Tourism Management 20 (1999) 587}594

An analysis of Mainland Chinese visitors' motivations to visitHong Kong

Zhang Qiu Hanqin*, Terry LamDepartment of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, People+s Republic of China

Received 4 May 1998; accepted 12 October 1998

Abstract

China has become one of the most important markets for the Hong Kong tourism industry. The importance of China outboundmarket to Hong Kong has drawn scholars' interests in understanding what motivates Mainland Chinese to travel overseas. A modelbased on push and pull factors is adopted as a conceptual framework for the study, and the results indicate that the importance ofpush and pull factors in motivating Chinese travelers can be di!erent from that found in other studies. The study also suggests thatthere is a signi"cant relationship between travel motivations and social demographic factors. ( 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rightsreserved.

Keywords: China outbound travel; Motivation; Push and pull factors; Demographic factors; Hong Kong

1. Introduction

Hong Kong, with its high quality and wide variety ofvisitor attractions and facilities, is one of the most popu-lar destinations in Asia. In the past years, UK, USA,Japan, and Taiwan dominated Hong Kong's inboundmarkets. With the economic boom in China, there hasbeen an amazing growth of visitors from China to HongKong over the past 13 years. The total number of touristarrivals from China has increased more than ten timesfrom 215 000 in 1984 to 2 311 000 in 1997 with an annualgrowth rate of 22.8%. In 1997, China accounted for 22%of the total tourist arrivals in Hong Kong, Hong KongTourist Association (HKTA, 1997).

1.1. Main reasons for the rapid growth of China+soutbound travel

The recent growth of China's outbound travel wasmainly attributed to China's political liberalization andeconomic prosperity (Zhang & Qu, 1996). Following the&&Open Door Policy'' in 1979, China began to move toa market economy under reforms instituted by DengXiaoping. After the June 4th Tiananmun Square incident

*Corresponding author. Tel.: 00852 2766 6368; fax: 00852 2362 9362;e-mail: hmhanqin@polyu.edu.hk

in 1989, there was an economic slowdown due to politicaluncertainty. However, the clear turning point for theChinese economy was Deng's visit to Guangdong inearly 1992. Deng's visit was considered as an importantstimulant to all parties and government o$cials to con-tinue and deepen economic reforms and this rea$rmedthe success of economic zones in coastal cities. SinceChina adopted its open-door policy in 1979, it has tripledthe size of its economy (Purves, 1993). Its foreignexchange reserves are increasing, external debt hasdwindled, and direct foreign investments have con-tinued to surge to inland China as well as its coastalcities (Chien, 1994). With a growth rate in GDP of 12%in 1992 and 13.4% in 1993, China has become the fastestgrowing economy in the world. By 2010, the Washing-ton-based US}China Business Council predicts thatChina's economy may be the world's largest (Miller,1993).

In May 1991, the Chinese Government's relaxation oftravel regulations helped to encourage China's outboundtravel. Mainland Chinese were allowed to join toursorganized by the China Travel Service to Hong Kongand its neighboring countries such as Singapore,Malaysia, and Thailand. The Public Security Bureauclaimed that 95% of those who wanted to visit foreigncountries in 1993 received permission to do so from theauthorities Paci"c Asia Travel Association (PATA,1994). In addition, the Hong Kong Government (now

0261-5177/99/$ - see front matter ( 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.PII: S 0 2 6 1 - 5 1 7 7 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 0 2 8 - X

called HKSAR Government) launched a new policy ofgranting seven-day free visas for those holding Chinesepassport who were in transit in Hong Kong with a thirdcountry's return airline ticket in 1993. This also helped topull the China outbound travel to Hong Kong to a cer-tain extent.

Under the old dual-currency system, mainlandChinese had to purchase Foreign Exchange Certi"cate(FEC) with Renminbi (RMB) before purchasing anyforeign goods and travel services. The amount of RMBthey could convert into FEC was limited. With the grow-ing needs of purchasing foreign goods and services, in1995, China developed its single currency system whichallows them to purchase any goods and services they likeincluding travel package tours, provided that their visashave been issued (Zhang & Qu, 1996). The single cur-rency system thus facilitates the transaction of purchas-ing foreign goods and services, resulting in the furtherencouragement of overseas travel.

