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The market segment of families with young children is significant for the cruise industry in China. This study aims to examine the cruise experience of them and facilitate the provision of family cruise vacation products and services.

This study collects online comments on the cruise experience of Chinese families with young children and analyzes the data in terms of text, sentiment and content.

The results of the text analysis indicate issues with several dimensions of the cruise experience. But the results of a sentiment analysis reveal that only 56.76% of the Chinese families with young children expressed positive feelings about cruise tourism. Almost one third (30.43%) expressed negative feelings, and the rest were neutral. In addition, by conducting a content analysis of the negative sentiment comments, this study identifies areas where cruise products and services need to be improved.

Cruise lines are advised to improve the provision of family cruise vacation products and services, such as enhancing physical experience elements, paying attention to human interaction and situational factors and caring for travelers’ personal needs.

This paper explores the cruise experience of Chinese families with young children, which is currently underdeveloped. A methodology approach including text analysis, sentiment analysis and content analysis is systematically applied to offer a holistic and deep understanding of travel experience. A framework for the cruise experience is proposed, which has theoretical and practical significance.

携儿童出游的中国家庭邮轮体验研究

摘要

有小孩的家庭细分市场对中国的邮轮行业来说意义重大。本研究旨在通过分析他们的邮轮体验, 提升家庭邮轮度假产品和服务的开发与运营。

本研究通过收集携儿童出游的中国家庭邮轮体验的相关在线评论, 对其从文本分析、情感分析和内容分析等方面对数据进行了分析。

文本分析的结果表明邮轮体验的若干维度上存在问题。但情感分析的结果显示, 只有56.76%的有小孩的中国家庭对邮轮体验表达出了积极情绪。近三分之一 (30.43%) 表达了负面情绪, 其余的则持中立态度。此外, 通过对负面情绪评论进行内容分析, 本研究提出了邮轮产品和服务需要提升的方向。

建议邮轮公司根据本研究的结果改进家庭邮轮度假产品和服务, 如增强身体体验元素, 关注人际互动和情境因素, 关心旅客的个性化需求等。

本文对目前尚没有进行充分探讨的携儿童出行的中国家庭的邮轮体验进行了分析, 为了更全面深入地理解邮轮旅行体验, 本研究系统地应用了包括文本分析、情感分析和内容分析等方法, 提出了邮轮体验的研究框架, 具有一定的理论和实践意义。

Experiencias vacacionales en crucero para familias chinas con niños pequeños

Resumen

El segmento de mercado de familias con niños pequeños es significativo para la industria de cruceros en China. Este estudio tiene como objetivo examinar la experiencia de crucero de este segmento, así como facilitar la oferta de productos y servicios de vacaciones familiares en crucero.

Este estudio recopila comentarios en línea sobre las experiencias de crucero en las familias chinas con niños pequeños, analizando los datos en términos de texto, sentimiento y contenido.

Los resultados del análisis del texto indican problemas con varias dimensiones de la experiencia del crucero. Pero los resultados del análisis de sentimientos, revela que solo el 56,76% de las familias chinas con niños pequeños expresaron sentimientos positivos sobre el turismo de cruceros. Casi un tercio (30,43%) expresó sentimientos negativos, y el resto fue neutral. Además, al realizar un análisis de contenido de los comentarios de sentimiento negativo, este estudio identifica áreas donde los productos y servicios de cruceros deben mejorarse.

Se recomienda a las líneas de cruceros que mejoren la oferta de productos y servicios vacacionales familiares, así como mejorar los elementos de la experiencia física, prestar atención a la interacción humana y los factores situacionales, y atender las necesidades personales de los viajeros.

Este trabajo explora la experiencia de crucero de las familias chinas con niños pequeños, que actualmente está poco desarrollada. Se aplica sistemáticamente un enfoque metodológico que incluye análisis de texto, análisis de sentimiento y análisis de contenido para ofrecer una comprensión holística y profunda de la experiencia de viaje. Se propone un marco para la experiencia del crucero, que tiene significado teórico y práctico.

The purpose of this study is to provide a nuanced understanding of Chinese family tourists’ value co-creation by examining three important aspects of family vacation: What do families do during vacation? How do they make meaning of what they do? Do travelers’ role identities within their families play a role in the value creation process?

Upon reviewing related theoretical work, the authors undertook a mixed-method study consisting of both survey data and in-depth interviews.

The analysis revealed three clusters of family interactional content, including We open and share our worlds, We build knowledge and skills and We co-create and co-evaluate, and five clusters of family travelers, including Outdoor enthusiasts, Socializers, Nature lovers, Culture admirers and Relaxation seekers. Family roles, life situations and destination environments also interfaced with family activity participation and family conversations. A family vacation value co-creation process framework with four propositions was, thus, proposed.

Further exploration and validation of the proposed framework and propositions which emerged from the findings of this study are needed. Impacts of various family types and relational dynamics also warrant future investigation.

The results of family interactional and relational well-being facilitated by family vacation are pertinent to academia, industry and public policy-making.

Family vacation can be a positive intervention for the creation of family value and a means of meaning-making. Programs that integrate multiple family roles and address family-level value propositions would be collectively enriching.

The current study initiated a pioneering investigation by providing a depiction of how family travelers experience and make sense of a shared tourism experience, along with their value perceptions in such a co-created consumptive scenario.

Addresses the impact of family structure on joint purchase decisions of Malaysian spouses for the following products: furniture, vacation, and aggregate or overall products (a combination of furniture and vacation).

A total of 103 couples responded to the survey conducted in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, to understand the impact of family typing namely, strong vs weak cohesive family and modern vs traditional family on joint purchase decision on furniture, vacation, and aggregate products.

