Chinese venturers to Pacific Small Island Developing States : Travel and lifestyle

Int J Tourism Res. 2019;21:665–674. Abstract This study emphasizes the necessity to understand the needs of the growing Chinese market, while also assessing how ready Small Island Developing States of the South Pacific are for these new visitors. Through a mixed method approach, combining individual visitor surveys and focus groups, this study investigates the lifestyle characteristics of outbound Chinese tourists to the Cook Islands and the motivation and travel behavior of these travelers.We refine amodel for the travel lifestyle of Chinese tourists that has applicability to Small Island Developing States elsewhere around the world.

(4,520,250 visitors) to the South Pacific region (South Pacific Tourism Organization, 2016 (South PacificTourism Organization, 2015, 2018UNWTO, 2015a, b). Palau welcomed just shy of 122,726 visitors in 2017, up to 16% from 2013(South Pacific Tourism Organization, 2018UNWTO, 2015a, b). This increase was largely on the back of Chinese visitors (Jiji, 2015), whose number increased more than 300% to 57,866 visitor arrivals, over Palau's total population MAP 1 Refined model of travel lifestyle: Chinese tourists in Pacific Small Island Developing States [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] (South Pacific Tourism Organization, 2018;UNWTO, 2015a, b).
Although profits are up, some are worried that the long-term damage caused by the increased arrivals may be too great to the Pacific SIDS (Jiji, 2015

| Lifestyle and travel
People have many motives for visiting 3S destinations, including those in the Pacific SIDS. It seems obvious that 3S vacations provide opportunities for travel activities that are not possible in the context of everyday life (Prebensen, Skallerud, & Chen, 2010). By analogy, lifestyle is defined as "any distinctive and therefore recognizable mode of living" (Sobel, 2013, p. 3). This definition suggests that a lifestyle consists of "expressive" behaviors that are directly observable or deducible from observation (Sobel, 2013). Van Acker, Mokhtarian, and Witlox (2014) studied how travel behaviors were affected by lifestyles. These authors drew on the works of sociology scholars, such as Weber, Bourdieu, Ganzeboom, and Schulze, to describe the communicative character of lifestyles: Individuals express their social status through specific patterns of behavior, consumption, and leisure. In marketing, lifestyle is "a composite of motivations, needs, and wants and is influenced by factors such as culture, family, reference groups, and social class. The analysis of consumer lifestyles is an important factor in determining how consumers make their purchase decisions" (WebFinance Inc., 2017).
As early as the 1980s, lifestyle variables were used in tourism market research to show something that was real, meaningful, and relevant, beyond demographics. Early studies, such as Woodside and Pitts (1976), categorized types of travelers in terms of their different lifestyles. The lifestyles of domestic travelers included dining in restaurants, picnics, and boating activities. Tourists who travel abroad usually prefer visiting art galleries and museums, attending classical concerts and parties, and going boating and hunting and are inclined to have higher incomes (Woodside & Pitts, 1976). Scholars have considered lifestyle variables as more effective predictors of segmentation than demographics (Abbey, 1979;Lee & Sparks, 2007;Srihadi, Sukandar, & Soehadi, 2016). These variables can provide tour designers with additional insights for the development and management of travel marketing activities (Abbey, 1979;Chen, Huang, & Cheng, 2009).
Lifestyle can be a useful tool to help tourism marketers categorize customers and study the differences in their consumption behaviors by considering all of the elements in their daily lives, including activities, interests, and living habits (Chen et al., 2009). Through a study of the Pennsylvania tourism market, Shih (1986) found that key lifestyle segments included belongers, achievers, and the socially conscious. Woodside and Lysonski (1989) also presented a model for travel destinations and choice based on lifestyles, which they considered an element of traveler variables, including value systems, life cycle, income, age, and previous destination experience. Srihadi et al. (2016) considered six factors in analyzing lifestyle travelers to Jakarta: culture adventurous, shopaholic, aspiring indulgers, conservative, sport adventurous, and foodie. Linking to lifestyle segments, Plog (1974) developed psychographic groupings for tourism fields. According to Plog's (1974Plog's ( , 2001 findings, a traditional tour destination would be appealing first to Venturers and last to Dependables. In general, Venturers will first discover a new travel destination. After the trip, Venturers begin to talk about their trip experience with people around them, and other tourists then follow the trend. Lawson, Thyne, Young, and Juric (2000) first proposed a model for travel lifestyles, where travel motivations were primarily associated with attractions and activities that supported the general structure of the means-end chain of the focus of the model (see Figure 1). Other studies also proposed that leisure travelers usually consider the attractions, eating options (food), factors of enjoyment (activity), and exploration (transport) as their motivations for selecting a destination (Heung, Qu, & Chu, 2001;Kim & Prideaux, 2005). Transport is an enabler of tourism and a key element of lifestyle (Zhou & Huang, 2016). Although some lifestyle segments choose a varied range of transport modes, some adventure travelers will base their decision making on convenience and freedom (Lawson et al., 2000). In their study of New Zealand, Lawson et al. (2000) found that different

