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Profiling Japanese TouristsVisiting Night Markets in TaiwanJanet Chang a , Jennifer C. H. Min b , Yueh-HsiuPearl Lin c & Chun Huei Chiang da Department & Institute of Tourism Management ,Chinese Culture University , Taipei, 111, Taiwanb Department of Tourism , Hsing Wu College , PO Box12-12, Neihu, 11499, Taipei, Taiwanc Institute of Tourism & Recreation Management,National Dong Hwa University , No. 1, sec. 2,DaHsueh Road, Shoufeng, Hualien, 97401, Taiwand Institute of Tourism Management, Chinese CultureUniversity , Taipei, 111, TaiwanPublished online: 08 Sep 2008.
To cite this article: Janet Chang , Jennifer C. H. Min , Yueh-Hsiu Pearl Lin & ChunHuei Chiang (2007) Profiling Japanese Tourists Visiting Night Markets in Taiwan,Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism, 8:2, 25-44
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J162v08n02_02
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Profiling Japanese TouristsVisiting Night Markets in Taiwan
Janet ChangJennifer C. H. Min
Yueh-Hsiu (Pearl) LinChun Huei Chiang
ABSTRACT. Night markets have become the most popular tourism at-traction for international tourists in Taiwan since 2003. They offer touristsa chance to experience new things and visit different environments whenvisiting the island. Japan has long been the leading generator of interna-tional tourism for Taiwan in terms of numbers and expenditures. Thus, theobjective of this research is to profile Japanese tourists based on their nov-elty-seeking motives in visiting night markets. The 320 Japanese touristsare segmented into three groups: conservative tourists, moderate nov-elty-seekers, and well-planned explorers. Based on the results, implicationsand recommendations are provided to the tourism authorities, and futureresearch possibilities are also noted. doi:10.1300/J162v08n02_02 [Article copiesavailable for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800- HAWORTH.E-mail address: <[email protected]> Website: <http://www.HaworthPress. com> � 2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]
Janet Chang is Associate Professor, Department & Institute of Tourism Manage-ment, Chinese Culture University, Taipei 111, Taiwan (E-mail: [email protected]).
Jennifer C. H. Min is Associate Professor, Department of Tourism, Hsing Wu Col-lege, PO Box 12-12 Neihu 11499, Taipei, Taiwan (E-mail: [email protected]).
Yueh-Hsiu (Pearl) Lin is Professor Institute of Tourism & Recreation Management,National Dong Hwa University, No.1, sec. 2, DaHsueh Road, Shoufeng, Hualien97401, Taiwan (E-mail: [email protected]).
Chun Huei Chiang is Graduate Student, Institute of Tourism Management, ChineseCulture University, Taipei 111, Taiwan (E-mail: [email protected]).
Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism, Vol. 8(2) 2007Available online at http://jqaht.haworthpress.com
� 2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.doi:10.1300/J162v08n02_02 25
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KEYWORDS. Tourist satisfaction, Japanese tourists, night market, nov-elty-seeking, Taiwan
INTRODUCTION
Tourists, according to Cohen (1979), are alienated from their back-grounds and therefore have the propensity to seek authenticity andnovelty in distant places or exotic environments (Bello & Etzel, 1985;Lee & Crompton, 1992; Mo, Howard, & Havitz, 1993; Mo, Havitz, &Howard, 1994; Sternberg, 1997). Asplet and Cooper (2000) also statedthat tourists are often looking for authenticity when they experiencea local culture. For example, international tourists visiting nightmarkets in Singapore wish to experience that city’s authentic food(Henderson, 2000; Ooi, 2002). Furthermore, tourism enables manypeople to change the routine in their lives. The underlining motiva-tions of tourists are often rooted in the desire to experience changessuch as novelties (Quan & Wang, 2004). Thus, a tourism destinationwith unique features attracts more tourists, extends tourists’ stayingtime, increases tourists’ repeat patronage, and stimulates their shop-ping expenditures (Yoon, Spencer & Holecke, 2000). Although somestudies have discussed informal sectors (e.g. street vendors) in tour-ism (Cukier & Wall, 1994), popular tourism and leisure spots in Asia,such as night markets (Hwang, 2000; Yang, 2000), have not received agreat deal of attention in the tourism research (Hsieh & Chang, 2006).
