Tourism Management 24 (2003) 401–410

Difference in shopping satisfaction levels:a study of tourists in Hong Kong

James Wong*, Rob Law

School of Hotel & Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Received 24 July 2001; accepted 11 October 2002

Abstract

Since the handover of sovereignty of Hong Kong to China and the financial turmoil experienced in 1997, the retail trade in Hong

Kong has undergone a major restructuring. As sales to tourists account for more than 2% of the Gross Domestic Product of Hong

Kong, it is beneficial to investigate the shopping satisfaction levels of visitors to Hong Kong. This study aims to explore travellers’

expectations and perceptions of shopping in Hong Kong, compare the responses of Asian and Western travellers and recommend

possible actions that would improve the position of the retail trade in Hong Kong. An analysis of the results revealed that significant

differences exist between the expectations and perceived satisfaction of the seven tourist groups studied for service quality, quality of

goods, variety of goods and price of goods. It was also noted that Western travellers were more satisfied with almost all the

individual attributes than were Asian travellers. In the light of these empirical findings, theoretical and practical implications are

discussed.

r 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Shopping; Satisfaction levels; Tourists; Hong Kong

1. Introduction

Tourism is one of the main sources of revenue inHong Kong. It accounted for about 5% of the GrossDomestic Product of Hong Kong in 1999 (HKTA,1991–2000). The shopping of tourists has accounted forhalf of the total visitor expenditure over the past 10years as shown in Table 1. In 2000, shopping accountedfor more than HK$30 billion (50.2%) of total tourismreceipts. The shopping expenditure of tourists, there-fore, has a great impact on the local economy of HongKong. In recent years, the influence of the peggedexchange rate system and the emergence of other Asiancompetitors have led to a substantial challenge to HongKong’s position as a ‘Shoppers’ Paradise’. The pricecompetitive index of Dwyer, Forsyth, and Rao (2000)highlighted the fact that Hong Kong ceased to be a pricecompetitive tourism destination with the drop inexchange rates in Malaysia, Thailand and South Korea

after 1997. Furthermore, a change in the composition oftourists visiting Hong Kong has in turn, induced asignificant change in market structures. Since the hand-over of Hong Kong to China in 1997, there has been acontinual increase in the number of visitors from theMainland. As Qu and Li (1997) indicated, Hong Kong isthe number one destination for the Mainland Chinesetravelling abroad. In 2000, over 3.7 million visitors fromthe Mainland came to Hong Kong, an increase of 18.1%compared to 1999. This number accounted for almosthalf of the total number of Chinese visiting destinationsoutside of the People’s Republic of China; it is presumedthat this number will continue to increase over theforthcoming years.As noted, the rapidly changing origin profile of

travellers visiting Hong Kong has had a great impacton Hong Kong’s tourism industry. This is because themajority of tourists’ spending on shopping in HongKong is now by visitors from China, Taiwan and theUSA, each accounting for 26.4, 21.5 and 11.4% of thetotal visitor spending, respectively. However, the pro-portions of total expenditure of visitors from differentcountries for which shopping accounts are found tobe very different among different nationalities. Asian

*Corresponding author. Tel.: +852-2766-6528; fax: +852-2362-

9362.

E-mail addresses: hmjames@polyu.edu.hk (J. Wong), hmroblaw@

polyu.edu.hk (R. Law).

0261-5177/03/$ - see front matter r 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/S0261-5177(02)00114-0

visitors tend to spend a larger proportion of their totalexpenditure on shopping than Western visitors do.According to the Hong Kong Tourist Association(HKTA, 1991–2000), shopping accounted for 64.7%of the total expenditure of Mainland Chinese touristsand 59.1% of Taiwanese visitors’ expenditure, whilevisitors from the USA and Australia spent most onaccommodation (44.1 and 41.1%, respectively). Becauseof the changes in tourist composition and the differencesbetween the spending patterns of Asian and Westerntourists, it is important to investigate the shoppingsatisfaction levels of different travellers since the hand-over. It can be argued that a retail mix and provisionthat existed prior to 1997 might now be less effective.For example, Kozak (2001) found that the nationality oftourists has a significant effect on reported levels ofsatisfaction with a destination. Therefore, it was thoughtimportant to focus on the differences between theimportance expectations and perceptions of shoppingattitudes for each of the traveller groups. This willprovide new information about the role of retail busi-ness in segmenting tourism markets, permitting strategiesappropriate for travellers from each country, in order toimprove the total tourism receipts for Hong Kong.Just as customer satisfaction is essential to corporate

survival (Pizam & Ellis, 1999), it is also important fordestinations that compete in a worldwide market. AsSummers (2001) has indicated, Hong Kong’s competi-tiveness as a tourist destination is constantly challengedby the continued devaluation of neighbouring currenciesand the development of new tourism infrastructure incompeting destinations. Examples of these neighbouringcountries include South Korea, Singapore, Thailand,Malaysia and Taiwan (Carben, 1991). Therefore, it isimportant to maintain a high level of service standard,an awareness of customer expectations and improve-ments in the services and products of the retail trade inHong Kong. However, there have only been a limitednumber of studies on the shopping of tourists in Hong

