Mainland Chinese cruise passengers’ onshore experience

Abstract

This study explores the onshore experience of mainland Chinese cruise passengers on three international cruise ships departing from Shanghai to Japan and South Korea. Using a qualitative research method, the author collected data in the form of participant observations, casual conversations, and face-to-face interviews with 76 mainland Chinese passengers. Onshore time was split among visits to shops, visits to sites and attractions, and bus travel to and from each stop. Time was heavily weighted toward visiting shops. Passengers viewed the travel time between shops and visits to shops selling similar products as wasted time. Tour group members’ tardiness had a further impact on time and experience. Passengers also had to spend considerable time queueing at customs desks where overcrowding always occurred. Passengers were able to have only a superficial look at sites and frequently made comparisons between the sites visited and similar sites in China. While participants had negative perceptions of their onshore tour, some participants’ perceptions of the destination were positively impacted as a result of the cultural contact.

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