Night markets play an essential part in Taiwanese daily life, thanks tothe social life pattern and insufficient public space (Barnett, 2000). Lo-cal Taiwanese go to night markets for a variety of reasons such as shop-ping, eating, and entertaining. Night markets, as illustrated by Yang(2000), have presented the authentic culture of Taiwan, even though tra-ditional night markets used to be viewed as the ‘cancer of the city’ dueto their poor sanitation, unregulated presentation, and the complicatedfactors often related to an informal sector in a nation’s economy. How-ever, lively night markets have become a highlight of inbound tourism,and they have been the most popular tourism attraction for internationaltourists since 2003 (Taiwan Tourism Bureau, 2006). This phenomenonperhaps conforms to the belief that novelty, along with other factorssuch as authenticity–the interpersonal relationship with others–and asense of place (or belonging), are key components of a tourist’s experi-ence (Trauer & Ryan, 2005). In Taiwan, 50 (and up) night markets arelocated in fixed places (Night-fair Business Trade, 2005). For interna-
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tional tourists, night markets provide not only local delicacies but also aunique experience in the sense of shopping in a crowded environment(Bloom, 2002). However, international tourists’ motives for visitingnight markets are still unclear.
This paper attempts to profile Japanese tourists based on their nov-elty-seeking motives in visiting night markets. Additionally, the differ-ences in demographic variables of each group are examined. As a result,the research objectives are twofold: (1) to identify the differences of vis-iting night markets among various segments of Japanese tourists by us-ing novelty-seeking motives as the segmentation basis; and (2) todelineate the demographic differences among various segments ofJapanese tourists when traveling to night markets.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Understanding Japanese Travel Behaviors
International tourists have been identified as having various behav-iors when traveling overseas (Pizam & Sussmann, 1995; Pizam &Jeong, 1996; Wong & Law, 2003). For instance, Japanese travelers aremore likely to be less active, more gregarious, short-term holiday vaca-tioners and enthusiastic shoppers (Ritter, 1987; Pizam & Jeong, 1996)and they have the tendency to travel in groups (Reisinger & Turner,2002). They also tend to accentuate the importance of restaurantsamong the attributes of a tourism attraction when compared to touristsfrom North America (Sheldon & Fox, 1988). Moreover, Japanese arenervous and embarrassed about doing something wrong while travel-ing. They always think of themselves as members of a group, and aremore at ease in togetherness (Nozawa, 1992). In addition, Japanese tiltfavorably toward risk avoidance; that is, too adventurous leisure activi-ties are avoided by this group (Money & Crotts, 2003; Litvin, Crotts, &Hefner, 2004). These characteristics can explain why the majority ofJapanese do not venture to travel individually (Ahmed & Krohn, 1992;Rosenbaum & Spears, 2005). Given that Japanese tourists are renownedfor their high spending power (Cho, 1991; Hui & Yuen, 2002), theyhave attracted much attention in tourism research; in particular, the Jap-anese outbound market is seen as the benchmark among Asian out-bound tourists (March, 1997; Prescott et al., 2002; Reisinger & Turner,2000). With reference to the preferred travel modes of outbound Japa-nese tourists, as reported by Nishimura et al. (2006), full package tours
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have accounted for one third, followed by the flexible package tours forabout one forth of all overseas travels. Nevertheless, the flexible pack-age tours (or ‘Skeleton tours’)–a type of modified package toursconsisting of air fairs, hotel accommodation, and airport transfers–hasincreased in popularity (Nishimura, Waryszak, & King, 2006).