Kong. For example, Heung and Qu (1998) noted thatthe retail trade had contributed a great deal to HongKong. Also, Mak, Tsang, and Cheung (1999) specifi-cally investigated the shopping preferences of Taiwanesevisitors. Recently, some attentions have been paid tohotel services and shopping. For example, Heung andCheng (2000) investigated 200 tourists’ levels ofsatisfaction with shopping in Hong Kong before thehandover. Choi and Chu (2000) focused on the needs ofAsian and Western travellers by identifying theirperceptions of, and levels of satisfaction with, theservices and facilities provided by hotels in Hong Kong.Despite this, little research has been done with respect tothe levels of satisfaction of tourists from differentcountries solely with their shopping experiences whileon vacation in Hong Kong since handover. This surveyseeks to redress the balance. Specifically, the issues willbe addressed by exploring the travellers’ expectationsand perceptions of shopping in Hong Kong andcomparing the responses of Asian and Western travel-lers. As the tourists’ shopping behaviour may beaffected by a number of attributes, this paper will focuson the shopping market as a whole rather than todiversify the topic on each of the market segments.Recommending actions that might be used to improvethe position of the retail trade in Hong Kong will beprovided in the last section.

2. Literature review

Customer satisfaction always appears on top of thelist of important issues that must be addressed bymarketers (HR Focus, 1992). The concern for measuringcustomer satisfaction in the tourism industry has beenprecipitated by the need to position destinationscompetitively in the worldwide marketplace. In responseto the need for a more reliable way of measuringcustomer satisfaction, many researchers have attemptedto develop theoretical and methodological frameworksfor measuring customer satisfaction. Peterson andWilson (1992) pointed out that more than 15,000academic and trade articles have been published onthe topic of customer satisfaction over the past twodecades. According to the study of Oh and Parks (1997),at least nine theories on customer satisfaction have beenintroduced in the literature. These include: (1) expec-tancy disconfirmation; (2) assimilation or cognitivedissonance; (3) contrast; (4) assimilation contrast;(5) equity; (6) attribution; (7) comparison level; (8)generalized negativity; and, (9) value precept. Amongthese theories, expectancy disconfirmation has receivedthe widest acceptance because of its broadly applica-ble conceptualization. Oliver (1980) introduced theexpectancy disconfirmation model in studies ofcustomer satisfaction in the retail and service industries.

Table 1

Percentage of shopping receipts among total tourism receipts in Hong

Kong from 1991 to 2000

Year Total tourism

receipts ($ million)

Total receipts on

shopping ($ million)

%

2000 61,514 30,880 50.2

1999 52,984 26,757 50.5

1998 55,251 26,023 49.0

1997 72,086 34,416 49.2

1996 84,520 40,850 49.5

1995 74,914 37,068 50.8

1994 64,263 32,452 51.9

1993 60,026 29,609 50.8

1992 48,390 24,802 53.1

1991 39,607 20,079 52.4

Source: HKTA: Statistical Review of Tourism 1991–2000.

J. Wong, R. Law / Tourism Management 24 (2003) 401–410402

According to this theory, customers purchase goods andservices with pre-purchase expectations about antici-pated performance. After purchasing and consuming thegoods and services, the results are compared with theinitial expectations. Disconfirmation arises if the resultsdo not meet the expectations. Positive disconfirmation isa result of perceptions of performance being higher thanexpectation, whereas negative disconfirmation is a resultof perceptions being lower than expectation. Customersatisfaction is therefore related to positive disconfirma-tion or confirmation (Barksy, 1992; Hill, 1986; Oliver,1980). Furthermore, customer satisfaction has generallybeen found to lead to positive behavioral intentions suchas return, repurchase, and purchase recommendationin many tourism and hospitality studies (Barksy, 1992;Bojanic, 1996; Chadee & Mattsson, 1995; Dube,Renaghan, & Miller, 1994; Pizam & Milman, 1993).As a result, measuring customer satisfaction is animportant task for tourism marketers to carry out as itis directly linked to repeat business. The primaryfunction of measuring customer satisfaction is toprovide information; the information relates to howwell a destination is currently meeting its tourists’ needs.With this information, marketers can focus their effortson improving the quality of products or services,thereby enhancing the overall competitive advantagesof the destination.Shopping experiences are an amalgam of perceptions

