Survey about the potential of tourism in Xiamen

Introduction

Xiamen City is often regarded as a popular tourist destination for both local and international tourists. As my blog focuses on the various attractive places and leisure activities in Xiamen, I have also conducted an online survey to find out more about Chinese tourists perceptions towards Xiamen City as a holiday destination. The respondents have either visited the city previously, or they have the plan to do so in the near future.

In total, 223 respondents answered the survey. Among them, 73% had visited Xiamen City before, and for those who had not been to Xiamen City, 90% of them indicated that they would like to do so.

The beautiful view of Xiamen City    

Result and Analysis of the Survey

Among the 73% respondents who had visited Xiamen City, the scenic spots were reported as the main reason that attracted them. Meanwhile, 31% of them indicated that local food was the main reason they visited the city, whereas culture attracted about 12% of the respondents.

Most of the respondents would like to visit Xiamen with their friends (34%). The next category of companion is family members (30%), followed by lover (25%), or travelling alone (9%). For the time they planned to travel to the city, most of them (34%) intended to visit during autumn, while only 12% planed to go during winter. For the duration they planed to spend in Xiamen, 53% of them preferred to spend four days or more, while only about 10% chose to spend 2 days or less.

In terms of budget, 3000-4000 RMB was the acceptable range for 41% of the respondents, while only 15% indicated that 5000 RMB was acceptable. In addition, about 48% of them planed to spend their budget mostly on meal, while 35% preferred to focus their budget on accommodation. Most of the respondents (95%) inclined to choose self-guided tour. And 73% of them planned to buy special snacks in Xiamen for souvenirs.

This survey reflected that Xiamen City is indeed a popular destination for tourists. The local government could enhance its effort to maintain this huge tourist market. Although only a small portion of the respondents indicated that they are not interested to visit Xiamen, it is nonetheless important to find out the reasons. These respondents complained that the city is always too crowded. This could be improved by the local government through introducing some related policies, for example, limiting the number of visitors for certain scenic spots and improving local public transportation system.

This study found that scenic spots is the most attractive reason for tourists visiting Xiamen. This is an expected answer because Xiamen is well known for its beautiful places like Gulang Island and Xiamen University. In addition, this study found out that there is still a lot of room for improvement to attract tourists through the local culture like the local Southern Fujian and marine culture. In addition, most of the respondents chose to explore Xiamen with their friends or family, which reflected that Xiamen is a suitable destination for group tour. 

Gulang Island, one of the most popular scenic spots in Xiamen

For the time they intended to explore the city, most of them chose autumn while only few of them chose winter. It indicated that autumn in Xiamen provides the best traveling experience, since the weather is the most comfortable and autumn avoids the huge crowd in summer vacation. Operators of tourism industry could prepare well for this peak tourist season and government could develop the tourism market in winter to attract more tourists. What’s more, most of them choose to stay in Xiamen for more than 4 days, which showed that Xiamen is big and attractive enough for tourists to take relatively long time to explore. So the accommodation in Xiamen could be diversified and upgraded to satisfy the need of tourists.

Most of the respondents planned to spend 3000-4000 RMB in the travel, which meant that they wouldn’t spend too much on it. Government should conduct some policies to prevent the price up due to the increasing tourists. Furthermore, most of them planned to focus their budget on meal, which reflected that the food in Xiamen is quite attractive for tourist. Operators of restaurants could improve the taste and quality of food and the service, to attract and satisfy the tourists. At the same time government could also conduct the supervision on restaurant industry.

Tasty local food

Most of them chose self-guided tour instead of packaged tour provided by travel agents, which indicated that the tourism facilities in Xiamen is quite convenient, like the local transportation and digital guide. Government could further develop and upgrade tourism facilities for self-guided tourists, like providing promotion and discount package of local public transportation for self-guided tourists.

In terms of the souvenir and specialty of Xiamen, most of them chose local snacks to buy, which reflected that the city is more represented by its special food. So the variety of the local snacks for souvenir could be diversified, and more tasty, portable and affordable snacks for souvenir could be available to satisfy tourists. And other kinds of souvenirs should be innovated to attract more tourists to buy.

Conclusion

This study showed that the tourism in Xiamen still have room to improve and expand. Local government and industry operators should make full use of this opportunity to further contribute to local economy.