Chinese visiting Rovaniemi, Finland: profile and perceptions of Arctic tourists

The profile of the Chinese tourist is changing. Outbound tourism destinations for Chinese tourists are no longer limited to the Asia-Pacific region. Chinese tourists visit many different destinations, and the areas around the Arctic Circle are growing in attraction. This paper is based on a 2016 online survey about Chinese tourists visiting Rovaniemi, Finland. The questions were based on a previous study of the Finnish Tourist Board conducted in 2003. The results were analyzed and the two studies were compared. The resultant profile of the Chinese tourist visiting the Rovaniemi area showed natural landscapes to be the most important attraction. All respondents had a ＂must-do＂ activity, and more than half participated in sport and leisure activities. The state of the environment, natural landscape, and safety conditions were rated most important among tourists. Increasingly, tourists prefer to organize individual trips, using multiple information channels. Currently, Chinese tourists demand deeper tourism experiences. They want to enjoy winter activities in a pure environment, and unique experiences, such as sleeping in an ice or glass hotel. Chinese tourists appreciate the uniqueness that cannot be found in other places. They wish to benefit from travel information from various media, which will allow Chinese tourists to make a complete plan before their journey.

Dark Touristic Perception: Motivation, Experience and Benefits Interpreted from the Visit to Seismic Memorial Sites in Sichuan Province

This study investigates the motivations of Chinese domestic tourists visiting seismic memorial sites after the great Wenchuan earthquake of 2008, and examines their interpretation of experiences and benefits of the visits. Recent research on dark tourism has raised the possibility that people are attracted to death and memorial sites in ways different from other tourist attractions. The study used an empirical research design employing questionnaires to collect data from 255 Chinese domestic visitors at seismic memorial sites in west Sichuan. Analysis revealed that the obligation of commemoration mixed with curiosity represents a different set of travel motivation in dark tourism settings than in other kinds of tourism. In addition, the empirical evidence also suggests an interrelated pattern between motivations, experiences and benefits. This study implies that Chinese domestic tourists were attracted in ways different from other tourist attractions both because they tended to fulfill their obligation of commemoration and were interested in destruction; and visitor experiences played an important mediating role between travel motivations and benefits gained.