of products and services. They comprise the sum ofsatisfaction level that shoppers have with the individualelements or attributes of all the products and servicesthat make up the experience (Pizam & Ellis, 1999).Generally, there is no uniformity of opinion amongresearchers as to the components of the serviceexperience encounter. Czepiel, Solomon, Suprenant,and Gutman (1985) suggested that customer satisfactionis a function of level of satisfaction for two independentelements, i.e. functional and performance-delivery ele-ments; the product bought is a functional element,whereas the service provided by the retailer is aperformance-delivery element. Two other methods ofclassification have been proposed; Lovelock (1985)proposed the use of core and secondary groupingsand Lewis (1987) developed the use of essential andsubsidiary factors. All of these classification systemsinclude consideration of a combination of the custo-mers’ behaviour and environment elements. However,many researchers have suggested that a situation specificapproach should be used, i.e. no universal elementsshould be measured. Thus, this study will draw on themost relevant shopping studies and shopping attributesapplicable to the Hong Kong situation. The results ofa study by Keown (1989) indicated that travellersperceived the outstanding shopping attributes of HongKong to be ‘wide selection of merchandise’, ‘faster andefficient service’, and ‘good value for money’. Mak et al.

(1999) surveyed 100 Taiwanese tourists, asking themwhat their perceptions of shopping experiences in HongKong were. The results showed that the shoppingattributes, ‘variety of goods’ and ‘price’ were ratedhigher in Hong Kong than in Singapore, whereas‘product quality’, ‘service quality’, and ‘reputation ofstores’ were rated lower. In a recent study of shoppingsatisfaction, Heung and Cheng (2000) identified fourshopping attributes, i.e. tangible quality, service quality,product value, and product reliability. Among thesefour factors, tangible quality was not found to besignificant in influencing a tourist’s level of satisfactionwith shopping. Therefore, this factor was excluded inthe current survey and ‘variety of goods’ were sub-stituted. As Hong Kong is one of the most famousshopping centres in the world, the ‘variety of goods’available to visitors from different countries should beconsidered as an important factor. Besides, the term‘product value’ was replaced with ‘price of goods’ as thedollar value of a commodity is much easier for therespondents to realize the actual value level. Further-more, the term ‘product reliability’ was replaced with‘quality of goods’ in this survey, to promote a betterunderstanding of the questions among the respondents.Finally, service quality, variety of goods, price of goods,and quality of goods were selected as the attributesused to assess the tourists’ shopping expectations andperceptions of Hong Kong.

3. Methodology

In November 2000, a large-scale international visitorsurvey was conducted in the departure hall of HongKong International Airport. A structured questionnaireconsisting of three sections was developed to collect datathrough the use of personal interviews. The first sectionrelated to the trip profile of the tourists. The secondsection included a study of the individual tourists’shopping expectations and experiences. The respondentswere asked to rate on a five-point Likert scale with arating ranging from 1=‘very unimportant’ to 5=‘veryimportant’ of their expectation towards the four mainattributes of shopping. These included; ‘service quality’,‘quality of goods’, ‘variety of goods’, and ‘price ofgoods’. Besides, their shopping satisfaction level wasmeasured by a five-point Likert scale ranging from1=‘very dissatisfied’ to 5=‘very satisfied’ for these fourmain attributes. The last section was used to collectdemographic data about the tourists such as gender,age, educational level and annual household income. Asthis survey was used for both Western and Asiantravellers, the questionnaire was first developed inEnglish and then translated by professional translatorsinto Chinese. Both versions of the questionnaire weredouble-checked by project investigators to ensure that

J. Wong, R. Law / Tourism Management 24 (2003) 401–410 403

the meaning of the questions was the same. A pilot testwas conducted to ensure the practicability, clarity,reliability, and comprehensiveness of the questionnaire.A total of 1004 international visitors were successfully

interviewed by means of a systematic sampling method.To conduct the survey in an efficient way, eachinterviewer was assigned a specific flight route basedon the flights scheduled for the major cities of the targetcountries. An interviewer was given a random numberevery day to indicate the counting interval betweentarget respondents. In order to ensure that therespondents were visitors and had stayed in HongKong, three initial filtering questions were asked toexclude Hong Kong residents, transit passengers, andothers who were not residents of one of the seven targetsource markets: Chinese Mainland, Taiwan, Singapore,the United States of America, Canada, Australia, andMalaysia. One additional question was asked to identifywhether the respondents had bought anything in HongKong.