In March 1995, the Chinese government announcedthe "ve-day workweek policy which took e!ect on 1stMay in the same year. Under this new policy, MainlandChinese can have more leisure time to travel to HongKong. The Statistics from the Guangzhou MunicipalTourism Bureau (GMTB) showed that the province'soutbound tourism in May 1995 grew sevenfold over thesame period in 1994. Due to the geographic proximityand strong family ties between Hong Kong and Guan-gdong province, Guangdong people are more likely tomake short trips to Hong Kong (Zhang & Qu, 1996).O$cials of GMTB forecasted that the "ve-day workweek policy would lead to a signi"cant growth in China'soutbound tourism in the long run. Hong Kong, being themost popular destination for mainland travelers willsurely bene"t from the growth of China's outboundtourism (PATA, 1994; EIU, 1994).

The importance of the China market to the overalltourism industry in Hong Kong has drawn scholars'interests in understanding what motivates them to traveloverseas. The purpose of this study is: (1) to identifymotivations of Chinese travelers by adopting the pushand pull factors as a conceptual framework; (2) to "ndout how di!erent their motivations are in comparisonwith travelers from other markets; and (3) to examine ifthere are any signi"cant di!erences between travel mo-tivations and social demographic factors. Finally, im-plications of Mainland Chinese traveling to HongKong's tourism industry will be suggested.

The concept behind push and pull dimensions is thatpeople travel because they are pushed by their owninternal forces and pulled by the external forces of desti-nation attributes. A review of the past literature on tour-ist motivations indicates that the analysis of motivationsbased on the two dimensions of push and pull factorshas been generally accepted (Crompton, 1979; Yuan& McDonald, 1990; Uysal & Hagan, 1993).

The motivation dimensions may be unique to touristsfrom di!erent countries. Mainland Chinese travelersstarted traveling to outbound destinations in early 1990s.The outbound travel market is still developing. The mo-tivations driving Mainland Chinese to travel may bedi!erent from those in more mature markets. Therefore,it will be interesting to look into the underlying motiva-tions of this market. On the other hand, all the studiesdiscussed above do not address whether there is anyrelationship between respondents' travel motivations(both push and pull factors) and some socio-demo-graphic characteristics. This study will address theseissues based on empirical results.

2. Methodology

The study focuses on those mainlanders visiting HongKong from Guangdong province. The reasons for select-ing this province are two-fold. Firstly, the GDP forGuangdong province ranked number 1 in 1992 amongall the provinces (Zhang & Qu, 1996). Therefore, it ap-pears that residents in Guangdong province are likely tobe in a better position to travel. Guangdong, the richestprovince in China, has the highest percentage (58%) ofthe total arrivals from China to Hong Kong (HKTA,1997). Secondly, it is not surprising that there is a strongcultural and family link between Guangdong and HongKong due to the fact that a large number of mainlanders#ooded to Hong Kong from Guangdong in 1970s. Zhangand Qu (1996) stated that due to the geographic proxim-ity and strong family ties between Hong Kong andGuangdong province, people in this area were morelikely to make short trips to Hong Kong. In fact, PATA(1995) also indicated that many Mainland Chinese visi-tors to Hong Kong originated from nearby Guangdongprovince.

A survey using a questionnaire was conducted to col-lect primary data from a convenient sample of Chinesetravelers. Travelers from Guangdong province in Chinawere selected as the sample of this study. Face to facepersonal interview was used as a form of data collection.With the constraint of our scope targeting on Guan-gdong residents only, it is assumed that the majority ofthe Guangdong residents visiting Hong Kong come bytrain due to its geographical proximity. According to thestatistics by HKTA (1997), 45% of outbound mainlandtravelers to Hong Kong came by land. Therefore, HungHom Kowloon Canton Railway (hereafter KCR) Stationwas selected as a venue for collecting data.

3. Data analysis and discussion

Factor analysis, independent sample t-test and one-way ANOVA analysis are used in order to "nd out the

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Table 1Description of survey respondents (N"105)

Sociodemographic Percent Sociodemographic Percentvariable (%) variable (%)

Sex Martial statusMale 60 Single 44.8Female 40 Married 55.2

Other 0.0

Age Education level16}25 yr 23.8 Primary school 026}35 yr 44.8 Junior high school 4.836}45 yr 24.8 Senior high school 28.646}55 yr 6.7 Technical/vocational 14.356}65 yr 0.0 University or postgraduate 52.466 yr and above 0.0

Occupation Annual income levelOwner 14.3 Less than RM10000 10.5Professional ortechnical

24.8 RM10 000}19 999 16.2

Senior white collar 23.8 RM20 000}29 999 19.0Junior white collar 16.2 RM30 000}39 999 20.0Skilled worker 9.5 RM40 000}49 999 10.5Unskilled worker 1.0 RM50 000}59 999 5.7Farming/"shing 1.9 RM60 000

or above 18.1Housewife 3.8Student 4.8Other

No. of visits to HKFirst time 41.92nd}4th time 31.45th time or more 26.7

importance of both push and pull factors perceivedby Chinese travelers, the underlying motivations oftravelers, and the relationship between travelers'motiva-tions and their demographic factors.