| Travel motivation
According to cultural determinism theory, culture shapes human behavior. People learn how to behave through their interactions with society. This covers a variety of different realms, including how people live, what they eat, and how they think and communicate (Steigerwald, 2005). Specifically, a person's values, attitudes, and orientation are determined by their lifestyle (Cohen, 2011). A recent study by Iversen, Hem, and Mehmetoglu (2016)  Motivation can be defined as a state of need or a condition that compels an individual to take a particular action that elicits satisfaction (Moutinho, 2000). Motivation may refer to psychological or biological needs and wants, including integral forces that arouse, direct, and integrate a person's behavior and activity (Dann, 1981;Pearce, 1982;Uysal & Hagan, 1993). People may take a trip to fulfill their physiological (food, climate, and health) and psychological (adventure and relaxation) needs (Mayo & Jarvis, 1981). It is important to examine peoples' motivations to understand their travel decision-making process and assess whether their expectations have been met (Snepenger, King, Marshall, & Uysal, 2006). Motivation is a dynamic concept and may vary depending on the person, market segment, destination, or decision-making process (Uysal & Hagan, 1993;Witt & Wright, 1992). More research is thus needed to study motivations in various countries, markets, segments, destinations, and lifestyles.
Studies have identified key attributes that motivate international travelers including those from China. Kim and Prideaux (2005) stated that "cultural experience" and "novelty seeking" are important factors that motivate people to travel to foreign countries. Different cultural backgrounds may also influence peoples' motivations for traveling aboard. Srihadi et al. (2016) found that travelers with an Asian background tended to be in the shopaholic segment. Other factors that can motivate Chinese tourists include "enjoying various tourist resources," "social status," "leisure facilities," "gaming," "culture," and "history" (Kim & Prideaux, 2005). Zhang Qiu and Lam (1999) pointed out that Chinese travelers consider knowledge, prestige, and enhancement of human relationships as the most important push factors.
High-tech image, expenditure, and accessibility were identified as the most important pull factors. Moreover, travelers from China were looking for unique, modern, friendly, and convenient holiday destinations (Zhang Qiu & Lam, 1999). More recently, broader developments in China have also been considered. Zhou and Huang's (2016)   The focus groups provided more insights into motivations to travel to Pacific SIDS. Informants indicated that their motivations to travel to Pacific SIDS included enjoying time traveling with family and friends, exploring other cultures, relaxing, and learning. In particular, most of the informants mentioned that enjoying family time was their motivation to travel to Pacific SIDS: "… We can share the same travel experience in a destination. It can be a small island, which allows us to escape from the daily routine. I value the feeling that we are together wherever we are. When we are back from a trip, we can always recall our memory of being together in that place" (Focus Group 2). Due to differences in culture and the exotic nature of the Pacific SIDS destinations, exploring different cultures was an important motivation for Chinese tourists. As reported in the focus group, "I like to seek out different cultures in a trip, not only to observe as an outsider, but to immerse myself into that culture and to feel it by interacting with the locals." "I am interested in the local customs and how people live in a different place" (Focus Group 5). In addition, relaxing was a motivation for some travelers to visit Pacific SIDS destinations: "Compared with the island destinations in China, such as Sanya, those islands are really low in tourist density. This is a luxury for us. We do not need to fight for everything and travel among a huge number of tourists. Only in these exotic destinations, you can entirely relax and enjoy the holiday" (Focus Group 1).

| Tourist profile and travel behavior
The Cook Islands IVS data reveal that Chinese tourists tend to be younger and better educated and have a lower household income than other visitor markets. The IVS shows that 73% of Chinese tourists were aged between 18 and 39. In contrast, 72% of non-Chinese tourists were aged higher than 39. The majority of the tourists to the Cook Islands had tertiary or university education. For Chinese tourists, this figure was 92%, compared with 69% from other source markets. For In terms of transport mode, Air New Zealand dominates the air transport market to the Cook Islands. They were followed by Virgin Australia. More Chinese tourists (16%) chose to fly with a budget carrier (Jetstar) compared with only 2% of non-Chinese. Chinese visitors to the Cook Islands were more likely to be visiting the for the first time (68%) than other tourists (49%). Whereas 71% of non-Chinese tourists traveled to the Cook Islands with their spouse/partner, only 44% of Chinese tourists were in couples. A high portion (14%) of Chinese tourists were on a honeymoon trip, whereas non-Chinese tourists (4%) are more likely to travel to the Cook Islands as a leisure destination, rather than a specialized honeymoon destination. Regarding travel companions, Chinese tourists tended to travel either in a small group, including two to four companions, or traveled alone.
Chinese tourists spent an average of 7 days in the Cook Islands compared with 9 days for a non-Chinese tourist. Although Chinese In general, all visitor groups were satisfied with their experience in the Cook Islands. The friendliness of the local people was most appreciated by the tourists. The satisfaction levels for the most popular tourism activities were similar for Chinese and non-Chinese tourists across a range of areas including visiting the beach, swimming, snorkeling, lagoon cruise, dining, sightseeing, and vehicle rental.
However, Chinese tourists were less satisfied with unfamiliar activities, such as stand-up paddle boarding, deep-sea fishing, diving, whale watching, kite surfing, cultural interactions, and public transportation.
In terms of shopping, Chinese tourists were less satisfied with local produce and pearls than non-Chinese tourists.