Japanese tourists, totaling over 30% of all international tourists,have been ranked as the top international tourists visiting Taiwansince the very early stage of Taiwan’s international tourism develop-ment (Taiwan Tourism Bureau, 2006). The three main reasons for Jap-anese visiting the island are summarized as: convenient location,history, and similar life styles (Lin, 1990). Geographically, Taiwan isthe second nearest country next to Korea in terms of its distance to Ja-pan. Historically, the island was a colony of Japan from 1895 to 1945prior to the KMT (Kuomintang) Party’s fleeing to Taiwan to exerciseits sovereignty. During that time, education and public discourse wereconducted in Chinese; Taiwan was thus influenced heavily by Japa-nese culture. With respect to life styles, Taiwanese and Japanese, forexample, both enjoy similar leisure activities such as shopping, din-ing, and soaking in hot springs all year around. Even though Japan hasexperienced a severe economic recession since the middle of 1990sfollowing four decades of prosperity, Japanese overseas travelerswere still the fourth among all countries in international tourism ex-penditures in 2003 and 2004, after the Americans, Germans, and Brit-ish (World Tourism Organization, 2006). Moreover, in spite of thehigher cost of living in Taiwan in recent years, the movement of Japa-nese tourists to the island has not declined. In terms of the averagedaily expenditure, Japan is a significant factor in the inbound Taiwantourism market.
Extending from this, according to Jang et al. (2002), despite thefact that Japanese tourists were more motivated by collectivism intheir enjoyment of group tours, the novelty seeking group of Japa-nese tourists was recognized as the most profitable segment whenthey traveled to North America (Kim & Lee, 2000). Japanese tour-ists, by and large, are categorized as more interested in food thanAustralians and other nationalities (Prescott, 1998); they have ex-plicitly demonstrated a higher preference for dining and shoppingwhen visiting Singapore (Hui & Yuen, 2002) and Korea (Kim &Prideaux, 2005). Similarly, they put a significant emphasis on theimportance of dining out when traveling to Hawaii (Sheldon & Fox,1988). Furthermore, as Siegenthaler (2002) pointed out, Japanesetourists tend to visit mainly ‘well-known’ tourism attractions.
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Consequently, Japanese tourists are very likely to be attracted bynight markets, since this kind of venue is officially listed on the guide-book introducing Taiwan in Japanese and, it provides a wide variety oflocal delights, international foods, and retailing commodities in theevenings. As a result, night markets are likely to stimulate Japanesenovelty-seeking motives leading to the present study in a novelty set-ting, whereby eating and shopping opportunities are equally juxtaposed(Hsieh & Chang, 2006).
A great deal of research has focused on consumers’ attributes, tour-ists’ experiences, and vendors’ issues on night markets or street vendorsin Asia (Cukier & Wall, 1994; Timothy & Wall, 1997). However, pa-pers discussing international tourists’ motives for visiting night marketshave been scant, although some studies have been done of Hong KongChinese experiencing novelty in night markets when visiting Taiwan(Hsieh & Chang, 2006).
Novelty-Seeking as a Segmentation Variable
While an affluent body of literature has studied the travel motivesof tourists, novelty-seeking has become a key motivational factorwhen traveling to foreign countries (Cohen, 1972; Crompton, 1979;Dann, 1981; Kim & Prideaux, 2005; Leiper, 1984). A novel experi-ence is often recognized as a novel experience only when one isfaced with situations in contrast to ones previous perceptions (Lee &Compton, 1992; Petrick, 2002). As a result, individuals are inclinedto compare the present stimulation to previous experiences so as toevaluate the level of novelty (Greenberger, Woldman, & Yourshaw,1967). Throughout the process of choosing travel destination, nov-elty-seeking is an important motivational factor. A novel experienceis singled out as one of the main reasons in motivating internationaltourists such as Japanese to visit night markets (Bloom, 2002).