4. Findings

Among the questionnaires collected from the 1004respondents, 610 were found to be usable in this study,the rest were incomplete. Table 2 shows the demo-graphic profile of the respondents. The gender distribu-tion was 58.7% males and 41.3% females, respectively.The distribution between Eastern and Western travellerswas also quite even. Among the 610 respondents, 284(46.6%) were of Asian origin (including all travellersfromMainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia),and 326 (53.4%) were of Western origin (including alltravellers from the USA, Canada and Australia). Thethree dominant age groups of the respondents werefound to be 26–35 (31.4%), 36–45 (21.6%) and 46–55(22.1%). More than 98% of the respondents hadcompleted secondary education or higher. Only 7.8%of the respondents earned less than US$10,000 per year.The distribution of respondents among the other annualhousehold income ranges was quite even.Of the 610 respondents, all had purchased goods in

the territory. Of these, 68% of the respondents had

purchased clothing or footwear, 51% had purchasedjewellery, watches and gifts and 22% had purchasedelectrical or electronic products. These results areconsistent with the official data published by theHong Kong Tourist Association (now the Hong KongTourism Board). The respondents were asked to providetheir reasons for buying these products in Hong Kong.The results as shown in Table 3 indicate that most

Table 3

Summary of visitors’ eight main reasons to buy goods in Hong Kong (N ¼ 610)

Main Reasons Chinese

Mainland

Taiwan Singapore United States

of America

Canada Australia Malaysia Total

count

Attractive price 33 49 34 98 39 41 19 313

Variety of goods 15 16 11 22 11 14 7 96

Good quality 19 8 3 33 13 9 / 85

Fashion/novelty 14 18 18 15 3 4 9 81

Unique/special/attractive 8 14 4 31 4 3 5 69

Preference 2 17 8 9 7 2 5 50

Not available in his/her own countries 7 5 4 17 7 4 2 46

Table 2

Demographic profile of respondents (N ¼ 610)

N %

Sex

Male 358 58.7

Female 252 41.3

Age

25 or less 49 8.0

26–35 191 31.4

36–45 132 21.6

46–55 135 22.1

56–65 61 10.0

66 or above 42 6.9

Country of residence

Mainland China 72 11.8

Taiwan 120 19.7

Singapore 59 9.7

USA 195 32.0

Canada 59 9.7

Australia 72 11.8

Malaysia 33 5.3

Education level

Less than secondary/high school 11 1.8

Completed secondary/high school 104 17.0

Some college or university 103 16.9

Completed college/university diploma/degree 291 47.7

Completed postgraduate degree 101 16.6

Annual household income

Less than US$10,000 48 7.8

US$10,000–29,999 106 17.4

US$30,000–49,999 119 19.5

US$50,000–69,999 115 18.9

US$70,000–99,999 95 15.6

US$100,000 or more 127 20.8

J. Wong, R. Law / Tourism Management 24 (2003) 401–410404

respondents specified ‘attractive price’ as their mainreason (n ¼ 313), followed by ‘variety of goods’(n ¼ 96), ‘good quality’ (n ¼ 85) and ‘fashion/novelty’(n ¼ 81). Among the 610 respondents, 135 (47.5%)Asian travellers and 178 (54.6%) Western travellersexpressed the opinion that the price of products in HongKong was attractive. This finding contradicts the resultsof other studies that claimed prices in Hong Kong werenon-competitive compared to those found in otherAsian countries due to the pegged exchange rate (Dwyeret al. 2000).Paired sample T-tests were used to compare the

overall mean scores for expected level of satisfactionwith the mean scores for the perceived level ofsatisfaction for the four shopping attributes. The resultsshow the overall results for the four shopping attributeshave a significant t-value at the 0.05 level (Table 4). Thetests of the shopping attributes show that there aredifferences between the expected and perceived levels ofsatisfaction. Among the four shopping attributes, twowere found to be positively disconfirmed attributes withperception scores greater than expectation scores, andtwo were found to be negatively disconfirmed attributeswith perception scores lower than expectation scores.The positively disconfirmed attributes were ‘servicequality’ and ‘variety of goods’, while the negativelydisconfirmed attributes were ‘quality of goods’ and‘price of goods’. The overall results indicate that thesatisfaction levels of the tourists were much higher thanthey expected in terms of the service quality and varietyof goods they found. However, room for improvementwas still found with regard to travellers’ satisfactionlevels in the areas of ‘quality of goods’ and ‘price ofgoods’.In order to further investigate the negatively and

positively disconfirmed attributes among travellers fromdifferent countries, a series of paired sample T-testswere applied to investigate if there was any statisticaldifference between the attitudes of travellers from differ-ent countries. Table 5 shows the results of these tests.Factor 1 ‘Service quality’—Among the travellers from

the seven countries investigated, the positively discon-

firmed value only appeared in travellers from the USA,Canada, and Australia (po0:05). The Western travellerswere found to have low expectation and high perceptionmean scores for this factor compared to those of Asiantravellers. The positively disconfirmed value in thegroup of Australian tourists was as high as 0.79.However, the opposite result was found in the meanscores for expectation and perception of Asian travel-lers. The mean difference was �0.3 in the group ofTaiwanese tourists. Therefore, a significant negativelydisconfirmed value was found in the group of Taiwanesetravellers (po0:05). Although negatively disconfirmedvalues were also found for this attribute for travellersfrom Mainland China, Singapore, and Malaysia, theywere found to treat it as an indifferent shoppingattribute, as a non-significant t-test value was obtained(p > 0:05).Factor 2 ‘Quality of goods’—A very high mean