Table 1 reports the respondents' demographic charac-teristics. 60% of the respondents were males and 40% ofthem were females. This male and female respondentsdistribution was consistent with the data collected by theHong Kong Tourist Association (HKTA, 1997). Over55% of them were married and the rest were single andbelonged to other categories. About 90% of the respon-dents fell within the age group between 16 and 45 years.About 55% of the respondents were professional andsenior white collar. Majority of them (58%) visitedHong Kong more than once. About 52% of the respon-dents were highly educated with an university degree orabove. The income level of the respondents was evenlydistributed among all categories.

3.1. The importance of push and pull factors

Table 2 reports the importance of mean ranking ofpush and pull factors. &Seeing something di!erent' wasthe most important among all push factors (m"3.17),

Table 2Importance rankings of travel motivations (N"105)

Mean Rank

¹ravel motivations (push factors)Seeing something di!erent 3.17 1Facilitating family and kinship ties 3.03 2Visiting friends or relatives 3.02 3Increasing knowledge about a foreign

destination3.01 4

Being with my family 2.88 5Physically resting/relaxing 2.82 6Being able to share my travel experiences

after returning home2.82 6

Experiencing a di!erent lifestyle 2.70 7Visiting cultural/historical attractions 2.69 8Visiting a destination which most

people value and/or appreciate2.57 9

Going to places my friends want to go 2.39 10

¹ravel motivations (pull factors)Positive attitude of HK residents and service

sta! to mainland tourists3.81 1

Convenience of transport 3.60 2Quality of local transportation system 3.57 3International cosmopolitan city 3.49 4Quality of tourist services 3.46 5&Shopping paradise' 3.38 6Ease of travel arrangement 3.35 7Acceptable climate 3.24 8Seven-day visa free policy for transit passengers

from China3.15 9

Capital of modern technology 3.13 10

Note: Importance rankings were based on mean scores measured ona Likert-type scale from 1 to 5 (1"Not at all important, 2"Some-what important, 3"Important, 4"Very important, 5"Extremelyimportant).

followed by &facilitating family and kinship ties'(m"3.03), &visiting friends or relatives' (m"3.02), and&increasing knowledge about a foreign destination'(m"3.01). Among the pull factors, the most importantones were &positive attitude' (m"3.81), &convenience oftransport' (m"3.60), and &quality of local transportationsystem' (m"3.57).

3.2. Factor groupings of push and pull motivations

In order to identify motivation dimensions, principalcomponent factor analysis was used to group the pushand pull factor items with similar characteristics.Twenty-two push motivation items were factor analyzedusing Varimax Rotation procedure to delineate theunderlying dimensions that were associated with pleas-ure travel motivations. The same procedure also appliedto the 26 pull motivation items. All factor items had aneigenvalue greater than one. The composite reliabilitytest indicated that the reliability coe$cients for bothpush and pull factors ranged from 0.67 to 0.88, with the

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Table 3Factor analysis of push factors

Push factor groupings Factor Communality Eigen-value Percentage Reliabilityloadings of variance coe$cient

Factor 1: Knowledge 5.04 22.9 0.80Visiting cultural and historical attractions 0.6334 0.5997Seeing something di!erent 0.6462 0.7175Increasing knowledge about a foreign destination 0.8065 0.7918Experiencing a di!erent lifestyle 0.7868 0.7133Visiting places my friends have not been to 0.5775 0.6111

Factor 2: Prestige 2.76 12.5 0.80Ful"lling my dream of visiting a place 0.6249 0.7538Visiting a destination which most people value

and/or appreciate0.7192 0.7853

Going to places my friends want to go 0.7216 0.7035Visiting a destination that would impress my

friends or family0.8311 0.7452

Factor 3: Enhancement of human relationship 2.22 10.1 0.78Facilitating family and kinship ties 0.8520 0.7911Meeting new people 0.4424 0.7905Being able to share my travel experiences after

returning home0.5589 0.7221

Visiting friends or relatives 0.7023 0.4999Being with my family 0.8372 0.7991

Factor 4: Relaxation 1.79 8.1 0.70Escaping from daily routine 0.5499 0.4668Getting some exercise 0.6737 0.5403Physically resting/relaxing 0.7993 0.7407Releasing work pressure(s) 0.7690 0.6964