Cohen (1972) stated that tourists’ motivations normally fall into asort of novelty-familiarity continuum, based on the influences of travelmodes, accommodation styles, service levels, and social contacts withlocal people. Extended from Cohen’s statement, Yiannakis and Gibson(1992) elaborated more by constructing a tourist preference scale in-cluding three bipolar continuums: familiarity-strangeness, stimulation-tranquility, and structure-independence. The first two continuums are in-volved with behaviors reflected from individual characteristics, whilethe last one deals with individual preferences on all-inclusive orindependent travel arrangements. By using American tourists and University
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students as samples, Lee and Crompton (1992) came up with a so-callednovelty-seeking scale, which contains 21 items after applying the quali-tative in-depth interviews with experts and the following quantitative-fac-tor analysis method. The significance of Lee and Crompton’s scale wasthat it was the first survey instrument of novelty-seeking with satisfac-tory validity and reliability; in total, dimensions of thrill, change fromroutine, boredom alleviation, and surprise are included in this scale.This scale was further examined in a different cultural setting by usingdomestic tourists to the Lotte World, Korean theme park and then suc-cessfully obtained results consistent with those of Jeong and Park(1997). However, this scale was merely applied to domestic touristsand thus the perceptions of international tourists remain unknown.
It is claimed that market segmentation, in which various people arecategorized into different groups possessing unique characteristics,is an effective marketing strategy to uncover tourist motives, sinceit is impossible to understand every tourist’s travel motive all atonce (So & Morrison, 2004). Formica and Uysal (1998) also be-lieved that dependable market segmentation facilitates target mar-keting and positioning strategy. Jiang et al. (2000), by presentingan ITR scale (International Tourist Role scale) as an efficient seg-mentation basis (Jiang et al., 2000; Keng & Cheng, 1999; Mo, et al.,1993; Mo, Havitz, & Howard, 1994), divided international touristsinto destination-oriented, travel arrangement-oriented, and social con-tact- oriented groups. The first group indicates the preference of touristsfor experiencing novel travel experiences, exposure to a variety of cul-tures, people, and languages. The second group stresses the preferenceof tourists on choosing travel modes, while the third group refers to thedegree of interaction between tourists and local residents. Among thethree groups, the destination-oriented group has higher novelty-seekingcharacteristics due to the unique characteristics of the destination. Nev-ertheless, this study was undertaken by using American tourists as thesample. The replication of this sort of novelty-seeking scale elsewherethus still awaits further studies.
RESEARCH METHODS
Survey Instrument
In relation to tourist travel motivation, Cohen (1972) first proposedthe well-known novelty-familiarity continuum. It was believed that
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tourists, in generally, have travel motivation in novelty-seeking, and theextreme form of this motivation is familiarity. The majority of tourists’motivation falls into the dichotomy of these two concepts. In view of thesomewhat narrowly-confined classification of Cohen’s theory, Mo etal. (1993) came up with an ITR scale (the International Tourist Rolescale) composed of 20 questions. This ITR scale was initially based onCohen’s study on novelty-seeking and was further extended into 62items through the process of intensive literature reviews and in-depthinterviews with professional experts. Afterwards, three dimensions (di-mensions of destination- oriented, travel service, and social contact) of20 items were extracted from the factor analysis by using tourists andcollege students who attended international conferences in USA assamples (Mo et al., 1993). Although the effectiveness of this scale wasfurther replicated and confirmed by Keng and Cheng (1999), it was stillconsidered merely confined to domestic visitors (Singapore tourists inthis case) and the validity of this scale was called into question. Hence,by using international tourists who took various flights from 11 airlinesas samples, Jiang et al. (2000) modified the original ITR scale. As such,16 items of new ITR scale were presented and the ‘travel service dimen-sion’ was re-named as the ‘travel arrangement dimension’. Therefore,this study was based on the ITR scale of Jiang et al. (2000) for the fol-lowing reasons: (1) this scale was cross-culturally verified; and (2) thisscale was re-developed in association with the representative sample ofinternational tourists.