expectation score of 4.36 was found for travellers fromChina. All Asian travellers showed negative meandifferences; while Western travellers expressed positivemean differences between their expectations and percep-tions for this shopping attribute. The negativelydisconfirmed values were found to be 0.35 and 0.27(po0:05) within the groups of travellers from MainlandChina and Taiwan, respectively. The travellers fromall other countries treated ‘Quality of goods’ as anindifference shopping attribute (p > 0:05).Factor 3 ‘Variety of goods’—All Western travellers

had higher mean scores for perception than expectationof importance for this shopping attribute. However, allAsian travellers had lower mean scores for perceptionthan expectation, except those from Malaysia. Therefore,a negative mean difference was found for travellers fromthese countries of residence. Only the positively discon-firmed values for travellers from the USA and Canadawere found to be at a significant level (po0:05). A veryhigh positively disconfirmed value of 0.34 was obtainedfor the Canadian travellers. Values for travellers fromother countries yielded no significant t-values (p > 0:05).Factor 4 ‘Price of goods’—All travellers from

different countries showed negatively disconfirmed

Table 4

Paired sample T-tests—Mean differences between tourists’ expectations of importance and satisfactions of shopping experience in Hong Kong

(N ¼ 610)

Factors Expectation Satisfaction Mean Diff. t-value p

Meana S.D. Meanb S.D.

Service quality 3.70 0.97 3.88 0.85 0.18 3.600 0.000

Quality of goods 4.09 0.79 4.01 0.65 �0.08 �2.329 0.020

Variety of goods 4.10 0.81 4.17 0.69 0.07 1.971 0.049

Price of goods 4.15 0.84 3.65 0.91 �0.5 �10.950 0.000

aExpectation mean scale: 5=very important expectation; 4=important expectation; 3=neutral; 2=unimportant expectation; 1=very unimportant

expectation.bSatisfaction mean scale: 5=very satisfied; 4=satisfied; 3=neutral; 2=dissatisfied; 1=very dissatisfied.

J. Wong, R. Law / Tourism Management 24 (2003) 401–410 405

values for this shopping attribute. The highest meandifference score was found to be 0.98 for the group ofTaiwanese tourists. All Asian travellers showed greaternegatively disconfirmed values than Western travellers,ranging from 0.98 to 0.61; Western travellers showednegatively disconfirmed values ranging from 0.13 to0.46. All values were at significant levels (po0:05) exceptfor the value for travellers from the USA. This indicatesthat travellers from the USA were indifferent to thisattribute (p > 0:05) even they had the highest satisfactionscore on this factor, as their expectations were also highin value. Therefore, the statistical difference between theUSA tourists’ importance expectation and satisfactionof this shopping attribute is insignificant.When the scores for travellers from all the seven

countries investigated are compared, some importantfindings are noted. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) wasused to categorize differences between groups fromdifferent countries, considering their levels of satisfac-tion for each of the shopping attributes. From the

ANOVA results shown in Tables 6 and 7, it can be seenthat there are significant differences in the expectationsand perceptions for all but one attributes amongtravellers from different countries. In terms of expecta-tions, the mean scores for travellers from MainlandChina, Taiwan and Singapore were found to be signi-ficantly high when compared to those for Australiansfor the ‘service quality’ attribute, with po0:003:Furthermore, for ‘quality of goods’, the mean scoresfor travellers from Mainland China and Singapore werealso significantly higher compared to those of Australiantravellers with po0:002: However, the expectations ofTaiwanese travellers for the ‘quality of goods’ and‘variety of goods’ attributes were found to be relativelylow compared to those travellers from the USA andCanada (po0:002 and po0:001; respectively). Theperceptions of Taiwanese travellers for all the shoppingattributes investigated were also significantly lower thanthose travellers from the USA, Canada and Australia. Itcan be generally identified that the perceptions for all

Table 5

Paired sample T-tests—Mean differences between tourists’ expectations of importance and satisfactions of shopping experience in Hong Kong based

on different country of residences (N ¼ 610)

Factors Country of residence Expectation Satisfaction Mean Diff. t-value p

Meana S.D. Meanb S.D.