Factor 5: Novelty 1.51 6.9 0.88Finding thrills or excitement 0.8872 0.8184Being daring and adventuresome 0.9021 0.8440

Total variance explained 60.6Total scale reliability 0.82

exception of &cultural links', exceeded the recommendedcoe$cient alpha of 0.70 (Nunnally, 1978). Therefore, wecan see that a good internal consistency among all factorswas found.

Table 3 reports that the factor analysis of 22 pushattributes results in "ve factor groupings, whichaccounted for 60.6% of the variance. The factor group-ings of push factors are &knowledge', &prestige', &enhance-ment of human relationship', &relaxation,' and &novelty'.&knowledge' is one of the most important push factors totravel to Hong Kong and this explained 22.9% of thevariance (reliability coe$cient is 0.80). It is likely that thisre#ects the mainland travelers' desire to learn somethingfrom their trip to Hong Kong. Table 4 reports that thefactor analysis of 26 pull attributes resulted in six factorgroupings. They are &Hi-tech image', &expenditure,' &acces-sibility,' &service quality and attitude,' &sightseeing var-iety', and &cultural links'. These six factor groupingsaccount for 65.3% of the variance. The results of factor

analysis for both push and pull factors suggest that theconceptual framework of push and pull factors in theliterature was generally supported. This study recon"rmsthat people's travel behavior is driven by internal andexternal factors (push and pull factors). However, withinthe framework of push and pull factors, the importancelevel of push and pull factors can be di!erent for travelersfrom di!erent countries. For a mature market, Germantravelers perceive &escape' and &active sports environ-ment' as the most important push and pull factors (Jam-rozy & Uysal, 1994). For a developing market, MainlandChinese travelers perceive &knowledge' and &high-techimage' as the most important push and pull factors.

3.3. Push and pull factors and demographic factors

One of the purposes of this study is to "nd out if thereare any signi"cant di!erences between push or pull fac-tors and demographic factors. Tables 5}8 report the

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Table 4Factor analysis of pull factors

Pull factor groupings Factor loading Communality Eigen-value Percentage of Reliability alphavariance

Factor 1: Hi-tech image 8.47 32.6 0.78Cost of tourist goods and services 0.4510 0.6089International cosmopolitan city 0.8135 0.7300Capital of modern technology 0.7785 0.6837Uniqueness of local people's lifestyle 0.6819 0.6521

Factor 2: Expenditure 2.17 8.3 0.74Interesting night-life 0.6693 0.6875Shopping paradise 0.7336 0.6213Variety of food 0.7819 0.7592

Factor 3: Accessibility 2.04 7.9 0.82Convenience of transport 0.7143 0.7177Ease of travel arrangement 0.4714 0.6059Geographic proximity 0.8399 0.8020Seven-day visa free policy for transit mainlanders 0.7456 0.7098

Factor 4: Service attitude and quality 1.70 6.5 0.79Positive attitude of HK residents and service

sta! to mainland tourists0.6408 0.7015

Quality of accommodation facilities 0.5539 0.6708Quality of local transportation systems 0.4092 0.6840Quality of tourist services 0.4978 0.6935

Factor 5: Sightseeing variety 1.40 5.4 0.73Festival/special events 0.6782 0.7671Historical/cultural attractions 0.7847 0.7291Beautiful scenery 0.6095 0.7482

Factor 6: Cultural links 1.20 4.6 0.67Similar cultural background 0.4111 0.5691My family links in HK 0.8314 0.7881Common language (e.g. Cantonese) 0.6084 0.6243

Total variance explained 65.3Total scale reliability 0.89

results of analysis of variance (ANOVA) accordingly. Thestudy found that some signi"cant di!erences occurred forboth push and pull motivation factors across certaindemographic variables, such as income, age, gender,and travel frequency. The "ndings in Table 5 suggestedthat the higher the income, the higher the perceivedimportance on &prestige' for traveling to Hong Kong,but this "nding is not true for the highest incomegroup (RMB60000 or above) which may be due tothe fact that people from this income group may cometo Hong Kong more often and thus they do not perceivethe trip to Hong Kong as &Prestige' as other peopledid.

