Souvenir shopping attitudes and behavior among chinese domestic tourists: An exploratory study

The study reported herein was designed to examine the perceptions of souvenirs among domestic Chinese tourists and their attitudes and patterns of behavior when they go souvenir shopping. It was found that the five major criteria for the decision to purchase a particular type of souvenir among Chinese tourists include the souvenir's cultural expression, appropriateness as a gift, overall quality, workmanship, and its appropriateness as a representation/symbol of the attraction. Overall, the respondents were dissatisfied with their shopping experience at two of the most popular attractions in China. Significant differences in the level of satisfaction were observed in relation to the respondents' sex, age, income, and travel party type. Five factors of souvenir shopping attitudes were identified: collectability, display characteristics, store attributes, value, and functionality. These factors and shopping expenditure were examined in relation to the respondents' sex, age, income, educational level, travel frequency, and travel party type. The importance-performance analysis (IPA) model was adopted to assess the perception of major souvenir attributes among the respondents. The results of the IPA illustrated that 4 out of 10 attributes were perceived to have a higher level of performance when compared with other attributes, and workmanship of the souvenir was considered to be an attribute that requires considerable improvement.