Service quality Chinese Mainland 3.99 0.83 3.82 0.72 �0.17 �1.229 0.223

Taiwan 3.72 0.87 3.42 0.82 �0.30 �2.772 0.006

Singapore 3.85 0.98 3.63 0.79 �0.22 �1.275 0.207

United States of America 3.70 0.97 4.17 0.78 0.47 6.178 0.000

Canada 3.59 0.91 4.00 0.79 0.41 3.661 0.001

Australia 3.32 1.15 4.11 0.85 0.79 5.351 0.000

Malaysia 3.82 1.04 3.64 0.93 �0.18 �1.063 0.296

Quality of goods Chinese Mainland 4.36 0.54 4.01 0.52 �0.35 �3.729 0.000

Taiwan 3.89 0.83 3.62 0.60 �0.27 �3.391 0.001

Singapore 4.05 0.90 3.88 0.56 �0.17 �1.427 0.159

United States of America 4.18 0.71 4.23 0.64 0.05 1.043 0.298

Canada 4.03 0.83 4.10 0.71 0.07 0.574 0.568

Australia 3.96 0.86 4.13 0.65 0.17 1.685 0.096

Malaysia 4.06 0.90 3.88 0.60 �0.18 �1.099 0.280

Variety of goods Chinese Mainland 4.17 0.73 4.11 0.64 �0.06 �0.587 0.559

Taiwan 3.88 0.88 3.83 0.60 �0.05 �0.581 0.562

Singapore 4.17 0.75 4.05 0.63 �0.12 �1.154 0.253

United States of America 4.20 0.74 4.33 0.70 0.13 2.402 0.017

Canada 3.93 0.78 4.27 0.69 0.34 3.016 0.004

Australia 4.32 0.82 4.42 0.60 0.10 0.895 0.374

Malaysia 3.91 0.95 4.09 0.72 0.18 1.000 0.325

Price of goods Chinese Mainland 4.15 0.80 3.46 0.80 �0.69 �5.255 0.000

Taiwan 4.13 0.86 3.14 0.84 �0.98 �8.858 0.000

Singapore 4.19 0.80 3.58 0.81 �0.61 �4.327 0.000

United States of America 4.16 0.82 4.03 0.79 �0.13 �1.839 0.067

Canada 4.19 0.82 3.81 0.94 �0.37 �3.091 0.003

Australia 4.15 0.93 3.69 1.00 �0.46 �3.279 0.002

Malaysia 3.97 1.02 3.33 0.85 �0.64 �2.996 0.005

aExpectation mean scale: 5=very important expectation; 4=important expectation; 3=neutral; 2=unimportant expectation; 1=very

unimportant expectation.bSatisfaction mean scale: 5=very satisfied; 4=satisfied; 3=neutral; 2=dissatisfied; 1=very dissatisfied.

J. Wong, R. Law / Tourism Management 24 (2003) 401–410406

Table6

Comparisonofexpectationimportanceofdecisionfactoronshoppingbydifferentcountryofresidence(N

¼610)

Factors

Group1

Group2

Group3

Group4

Group5

Group6

Group7

ANOVA

Differ

Mainland

China

(N¼72)

Taiwan

(N¼120)

Singapore

(N¼59)

USA

(N¼195)

Canada

(N¼59)

Australia

(N¼72)

Malaysia

(N¼33)

Maineffect

probability

(TukeyHSD)

Servicequality

3.99(0.83)

3.72(0.87)

3.85(0.98)

3.70(0.97)

3.59(0.91)

3.32(1.15)

3.82(1.04)

0.003

1,3>6

Qualityofgoods

4.36(0.54)

3.89(0.83)

4.05(0.90)

4.18(0.71)

4.03(0.83)

3.96(0.86)

4.06(0.90)

0.002

1>2,62o4

Varietyofgoods

4.17(0.73)

3.88(0.88)

4.17(0.75)

4.20(0.74)

3.93(4.32)

4.32(0.82)

3.91(0.95)

0.001

2o4,6

Priceofgoods

4.15(0.80)

4.13(0.86)

4.19(0.80)

4.16(0.82)

4.19(0.82)

4.15(0.93)

3.97(1.02)

0.935

/

No

te:Expectationmeanscale:5=veryimportantexpectation;4=importantexpectation;3=neutral;2=unimportantexpectation;1=veryunimportantexpectation.

Table7

Comparisonofsatisfactorylevelofshoppingexperiencebydifferentcountryofresidence(N

¼610)

Factors

Group1

Group2

Group3

Group4

Group5

Group6

Group7

ANOVA

Differ

Mainland

China(N

¼72)

Taiwan

(N¼120)

Singapore

(N¼59)

USA

(N¼195)

Canada

(N¼59)

Australia

(N¼72)

Malaysia

(N¼33)

MainEffect

Probability

(TukeyHSD)

Servicequality

3.82(0.72)

3.42(0.82)

3.63(0.79)

4.17(0.78)

4.00(0.79)

4.11(0.85)

3.64(0.93)

0.000

1>2

1o4

2o4,5,6

3o4,6

4>7

Qualityofgoods

4.01(0.52)

3.62(0.60)

3.88(0.56)

4.23(0.64)

4.10(0.71)

4.13(0.65)

3.88(0.60)

0.000

1>2

2o4,5,6

3o4

4>7

Varietyofgoods

4.11(0.64)

3.83(0.60)

4.05(0.63)

4.33(0.70)

4.27(0.69)

4.42(0.69)

4.09(0.72)

0.000

2o4,5,6

3o6

Priceofgoods

3.46(0.80)

3.14(0.84)

3.58(0.81)

4.03(0.79)

3.81(0.94)

3.69(1.00)

3.33(0.85)

0.000

1o4

2o3,4,5,6

3o4

4>7

No

te:Satisfactionmeanscale:5=verysatisfied;4=satisfied;3=neutral;2=dissatisfied;1=verydissatisfied.