The results in Table 6 indicated that there were sig-ni"cant di!erences between push factors &knowledge'and &prestige' and travel frequency. For example,the "rst time, visitors perceived that traveling toHong Kong is quite prestigeous and it can provide them

knowledge. When they had come "ve times or more, theyplaced very little importance on &prestige and know-ledge'. In terms of age and push factors, &prestige' wasfound more important for group 3 (m"3.04) than othergroups. There were signi"cant di!erences between group3 and other groups which indicated that people aroundage 36}45 perceived traveling to Hong Kong as veryprestigious.

According to the results of ANOVA reported inTables 5}8, there are no signi"cant di!erences betweenpull factors and demographic factors except &accessibil-ity'. This may be due to the fact that pull factors are notas strongly related to visitors as push factors. &Accessibil-ity' was found signi"cantly di!erent across both incomeand age. People with income between RM20000}39 999perceived &accessibility' very important. People who are36}45 yr old placed greater importance on &accessibility'than others (see Tables 6 and 8).

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Table 5Comparison of push and pull factors for di!erent income groups (N"105)

Mean score Sig. di!.between groups

Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 F Ratio F Prob.

Push factors1. Knowledge 2.7357 2.7805 2.4941 2.7053 0.3587 0.78292. Prestige 2.3482 2.4451 2.6471 1.9342 2.0038 0.11823. Enhancement of human relation 3.0214 2.8537 2.6235 2.5158 1.3471 0.26344. Relaxation 2.4018 2.3110 2.1176 1.8947 1.5247 0.21275. Novelty 1.1607 1.1463 1.8529 1.2368 4.6625 0.0043! Group 3 and 2,1,4

Pull factors1. Hi-tech image 2.8125 3.1220 2.9559 3.2500 0.9488 0.42012. Expenditure 2.6310 2.6585 3.1765 2.8070 1.2767 0.28653. Accessibility 2.7768 3.6280 3.2794 2.7768 3.9830 0.0100! Group 2 and 14. Service attitude and quality 3.1875 3.5732 3.5735 3.4868 1.2615 0.29175. Sightseeing variety 2.6786 2.8374 2.9216 2.4912 0.7156 0.54496. Cultural links 2.8690 3.1626 2.8824 2.9123 0.5579 0.6441

Group 1:(RM20000, Group 2: RM20 000}39999; Group 3: RM40 000}59999, Group 4: RM60000 or above (annual income).!F-Prob at 0.05(level.

Table 6Comparison of push and pull factors for travel frequency (N"105)

Mean scores Sig di!.between groups

Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 F Ratio F Prob.

Push factors1. Knowledge 3.2045 2.4061 2.2857 12.422 0.0000! Group 1 and 3, 22. Prestige 2.7670 2.1818 1.9286 8.8518 0.0003! Group 1 and 3, 23. Enhancement of human relationship 2.8318 2.8242 2.7214 0.1310 0.87734. Relaxation 2.4375 2.0682 2.0893 2.2172 0.11415. Novelty 1.3523 1.1212 1.3571 1.1552 0.3191

Pull factors1. Hi-tech image 3.0227 2.9848 3.1161 0.1431 0.86692. Expenditure 2.6894 2.5556 3.1190 2.6310 0.07693. Accessibility 3.2330 3.2803 3.3393 0.0870 0.91684. Service attitude and quality 3.4489 3.4318 3.4911 0.0363 0.96445. Sightseeing variety 2.9394 2.5556 2.6667 1.4805 0.23246. Cultural links 2.7424 3.0202 3.3571 2.9438 0.0572

Group 1: First time to HK, Group 2: 2nd}4th time to HK and Group 3: 5th time or above to HK.!F-Prob at 0.05(level.

4. Conclusion and implications

Factor analysis has provided some underlying dimen-sions of travel behavior. Push and pull factorsdemonstrated di!erent domains of behavior which haveimportant marketing implications. The motivationalpush factors showed that &knowledge', &prestige', and &en-hancement of human relationship' are the most agreedupon travel domains for Chinese travelers. &Hi-tech im-age', &expenditure', and &accessibility' are the most impor-

tant domains of pull factors for Chinese travelers. There-fore, the Mainland Chinese travelers are looking mostlyfor a unique, modernized, friendly, and convenient placefor holidays in Hong Kong.

