ekinci, Yuksel & Pino, Giovanni, 2021. "Joint brand advertising for emerging heritage sites," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    5. Constantin Anghelache & Madalina-Gabriela Anghel & Stefan Virgil Iacob & Dana Luiza Grigorescu, 2020. "Statistical Analysis Of The Tourist Activity That Is In Free Fall," Annals - Economy Series, Constantin Brancusi University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 5, pages 20-29, October.
    6. Wu, Mao-Ying & Wall, Geoffrey & Pearce, Philip L., 2014. "Shopping experiences: International tourists in Beijing's Silk Market," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 96-106.
    7. Luan Chen & Eric Ng & Shyh-Chang Huang & Wei-Ta Fang, 2017. "A Self-Evaluation System of Quality Planning for Tourist Attractions in Taiwan: An Integrated AHP-Delphi Approach from Career Professionals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-18, September.
    8. Fang Wang & Zhao Liu & Shanshan Shang & Yuelei Qin & Bihu Wu, 2019. "Vitality continuation or over-commercialization? Spatial structure characteristics of commercial services and population agglomeration in historic and cultural areas," Tourism Economics, , vol. 25(8), pages 1302-1326, December.
    9. Stanislava Pachrová & Eva Janoušková & Jitka Ryšková, 2018. "Disparities in Tourism Demand of UNESCO Destinations," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 20(S12), pages 1040-1040, November.
    10. Cardoso, Lucília & Dias, Francisco & de Araújo, Arthur Filipe & Andrés Marques, Maria Isabel, 2019. "A destination imagery processing model: Structural differences between dream and favourite destinations," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 81-94.
    11. Zhen Su & Joshua R. Aaron & William C. McDowell & Dan Dan Lu, 2019. "Sustainable Synergies between the Cultural and Tourism Industries: An Efficiency Evaluation Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-20, November.
    12. Roberto Patuelli & Maurizio Mussoni & Guido Candela, 2016. "The Effects of World Heritage Sites on Domestic Tourism: A Spatial Interaction Model for Italy," Advances in Spatial Science, in: Roberto Patuelli & Giuseppe Arbia (ed.), Spatial Econometric Interaction Modelling, chapter 0, pages 281-315, Springer.
    13. Khuong Ngoc Mai & Phuong Ngoc Duy Nguyen & Phuong Thi Minh Nguyen, 2019. "International Tourists’ Loyalty to Ho Chi Minh City Destination—A Mediation Analysis of Perceived Service Quality and Perceived Value," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-16, October.
    14. Silvia Cerisola & Elisa Panzera, 2021. "Cultural and Creative Cities and Regional Economic Efficiency: Context Conditions as Catalyzers of Cultural Vibrancy and Creative Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-23, June.
    15. Yuanyuan Mao & Xiyuan Ren & Ling Yin & Qingying Sun & Ke Song & De Wang, 2021. "Investigating Tourists’ Willingness to Walk (WTW) to Attractions within Scenic Areas: A Case Study of Tongli Ancient Town, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-15, November.
    16. Puah, Chin-Hong & Huan, Suk-Hie & Thien, Fung-Thai, 2018. "Determinants of Chinese demand for tourism in Malaysia," Business and Economic Horizons (BEH), Prague Development Center (PRADEC), vol. 14(3), May.
    17. Fernández Guzmán Antonio Muñoz & Pérez-Gálvez Jesús Claudio & López-Guzmán Tomás, 2016. "Tourist motivations in a heritage destination in Spain," European Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and Recreation, Sciendo, vol. 7(3), pages 226-235, December.
    18. Jenni Soo-Hee Lee & Jinsoo Hwang, 2022. "The Determinants of Visit Intention for Chinese Residents in the Michigan, United States: An Empirical Analysis Performed Through PLS-SEM," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(3), pages 21582440221, August.
    19. Martin Falk & Eva Hagsten, 2018. "The art of attracting international conferences to European cities," Tourism Economics, , vol. 24(3), pages 337-351, May.
    20. Alisa Kazakova & Meerim Karimova & Insin Kim, 2021. "Examining Rapport with Local People, International Students’ Roles through Travel Experience and Sustainable Tourism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-15, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:9:p:950-:d:631331. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.