J. Wong, R. Law / Tourism Management 24 (2003) 401–410 407

four shopping attributes were comparatively higher forthe tourists from the USA, Canada and Australia.From the results of the questionnaires, it was found

that there were differences in the attitudes to the fourshopping attributes among travellers from the sevencountries of residence examined. Independent samplesT-tests were used to investigate if the scores forimportance expectation and perception for the shoppingattributes were statistically different from one group oftourists to another. In comparing Asian and Westerntourists, the findings of independent samples T-testsindicate that Asian travellers had comparatively highexpectations for ‘service quality’ (po0:003) and lowexpectations for ‘variety of goods’ (po0:012) comparedto those of Western travellers, as shown in Table 8.Furthermore, the perceived levels of satisfaction forAsian travellers were found to be significantly lowerthan those of Western travellers for all shoppingattributes, as shown in Table 9.In all cases, Asian travellers were significantly less

satisfied for all shopping attributes than Westerntravellers. Finally, it was found that over 30% of thetravellers of Mainland China and Taiwan thought thatthe goods they purchased in Hong Kong were not goodvalue for money; only 12% and 10% of the travellersfrom the USA and Canada had such negative feelings.The ‘quality of goods’ and ‘price of goods’ were foundto have a great influence on the shopping experiences ofAsian travellers, while the ‘service quality’ and ‘varietyof goods’ only appeared to have a moderate effect on theoverall shopping experience of Asian and Westernvisitors to Hong Kong.

5. Discussion

The results of this study highlight some importantissues. Four main attributes were demonstrated to affectthe satisfaction levels of tourists with their shoppingexperiences in Hong Kong. The results indicate thatthere are significant differences between the shoppingbehaviour of Asian and Western travellers. Retailersshould therefore improve their approach when cateringfor travellers from different countries. They should beaware of national differences and provide a highstandard of service for tourists of all nationalities. Someretailers may treat Western travellers better than Asiantravellers because they perceive Western travellers tohave greater spending power. This may, therefore, bethe reason that service quality was found to be apositively disconfirmed attribute in the group ofWestern travellers. In the past, the spending power ofthe travellers from Mainland China was comparativelylow. Even after 20 years of rapid growth, China is still alow-income country. According to the market pricemeasure of per capita income, China (US$710) ranked112th out of 206 countries in 1997 (Huang & Hanna,2001). For this reason retailers often neglect this groupof customers. Furthermore, many retailers tend to mixtourists from Mainland China with those from Taiwan.Generally, they tend to serve them in the same manner.However, many Taiwanese travellers do not like to betreated in the same way as Mainland Chinese travellers.Thus, these Taiwanese tourists were found to have apoor impression of service quality in Hong Kong. Asignificant dissatisfied difference was found in this group

Table 8

Independent samples T-tests for the expectation of importance factors in the decision to come shopping in Hong Kong (Eastern and Western

Visitors)

Variables Eastern, N ¼ 284 Western, N ¼ 326 Mean Diff. t-value p

Mean S.D. Mean S.D.

Service quality 3.82 0.91 3.60 1.01 0.23 2.949 0.003

Quality of goods 4.06 0.81 4.10 0.77 �0.04 �0.638 0.524

Variety of goods 4.01 0.84 4.18 0.78 �0.16 �2.508 0.012

Price of goods 4.13 0.85 4.16 0.84 �0.03 �0.522 0.602

Note: Expectation mean scale: 5=very important expectation; 4=important expectation; 3=neutral; 2=unimportant expectation; 1=very

unimportant expectation.

Table 9

Independent samples T-tests for the satisfaction level of shopping experience in Hong Kong (Eastern and Western visitors)

Variables Eastern, N ¼ 284 Western, N ¼ 326 Mean diff. t-value p

Mean S.D. Mean S.D.

Service quality 3.59 0.81 4.13 0.80 �0.54 �8.223 0.000

Quality of goods 3.80 0.59 4.18 0.65 �0.38 �7.508 0.000

Variety of goods 3.98 0.64 4.34 0.68 �0.37 �6.826 0.000

Price of goods 3.33 0.84 3.92 0.88 �0.58 �8.349 0.000

Note: Satisfaction mean scale: 5=very satisfied; 4=satisfied; 3=neutral; 2=dissatisfied; 1=very dissatisfied.