Since Hong Kong is considered as a multinationalregion, and an &open window' for the mainland Chineseto access the outside world, its uniqueness in terms ofmixed culture of western and eastern world, heritage,glamorous attractions attributed to its strong push fac-tors of &knowledge', for the potential Chinese travelers.

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Table 7Comparison of push factors for di!erent age groups (N"105)

Mean score Sig. di!.between groups

Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 F Ratio F Prob.

Push factors1. Knowledge 2.48 2.69 3.04 2.46 1.69 0.17362. Prestige 2.09 2.1223 3.04 2.40 6.7073 0.0002! Group 3 and 1,23. Enhancement of human relation 2.70 2.71 3.08 2.74 0.9975 0.39734. Relaxation 2.20 2.07 2.58 2.07 2.0037 0.11845. Novelty 1.72 1.16 1.15 1.00 4.4571 0.0055! Group 1 and 4,3,2

Pull factors1. Hi-tech image 2.94 2.92 3.42 2.71 1.9985 0.11902. Expenditure 2.81 2.81 2.88 1.76 2.5936 0.05673. Accessibility 2.40 3.53 3.73 3.04 10.904 0.0000! Group 1 and 3,24. Service attitude and quality 3.31 3.42 3.73 3.18 1.3822 0.25265. Sightseeing variety 2.52 2.81 2.91 2.52 0.8079 0.49246. Cultural links 2.77 2.97 3.21 3.10 0.7562 0.5213

Group 1:1 6}25 yr old; Group 2: 26}35 yr old, Group 3: 36}45 yr old and Group 4: 46}55 yr old.!F-Prob at 0.05(level.

Table 8Male and female perceived importance of push and pull factors (N"105)

Mean Scores

Male Female P ¹-Value 2-Tail Sig.

Push factors1. Knowledge 2.7841 2.5952 0.048! 1.02 0.3092. Prestige 2.4524 2.2202 0.391 1.24 0.2163. Enhancement of human relationship 2.7397 2.8905 0.991 !0.80 0.4254. Relaxation 2.1746 2.3095 0.229 !0.77 0.4415. Novelty 1.2937 1.2619 0.553 0.22 0.828

Pull factors1. Hi-tech image 2.9325 3.1905 0.004! !1.26 0.2122. Expenditure 2.6349 2.9524 0.445 !1.59 0.2003. Accessibility 3.2341 3.3393 0.036 !0.48 0.6334. Service attitude and quality 3.3939 3.5476 0.889 !0.89 0.3745. Sightseeing variety 2.6878 2.8333 0.365 !0.72 0.4746. Cultural links 2.8254 3.2460 0.071 !2.00 0.048!

!2-Tail sig.(0.05.

On the other hand, the relatively strict control of out-bound travel to Hong Kong by the Chinese governmentappears to develop a prestige perception of people whoare able to visit Hong Kong Special AdministrationRegion. In order to support the push factors to attractmore mainland travelers, the Hong Kong Tourist Associ-ation should consider to focus marketing strategies onthe three pull factors found in this study by consolidatingHong Kong's image of a high-tech multinational city inthe world to Chinese people via various accessible media.

Knowing the importance of both push and pull factorsperceived by Chinese travelers can help destinationsto meet the desired needs of individual travelers.

Brayley (1991) pointed out that the attitude of a touristtoward a destination might be a measure of that destina-tion's ability to pull or attract tourists. Thus, pull factorsare those that emerge as a result of the &attractiveness' ofa destination and are thought to help the actual destina-tion choice (Bello & Etzel, 1985a). The Hong KongTourist Association can develop a variety of di!erentmarketing strategies based on the speci"c motivations ofChina market in order to satisfy their underlying needs.Recommendations were given to marketers on futuredevelopment of Hong Kong as both a "rst-priority andrepeated visit travel destination for the MainlandChinese.

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As for the limitations, the scope of this study is narrowbecause it only dealt with one of the major Mainlandmarkets (Guangdong Province). As a result, the informa-tion obtained may only be valid for Guangdong Provinceand they cannot be generalized to the whole outboundtravelers' population in Mainland China. Due to thesmall sample size (105 respondents), the results of thestudy are only indicative and not conclusive. There ismuch potential for future research. For instance, it issuggested that further research on Mainland travelers'motivations to visit Hong Kong may also include othermajor sources of origin (e.g. Beijing and Shanghai) to comeup with some more representative and conclusive results.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Mr. Ken Yiung for givingpermission to use his data for this paper.

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