Understanding travel constraints: An exploratory study of Mainland Chinese International Students (MCIS) in Norway

Abstract

An exploratory approach using qualitative methodology and 15 in-depth interviews with Mainland Chinese International Students (MCIS) in Norway was employed in the study. The country is experiencing an increasing number of both MCIS and Chinese tourists in general. Passive activities remain as the most popular activities due to travel constraints consisting of lack of information and equipment and the perception of risk due to the lack of perceived skills. Parental disapproval and fear of "losing face" while also wanting to seek independence are specifically relevant for this particular segment. Such phenomenon causes dilemmas which also serve as travel constraints. While constraints influence type of tourism activities, frequency and destination choices, they do not inhibit travel and tourism activity participation all together. Some constraints can be limited by the tourism industry while others are more challenging as they are dependent on individuals' willingness and motivation to negotiate the constraints.

How Chinese Students’ Travel Constraints Influence Their Travel Intentions in Thailand: Moderating Role of Cross-Cultural Adaptation

“…Research showed that [24] LCM could elucidate the perceived travel constraints of multiple tourist segments [5,8]. In this study, we applied [6] revised LCM to evaluate Chinese students' intrapersonal, interpersonal, and structural constraints when studying in Thailand.…”

“…A clearer understanding of travel constraints would help tourism and destination managers develop adequate promotional strategies for visitors [3]. Studies on travel constraints extended the original leisure constraints model (LCM) [4][5][6] established by [7] to explain perceived travel barriers [6,8,9]. The three basic travel constraints under LCM are intrapersonal constraints, interpersonal constraints, and structural constraints.…”

“…The Chinese are thus important research objects when exploring student travel in Thailand. Studies related to tourism constraints also frequently use Chinese students as samples [5,8].…”

Preferences of sports tourism consumers

“…Passive tourism is considered to be the most popular, and may be due to lack of sports equipment, parental consent, and students' sports skills (Mei & Lantai, 2018). In our study we did not collect this information, but it is important to consider in future research related to sport tourism.…”

Perceived constraints to sex tourism overseas: scale development and validation

“…Chinese tourists' leisure constraints have been studied fairly generally, such as in terms of their intentions to visit the United States (Lai et al, 2013). Others have examined these tourists' plans to travel to Norway (Mei & Lantai, 2018) or their decision making when arranging trips to Japan (Lin et al, 2017). Yet perceived constraints in special interest tourism (i.e., sex tourism) may differ from constraints in prior contexts.…”