The survey instrument was adapted from the international tourists’role scale (Jiang et al., 2000; Chang & Chiang, 2006). The questionnairecontains three parts: Part one concentrates on the night market experi-ence; Part two focuses on the tourists’ motives; and Part three includesthe profiles of the tourists. In Part one, items such as consumption prod-ucts and expenditures in night markets were based upon Ibrahim andLeng’s study (2003). Questions such as frequencies of visits and partycomposition were adapted from Mo, Howard, and Havitz, (1994). Otherquestions such as travel source information were drawn from Pizam andJeong (1996). In Part two, a 14-item international tourists’ role scale(Jiang et al., 2000) was adopted to examine the motives when Japanesetourists visit night markets. Response choices ranged from (1) stronglydisagree to (7) strongly agree. Sample items were “I prefer to go to anight market not considered as a traditional tourism attraction”; “I pre-fer to go to a night market where I can find similar tourism infrastruc-ture like that in my country”; and “If I find a place like night marketsthat particularly pleases me, I may stop there longer than I expected”.
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Finally, the third part examines tourist characteristics such as gender,age, marital status, occupation, and income (Mo, Howard, & Havitz,1993; Mo, Havits, & Howard, 1994; Jiang, 1995; Keng & Cheng, 1999;Jiang, Havitz, & O’Brien, 2000). Although a similar study was con-ducted by the first author in 2005, the focus of the research was differentbecause it was confined to a comparative context between touristscoming from the Western and Asian cultures.
Reliability and Validity
The survey instrument was adapted from the international tourists’ rolescale (Jiang et al., 2000; Chang & Chiang, 2006). Afterwards, a panel wasformed by inviting three professors whose expertise is in tourist behavior toproofread the questionnaire. Two questions concerning the hotel accom-modation and the transportation system in an international destination weredeleted from the original survey instruments in consideration of their irrele-vance to this study. Thus, the face validity was secured. In the meantime,the “back translation” method was employed to ensure that the survey in-strument in the Japanese version is equivalent to the original English instru-ments (Sin, Cheung, & Lee, 1999; Dimanche, 1994).
Following the rule of thumb for every survey method, a pilot studyprior to the formal survey was administered. The respondents were Jap-anese expatriates in Taiwan. After deleting four items (the Cronbach’salpha score below 0.6), the Cronbach’s a was .76 which verified the in-ternal consistency–it means that the reliability is satisfactory. Thus, 14items of the surveyed instruments were selected for a formal survey onJapanese tourists. According to respondents’ inputs and researchers’judgments, a number of words in Japanese were modified or re-phrasedin an effort to obtain clarity and comprehensiveness. In doing so, thecontent validity was obtained (Cooper & Schindler, 2006).
Sampling and Data Collection
An on-site intercept sampling method was adopted. In total, 350questionnaires were distributed and 30 returned responses were dis-carded due to incompleteness (the valid response rate was 91.4%). Thedata collection covered a 4-month period beginning in 2005. The surveyvenue was limited to the entrance and exit areas of three night marketsin Taipei City. Four assistants who were majoring in the Tourism gradu-ate program and were fluent in speaking Japanese were hired tempo-rarily in assisting the survey during the aforementioned time frame.
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What is worth noting was that only Japanese tourists, after carefulscreening, were surveyed.
Data Analysis
With respect to the data analysis, the SPSS-11 software package wasused to analyze the sample data. Similar to numerous studies of marketsegmentation, statistical analysis such as factor analysis, two-stagedcluster analysis, and discriminant analysis were used in order to identifyheterogeneous groups. In addition to undertake the Principal compo-nent factor analysis, both hierarchical and non-hierarchical cluster anal-yses were conducted incorporated into a two-stage cluster analysis(Punj & Stewart, 1983). In the first stage, a hierarchical cluster analysiswas done and the Ward’s minimum variance method was used in orderto select an ideal number of clusters. Once the outliers were deleted, theK-means method (a non-hierarchical method) was applied to examinethe distribution for each cluster size (Hair et al., 1998). The second stageincluded two steps. First, the squared Euclidean distance, based on themean distance of the cluster groups from the center of the cluster, wasevaluated. Second, clusters of higher within-group homogeneity werederived from the data analysis.
