Factors Affecting the Travel Expenditure of Visitors to Macau, China

Abstract

This study examines factors affecting the travel expenditures of visitors to Macau. Employing Tobit analysis, the study investigates the effects of socio-demographic and trip-related characteristics on total expenditure, as well as various travel expenditures across different expenditure functions. Three locations were used for data collection: the border gate with mainland China, the Macau ferry terminal and Macau International Airport. Tourists who were married, had a higher education background and household income and were in a large party tended to spend more on total travel-related expenditures. Distance to Macau turned out to be another important variable affecting tourists' travel expenditure patterns. Compared to tourists from mainland China or Hong Kong, long-haul foreign tourists to Macau spent more on lodging and shopping. Considering the high contribution margin of international long-haul tourists, Macau's tourism industry should entice more of these visitors to generate even higher revenues.

Determinants of tourist expenditure: A review of microeconometric models

“…The model presents relevant restrictions for it requires that errors are normally distributed and homoscedastic, and in case of violation of the assumptions it presents inconsistency. Fifteen articles presented Tobit estimates (Barquet et al, 2011;Bilgic et al, 2008;Brida et al, 2012;Cai, 1998Cai, , 1999Dardis et al, 1994;Downward et al, 2009;Ham et al, 2004;Kim et al, 2008;Kim et al, 2010;Kim et al, 2011;Lee, 2001;Leones et al, 1998;Zheng and Zang, 2011) Cragg's (1971) two-part model used by Hong et al (1999) and Weagley and Huh (2004). The approach specifies a Probit model for the decision of spending or not, and models the remainder part as a lognormal or normal truncated distribution.…”

“…What differs across the studies is the way income was measured, as well as the explicit reference to household, visiting party, average per family members (total or only adult), household head, or only the respondent. A group of scholars used gross income before tax (Asgary et al, 1997;Crouch et al, 2007;Davila et al, 1999;Jang and Ham, 2009;Kim et al, 2011;Leones et al, 1998). A second set of papers considered net income after tax (Alegre et al, 2009Dardis et al, 1981;Hong et al, 1999;Hong et al, 2005;Jang et al, 2007;Zheng and Zang, 2011).…”

Visitors' Expenditure Behaviour at Cultural Events: The Case of Christmas Markets

“…Only a few studies (Leones et al, 1998;Lee, 2001;Barquet et al, 2011;Kim et al, 2011) use the Tobit regression model (Tobin, 1958) arguing that this model is more adequate than the regression model, as a large number of observations were clustered at zero expenditure (Jang and Ham, 2009).…”

A Triple Hurdle Expenditure Analysis of U.S. Saltwater Recreational Fishing

“…The model presents relevant restrictions for it requires that errors are normally distributed and homoscedastic, and in case of violation of the assumptions it presents inconsistency. Fifteen articles presented Tobit estimates (Barquet et al, 2011;Bilgic et al, 2008;Brida et al, 2012;Cai, 1998Cai, , 1999Dardis et al, 1994;Downward et al, 2009;Ham et al, 2004;Kim et al, 2008;Kim et al, 2010;Kim et al, 2011;Lee, 2001;Leones et al, 1998;Zheng and Zang, 2011) A second class of approaches is called 'Two-Part' models (or 'double-hurdle') and generalizes Tobit regression. It treats separately the two decisions of whether spend money on tourism or not, and how much to spend.…”

“…What differs across the studies is the way income was measured, as well as the explicit reference to household, visiting party, average per family members (total or only adult), household head, or only the respondent. A group of scholars used gross income before tax (Asgary et al, 1997;Crouch et al, 2007;Davila et al, 1999;Jang and Ham, 2009;Kim et al, 2011;Leones et al, 1998). A second set of papers considered net income after tax (Alegre et al, 2009(Alegre et al, , 2010Dardis et al, 1981;Hong et al, 1999;Hong et al, 2005;Jang et al, 2007;Zheng and Zang, 2011).…”