Overseas students as tourists in Shanghai

Abstract

With the economic development, the education level of China is improving day by day. Therefore, this attracts more and more overseas students choosing China as their study destination. As one of the most developed cities in mainland China, Shanghai has plenty of universities and colleges, some of which also offer English or other language courses for foreigners. In the year 2008, Shanghai had a number of 36738 overseas students in higher education school, ranked No 2 in China. When studying in Shanghai, many overseas students choose to travel to experience and learn more about China during their leisure time. As a sub-divided group, overseas students have their own preference in tourism consumption.

Based on the theories of customer centered product development, consumer behaviour and cross-cultural communication, this thesis attempts to describe Shanghai foreign students’ preference in tourism consumption. The purpose of the thesis is to propose some ideas for China Youth Travel Agency to develop new products which can meet overseas students’ needs. In the research, by distributing and collecting back the questionnaire, the thesis analyzes all kinds of factors that influence the overseas students’ preference in tourism consumption, as well as the differences between students from Eastern and Western culture. Furthermore, the thesis gives some suggestions about meeting overseas students’ needs and wants in tourism marketing.