Afterwards, a discriminant analysis was undertaken to determinewhich of the significant discriminators were driving the differencesamong the clusters (Hong & Jang, 2004). In addition, the accuracyand stability of the classification, i.e. the extent to which the motiva-tions of the groups were distinct, were assessed through the calcula-tion of two canonical discriminant functions, which transferredmulti-dimensional motivation items into a uni-dimensional item inorder to simplify the segmentation procedure. In addition, ANOVAand Post-Hoc analyses, Chi-square tests, and frequency analyseswere administered on demographic variables of Japanese tourists inan attempt to determine if any statistical differences exist among thegroups.
RESULTS
Novelty-Seeking for Japanese Tourists
Modifying Jiang et al’s (2000) scale, ten responses out of fourteenitems on novelty-seeking had mean scores in excess of four (above
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neutral). These possibly connote that Japanese tourists, by and large,were seeking some sort of novelty when they visited night markets inTaiwan.
With reference to the outcome of the factor analysis on Japanese(KMO = 0.67), the Barlett test of sphericity was significant (p = 0.000).Thus, the novelty-seeking items were appropriate to use in this research.Motives with eigenvalues equal to or greater than one were extracted,and items with factor loadings of 0.4 or greater were selected (Hair,1992). For Japanese tourists, 14 items were grouped into three factors(Table 1). The first category was labeled as Destination-oriented whichaccounted for 24.04% of the total variance with a reliability coefficientof 0.79. The second group was named Social Contact-oriented (20.95%of the variance explained with a reliability coefficient of 0.74). Thethird category was labeled as Travel Arrangement-oriented (12.42% ofthe variance explained with a reliability of 0.82). Generally, those with.70 and above are considered acceptable values (Nunnally, 1978). Allthree factors had Cronbach’s a scores over .70 (average was 0.77),suggesting acceptable levels of internal consistency for each scale.
Two-Stage Cluster Analysis
Using the two-stage cluster analysis, this research locates the mostappropriate grouping numbers. That is, in the first stage, after conduct-ing the Ward’s method of the hierarchical cluster analysis, the agglo-merative value was drastically increased from 108.048 to 156.515 whenthe clusters had changed from one to three. Therefore, the three-cluster so-lution appeared to offer the most effective description. In the second stage,K-means method of the non-hierarchical cluster analysis was administeredand results showed that cluster 3 has the largest population (165, 51.6%),followed by cluster 1 of 115 (35.9%), and cluster 2 of 40 (12.5%).
Discriminant Analysis
After conducting a chi-square analysis, it can be found that two ca-nonical discriminant functions were statistically significant. In addition,the centroids (means) for each of the clusters were calculated by multi-plying the canonical discriminant function for each factor by its associ-ated approximate F-value. Function 1 (the centorids were .628, .169,.966), with an eigenvalue of 2.649, Wilk’s Lambda = 0.144, was foundstatistically significant (�2 = 611.518, p = 0.000). With an eigenvalue of
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0.898, Wilk’s Lambda = 0.527, Function 2 (the centorids were .828,.142, �.384) was also found statistically significant (�2 = 202.491, p =0.000). As expected, high eigenvalues indicated that the variables weresatisfactory at separating the clusters. The classification matrices of re-spondents were also examined. In total, 99.4% of the 320-grouped cases
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TABLE 1. Factor Analysis of Japanese Tourists
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were classified flawlessly. The outstanding accuracy rate suggested thatbased on the three factors of novelty-seeking (destination-oriented,travel arrangement-oriented, and social contact-oriented factors), themotivational discriminant functions appear to be very valid in classify-ing the three clusters of Japanese tourists.
Japanese Segmented Groups
The follow-up, one-way ANOVA tests indicated that most of the mo-tivational factors exhibited significant differences among the three clus-ters. Consequently, the findings confirmed the appropriateness of eachdimension (Table 2).