| Information and payment channel
In general, to obtain travel information, non-Chinese tourists relied more on recommendations from friends, their own travel experience, and travel agents. In contrast, Chinese tourists preferred social media, general travel websites, and travel books. The focus group results were largely consistent with the IVS findings. In particular, as shown in Table 2, the Internet was reported as the main source of information for Chinese tourists. Given the rapid development and wide Internet coverage across the country, China is now pioneering the online media and e-commerce market. Travel blogs were the most commonly used source for researching travel information. Travel sites such as "Qyer.
In addition to online blog platforms, social media was an important information channel for Chinese tourists. WeChat is the dominant social media platform in China. People can obtain travel information first-hand by following popular and authorized travel organizations, or by receiving travel photos, stories, and promotions shared by friends and relatives. The participants perceived these self-media platforms as more objective, reliable, and timely compared with traditional information channels, such as word-of-mouth marketing, travel agents, TVs, or radios. In addition, online travel agents were popular among Chinese consumers. They not only provided travel promotions and direct purchase access, but also included third-party reviews of their products. Chinese tourists favored this one-stop service.
Due to advancing e-commerce channels, 87% of Chinese tourists responding to the Cook Islands IVS paid for their travel to the Cook Islands online. In contrast, only 45% of non-Chinese tourists paid for their travel on the Internet. Whereas 41% of non-Chinese tourists asked travel agents to organize their trip, only 3% of Chinese tourists did the same. As Chinese tourists preferred to pay for their travel online, their prepaid expenditure (NZD 2,671 = USD 1,802) was much higher than that of non-Chinese tourists (NZD 1,997 = USD 1,347).

| DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Market research has gradually switched from applying single demographics to considering multidimensional attributes as its segmentation tool to pursue a more precise understanding of purchasing behavior (Abbey, 1979;Lawson et al., 2000). Lifestyle, understood as a promotional force driving behaviors (Lawson et al., 2000), is treated as an effective market segmentation tool, as it involves complex clustering procedures and extensive information, which can be directly used to profile the desired market. In the field of tourism, destination marketing organizations and tour operators are desperate to target the right markets. When compared with any single segmentation tool, travel lifestyle is a good way to comprehensively profile the market.
This study considered travel motivations, demographics, travel behaviors, information channels, and payment preferences of Chinese tourists to Pacific SIDS. Building on the concept of cultural determinism adopted by Steigerwald (2005) and Cohen (2011), travel motivation is an internal driving force that critically determines an individual's preferred lifestyle and travel behaviors (Iversen et al., 2016;Zhou & Huang, 2016 where Asian visitors who are interested in exploring different cultures and experiencing the local way of life while trying to shop even in local markets, store or malls. However, they were less satisfied with the local food and beverages, prices, public services, facilities, and infrastructure. They keenly participated in both water-and land-based activities. They also shopped and participated in activities that included opportunities for cultural interaction. As a distinctive feature for this kind of lifestyle traveler, online resources were the main source for travel information and most of their travel payments were prepaid online. These behaviors also influenced each other and con- This group of travelers are consistent with the concept of Venturers characterized by Plog (1974Plog ( , 2001  Chinese venturers by considering both the psychological and behavioral patterns into the segment profiling. It is noticed that, tourists' lifestyles are highly culture bonded. One destination may be appealing to tourists from different regions holding different lifestyles.

Results from this study indicate that Chinese visitors to the Cook
Islands present different perceptional and behavioral patterns compared with non-Chinese visitors. We recommend that these emerging Chinese lifestyle tourists deserve an in-depth investigation for any growing destination.
Travel lifestyle as a market segmentation tool is also discussed in this study. Profiling the travel lifestyle of Chinese tourists sheds light on issues regarding tourism planning and sustainable development in Pacific SIDS by helping destination marketing organizations and tourism operators understand the rapidly developing Chinese market, including their travel motivations, preferences, and behavioral patterns. From a community perspective, revealing the tourist lifestyle profile not only provides residents with information on tourist behavior but also underpins the reasons for such behaviors. In the long term, it may thus help residents gain awareness and become tolerant of different tourists.
The following limitations should also be considered. First, the focus-group informants were asked to answer the questions based on the destination information given by the research team. In the future, onsite visitor interviews could be conducted to capture