J. Wong, R. Law / Tourism Management 24 (2003) 401–410408

of tourists. Retailers should pay attention to theconsistency of their service standards. Also, the purchas-ing power of, and number of tourists from, MainlandChina have improved and increased a great deal inrecent years. Retailers should be aware of thesechanges in the market and provide their employees withsuitable training on how to serve Mainland Chinesetourists.As for the quality of goods, the importance expecta-

tions of the travellers from Mainland China were highcompared to those of the other groups. The reason forthis phenomenon may be due to misleading commu-nications between the residents of Mainland China andtheir relatives in Hong Kong. Many people in HongKong exaggerate the quality of their living standard andthe products available in Hong Kong. Also, manyresidents of Mainland China do not have any experienceof travelling outside China. Most often the firstdestination they visit is Hong Kong. They have notbeen to Hong Kong before and tend to rely on second-hand information about it. It is common for them to‘over value’ what they buy in Hong Kong. The situationis becoming much worse as there are some dishonestretailers and travel agencies in Hong Kong who co-operate in order to cheat the Mainland visitors. Thenumber of reported complaints made by Mainlandvisitors has increased tremendously from 197 in 1998 to316 in 2000, representing a rise of 60% which is muchlarger than the increase in percentage growth of Main-land visitors (The Sun, 2001). Furthermore, the numberof unreported cases could be much more than theofficial data. Thus, a significant negatively disconfirmedattribute has resulted in the group of Mainland Chinesetourists. To reduce the difference between the expectedand perceived quality of goods, appropriate promo-tional campaigns should be carried out to convey anaccurate message to potential buyers in Mainland Chinaand Taiwan. Quick and effective actions should be takento stop any dishonest retailers trading once they havebeen reported. More information in the form ofshopping guides and booklets should also be providedto tourists. Finally, a detailed compensation schemeshould be set up and convenient ways should beprovided to enable tourists claim back their losses.For the attribute ‘variety of goods’, residents of the

USA and Canada were found to be quite satisfied. Thismay be because many Western travellers find that theproducts in Asia are new to them. Also, the NorthAmerican visitors’ spending power is high compared tothat of the residents of other countries. Therefore, thiswas found to be a positively disconfirmed attribute ofshopping experience within these groups.Although over half of the respondents (n ¼ 313 or

51%) expressed that the price of products in Hong Kongwas attractive, the ‘price of goods’ in Hong Kong wasfound to be a negatively disconfirmed shopping

attribute in the underlying feeling of the travellers. Apossible reason for this phenomenon is that theexpectation of the travellers on the price of goods wasmuch lower than what they experienced in Hong Kong.However, the price of goods was still comparativelylower than other destinations. The reason is thatmany retailers have kept their costs down by cuttingmanpower, salaries, and rental costs over the pastfew years. These cost savings are reflected in thecurrent prices of goods. The prices of goods in HongKong are therefore remaining competitive in the touristshopping business. No matter how, in the long run,retailers should ensure the quality of their goods andimprove the quality of their service. Courtesy programsshould be carried out to improve the attitude of frontline staff towards tourists, especially towards Asiantravellers.

6. Conclusions

Tourist shopping is the primary source of income forthe tourism industry in Hong Kong. This study providesuseful information about tourists’ shopping preferencesand patterns, which can be used for future tourismplanning and control. The findings of this study indicatethat there is a great deal of difference between the Asianand Western travellers’ expectations and perceptionstowards the shopping attributes examined. This culturaldifference leads to negatively and/or positively discon-firmed attributes among them. Different perceptions ofsatisfaction were identified for the two major touristgroups (i.e. those from Asian and Western cultures). Inthis study, Asian travellers were found to be less satisfiedwith almost all of the shopping attributes investigatedthan Western travellers. If this state of affairs is allowedto continue, it will have serious implications forthe Hong Kong tourism industry and economy.Remedial actions should be carried out to improve thesituation. The development of any such actions shouldtake into account national and cultural factors. Basedon the results of this survey, it is suggested that furtherstudies should be carried out to analyse the responses ofthe major national tourist groups such as thosefrom Mainland China and the USA. Besides, an in-depth study on the difference of shopping satisfac-tion among different shopping market segments willadd further insight to the full picture of the tourist retailbusiness. Also, investigations of the expectations andperceptions of ‘food and beverages’, ‘accommodation’and ‘transportation’ for each of the major touristgroups would contribute additional valuable informa-tion to the tourism industry in Hong Kong. Finally, itwould be interesting to compare and contrast thefindings with this study with a future study for repeatedvisits.

J. Wong, R. Law / Tourism Management 24 (2003) 401–410 409

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the commentsoffered by the anonymous reviewers and the financialsupport provided by the Hong Kong PolytechnicUniversity. Dr. Bob McKercher’s provision of metho-dology details for the survey is also appreciated.

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