For Japanese tourists, Cluster 1 had the lowest scores for social con-tact (Mean = 5.83) and destination (Mean = 4.34) dimensions. Theywere likely to take a tour bus to visit night markets and their ages rangedfrom 31 to 40 years old. Therefore, Cluster 1 was named as “conserva-tive tourists”. Cluster 2, however, put the highest importance on socialcontact (Mean = 6.38). At the same time, by and large, respondentsliked to have some novelty experiences in a destination (Mean = 5.65).Although this group had the fewest people, the majority of them wereyoung females. Consequently, Cluster 2 was labeled as “moderate nov-elty seekers”. In Cluster 3, respondents had the highest score on travelarrangement (Mean = 3.73) compared to other groups and yet, next toCluster 2, scored the second highest on dimensions of social contact anddestination factors. Consistent with the notion that Japanese are un-likely to be avid risk-takers, they normally rely on vast travel informa-tion and referrals in advance (Ahmed & Krohn, 1992; Rosenbaum &Spears, 2005). However, they have reasonable curiosity towards a des-
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TABLE 2. Novelty-Seeking Mean Among Japanese Tourists
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tination and are willing to mingle with local people to a certain extent.Thus, Cluster 3 was named as “well-planned explorers”.
Differences in Profiles and Traveling Attributes
With reference to profiles of Japanese tourists, the majority of re-spondents are singles (78.8%) and dominated by the age group 20-30years old (67.2%). Occupation-wise, Japanese visitors are mostly em-ployees or supervisors (43.8%) but the number of students is also signif-icant among the respondents (37.2%). As a result, the purpose of visit islikely to be travel and sightseeing (35.9), followed by studying (37.5%),and so forth (26.6%). With reference to the travel characteristics of Jap-anese tourists, the majority of them are repeat visitors to night markets(65%). The traveling party is mostly composed of friends (74.1%), andmost of Japanese tourists use the travel agency’s bus to get to night mar-ket (47.2%). The traveling source of information on night markets isoverwhelming dominated by travel magazines, and the tourists are sat-isfied with night markets (97.5% each). The ratio of males and femalesis nearly equal. However, the desire for novelty in the dimension of des-tination-oriented was slightly stronger among females (mean score =5.01) compared to males (mean score = 4.74). This could be explainedby the fact the female Japanese tourists enjoy shopping more at the nightmarkets and thus perceived more novelty compared to male Japanese.
Among three groups, significant differences were found in gender,marital status, age, occupation, and purpose of travel. In addition, sig-nificant statistical differences were found in numbers of visits, trans-portation vehicles, satisfaction, expenditures, and party composition ontourists’ traveling attributes among 320 Japanese tourists. Specifically,the characteristics of different groups were presented (Table 3).
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
The aim of this research is to profile Japanese tourists consideringtheir novelty-seeking motives in visiting night markets. This study con-cludes that the mean scores of Japanese tourists on novelty-seekingwhen they visited night markets are roughly over four, which is consid-ered as “agree” for surveyed tourists. In total, 320 Japanese tourists aresegmented into three groups of conservative tourists, moderate nov-elty-seekers, and well-planned explorers. What is noteworthy here isthat 208 Japanese tourists (65%) are repeat visitors. This can be ex-
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plained by the fact that the 97.5% of Japanese visitors (except 8 out of312) have positive experiences in night markets leading to their willing-ness to re-visit. Furthermore, the interesting diversity contained withina lively night market is likely to attract return Japanese guests.
In the three Japanese segmented groups, significant differences arefound in some background variables such as gender, marital status,age, occupation, and purpose of travel. In addition, statistical differ-
38 JOURNAL OF QUALITY ASSURANCE IN HOSPITALITY & TOURISM
TABLE 3. Profiles of Japanese Tourists
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ences are found in some traveling attributes including numbers of visits,transportation mode, satisfaction, expenditures, and party composition.