The outcome shows consistent results across the three products as follows: a strong cohesive family makes more joint decisions on furniture than a weak cohesive family and a modern family makes more joint decisions on furniture than a traditional family; a strong cohesive family makes more joint decisions on vacation than a weak cohesive family and a modern family make more joint decisions on vacations than a traditional family; and a strong cohesive family makes more joint decisions on aggregate products than weak cohesive family and modern family makes more joint decisions on aggregate products than a traditional family.

Supports the preponderance of strong cohesive families over weak in making joint decisions on furniture, vacations and both.

Modern families make more joint purchase decisions than traditional families.

In recent years, with the steady growth of China’s economy and world’s vacation market, and powered by the growing and significant large demands of Chinese overseas travel, an emergent trend of international development by major Chinese tourism groups has attracted notice by scholars and practitioners and this is obvious especially in the private sector. With this as the background, this paper aims to explore how China’s leading tourism companies expand their business internationally through a case study approach.

The purpose of this empirical study is to find out the similarities and differences between first and multiple time Hong Kong holiday makers in their selection of foreign holiday destinations and the type of activities they are engaged in while spending their vacations away from home. Study results indicate that there are demographic, socio‐economic and behavioral differences between first and multiple time Hong Kong overseas visitors. These pronounced differences between the two segments can be used in the development of appropriate marketing strategies to attract higher numbers of tourists to the same destination.

Korean educational migrant (kirogi) families have received widespread popular attention due to their ironic form of family that sacrifices the togetherness of a family. Recent trends suggest that this practice is spreading to the less affluent classes and that many such families are heading to ‘new’ destinations, including Singapore. This study examines the transnational schooling and life experiences of Korean transnational educational families in Singapore. It addresses the questions, why did these families choose Singapore? Why did transnational schooling, which parents almost unanimously said that they had organised for the betterment of their children's future, lead to some families getting stuck in the destination country?

Fieldwork in Singapore and Korea was conducted between April 2006 and September 2007. In-depth interviews with both mothers and fathers who have at least one child attending public, private or international schools in Singapore, at the primary or secondary level, were conducted with 18 families. The analysis was conducted using a grounded theory approach and NVivo 7/8.

Although the Korean state's emphasis on international competitiveness and parental aspirations for their children's future upward social mobility were common motivators, Koreans in Singapore were also attracted by the relatively low cost, English–Chinese bilingualism and other ‘family-friendly’ features in Singapore. However, kirogi children had highly contrasting schooling experiences and they met with mixed success in gaining what they expected. Furthermore, many children in public schools faced demotion and other difficulties in their new school environments. Some less affluent families found themselves facing dilemmas of cross-border schooling. This study shows that transnational schooling does not necessarily operate equally favourably for participants from diverse class backgrounds. It also demonstrates that the societal contexts of reception in both the countries of origin and of destination, including the buffering institutions and reference groups and peer culture, are important factors shaping the schooling and life experiences of educational migrant children and in reconfiguring their trajectories.

The purpose of this paper is to examine Chinese managers' perceptions of work ethic (work‐related values and attitudes) and to provide insights on how managers interact with their workers.

This is a qualitative study using a series of in‐depth interviews to draw state‐owned enterprises (SOE) managers' perceptions of work ethic. The inquiry process led to a single‐case level of analysis where data are aggregated to incorporate a thematic approach. Underlining theoretical frameworks that guide the study are a combination of Western and Eastern work ethic frameworks and cross‐culture management understanding of the concept of guanxi.

Five themes that emerged from data analysis became the five dimensions of Chinese managers' work ethic profile. In addition, the study revealed four overarching themes that influence managerial behavior in Chinese SOEs: the absolute power of the boss; work is the center of life; social network ties to the workplace; and place hope in the hands of the boss.

The paper provides comprehensive understanding of the Chinese management work ethic profile. Future studies should expand to include managers from different generations and industry sectors.

The paper highlighted the importance of matching cultural values with management practices. It identified differences between the west and east of their work‐related values and attitudes, which have practical implications for developing effective management strategies and practices when working with Chinese SOEs.

The paper provides an indigenous description of Chinese managers' work ethic profile and provides suggestions for future research.

This study examines subject and self-metaphors in Cantonese in order to understand the impact of self-conceptualization on self-giving in Hong Kong. The bifurcation of the individual in Hong Kong signals the importance of the subject and the relational self in Chinese culture. The word for person (rén) is written as two individuals interacting with each other, so communication between the subject and the relational self has a significant impact on self-giving as evidenced by the most prevalent type of gift – the puritanical one. The mental accounting in this instance reflects the importance given to the consideration of others prior to or simultaneously with rewarding oneself for the successful achievement of a personal goal. Both whimsical and therapeutic gifts are fairly rare and justified in a more elaborate fashion. Indulging oneself by purchasing consumer goods or services for special occasions is acceptable when they are not provided by relevant others, such as close friends or family. Purchasing clothes and shoes for Chinese New Year is not necessarily viewed as a self-gift because this occasion is an auspicious one, requiring the wearer to attire herself in new outfits in order to attract good fortune. Finally, the presence of self-gifts in Hong Kong justifies its inclusion in the gift continuum.

Building on key ideas about the value of savoring in understanding the importance of vacation memories, a sample of Iranians were asked to write a long paragraph (one page) which described a particularly important, happy, and enjoyable vacation occasion. The answers were coded using five categories developed from savoring studies. By benchmarking the scores with data from well-matched samples from other countries (specifically a European sample from Austria, and Chinese and Japanese respondents), the Iranian tourists were shown to be especially appreciative of vacations being grateful, marveling, luxuriating, and having a strong sense of the status value of their time. For Iranians, vacations provide powerful, evocative highlights for their lives.