The results of this research are expected to fill the void in tourist be-havior by means of extending the epistemology relating to night mar-kets. Nevertheless, some limitations demand attention here. Firstly,this study was undertaken in Taipei only, thus the generalizations ex-tending from this research are questionable. Secondly, only Japanesetourists were selected. Thus, in future studies, other international tour-ists would be worthy of examination in particular those whose na-tional cultures and consumption behaviors are different from Taiwan.Additionally, a comparison study between planned and actual travelbehaviour deserves a further investigation (Sirakaya et al., 2003; March& Woodside, 2005).
Further, although novelty-seeking motives were used here as the seg-mentation variable, the basis for conducting market segmentation is infact multifold. Future studies relating to market segmentation, are sug-gested by using different descriptors such as travel life cycle (March,2000), benefits, and other psychographic variables (Greenberg & Mc-Donald, 1989) in order to reveal more meaningful information.
This paper could assist various sectors, including government au-thorities and destination planners, when incubating the follow-up posi-tioning and target marketing strategies. Afterwards, from the destinationmarketing aspect, an adapted marketing mix to attract potential touriststo visit should be implemented or fine-tuned (Möller, 2006). In essence,the fundamental marketing mix–4Ps: the mixture of product, price,place, and promotion–is still well-recognized worldwide (Lewis &Meadows, 1995; Kotler, Bowen, & Makens, 2006). Specially, concern-ing product, business package tours are likely to be suitable for conser-vative tourists. For moderate novelty-seekers, a wide range of noveltravel activities (e.g. experiencing foot massages in some night mar-kets) is inclined to attract them; on the other hand, more flexibility offree selections on travel spots in Taiwan are encouraged to be providedfor well-planned explorers. Pricing-wise, low pricing tactics should notbe applied for conservative tourists since they tend to place more em-phasis on quality of the contents of tours. For moderate novelty-seekersand well-planned explorers, a sensible pricing strategy based on de-mand is highly recommended. In addition, discount coupons should beprovided for the group of well-planned explorers, since they are accus-tomed to search and to collect detailed travel information, including thepossibility of attaining discounted vouchers or coupons prior to theirtravels.
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In relation to the place (distribution), along with travel magazines,salespersons’ recommendation resulting from personal selling effortsthrough travel agents is likely to stimulate conservative tourists‘ inten-tion to visit night markets. Whereas, moderate novelty-seekers are moreinterested in printed advertisements and have an aptitude for usingInternet. As for well-planned explorers, despite printed advertisements,the positive words-of-mouth from former tourists is the motivator intheir intention to visit night markets. As far as promotions are con-cerned, an advertising appeal by mentioning the relaxation effect is de-sirable for attracting the conservative tourists. However, for moderatenovelty-seekers, diverse entertainment or outdoor displays are highlyrecommended to be included in the contents of advertisements relat-ing to night markets, since these seekers tend to be younger and thushave diverse interests. For well-planned explorers, the major appeal offocusing on leisure fulfillment incorporated with innovative packagetours is likely to be effective. In particular, strategic alliances betweentourism business and government agents are crucial in developing dif-ferent package travels, whereby night markets, nearby heritage sites(e.g. tourism temples), and cultural events are offered as a group. Ac-cordingly, Japanese tourists are likely to have higher satisfaction, spendmore time, and thus are probably spend more in this sort of novel tour-ism attraction. After all, since the tourist satisfaction is of paramountimportance in the tourism industry, no efforts should be spared.
In sum, this report supports the notion that international tourists tendto perceive novelty when they visit night markets. This study is particu-larly valuable in exploring and profiling characteristics of Japanesetourists interested specifically in night markets. As a result, this studycontributes to our understanding of international tourist behaviors anddestination marketing practices. In addition, the findings underscorethat novelty-seeking is an effective descriptor for depicting distinctivesegments of Japanese tourists visiting night markets.
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SUBMITTED: September 11, 2006FIRST REVISION SUBMITTED: December 11, 2006
SECOND REVISION SUBMITTED: May 2, 2007ACCEPTED: June 18, 2007
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doi:10.1300/J162v08n02_02
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