Meeting Hong Kong tourism market with Finnish Products - A Case Study of Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival
Chan, Ming Wai (2014)
Chan, Ming Wai
Kajaanin ammattikorkeakoulu
2014
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2014060912210
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2014060912210
Tiivistelmä
This thesis is aiming at discovering whether Finnish tourism products meet the demand from Hong Kong market. To successfully launch a marketing campaign in a new potential market, it is essen-tial to conduct thorough market research well in advance. To Finland, Hong Kong can be a rather mysterious land far away in the middle of Asia. Cultural issues may stand in the way if marketing approach were not handled with care. In order to avoid marketing failure, this thesis provides a generic view of how Hong Kong people can be culturally different from Finns, and grants a chance for reviewing how Hong Kong people perceive Finland as a tourism destination may vary from how Finland tries to promote its image as. Customer behaviour research would be the ground structure for the thesis to look into Hong Kong with four major matters: Hong Kong people’s per-ception held towards Finland; people’s motivation to visit Finland; people’s attitude towards Finn-ish tourism product (especially cultural tourism product as this thesis is facilitating the interest of Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival); and their knowledge and cognitive image of Finland.
The theoretical framework begins with an overview of Hong Kong, giving a nutshell of Hong Kong as an international city welcoming different cultural exchange. Following, the theoretical part splits into two parts: the supply side from Finland (i.e. the Finnish tourism product); and, the demand side from Hong Kong for the Finnish tourism product. With the assistance of the custom-er behaviour model, the research part is conducted based on the model with a clear structure for further exploration.
In-depth qualitative approach was selected for the research. Semi-structured interviews were con-ducted by seven respondents from Hong Kong, who ages are ranging from 21 to 59. Data obtained was well transcribed for further analysis.
Briefly summarizing the research results, Hong Kong people hold a positive image towards Finland as a tourism destination. Perceptions of Finland are mostly positive. Since the two places are very distinct from each other, with the adventurous personality of Hong Kong, people tend to have high motivation level to travel to Finland as they can expect an exotic experience which would be nature- and winter- oriented. However, accessibility to Finnish tourism information in Hong Kong appears to be insufficient. Without thorough knowledge to a destination, Hong Kong people may hold back onto such option as vacation in Hong Kong does not come easily. Therefore, the main challenge would be to raise Finland’s profile exposure to Hong Kong people to get them more fa-miliar with this exotic Scandinavian country where it is the homeland of the world’s most famous elderly, the Santa Claus.
The theoretical framework begins with an overview of Hong Kong, giving a nutshell of Hong Kong as an international city welcoming different cultural exchange. Following, the theoretical part splits into two parts: the supply side from Finland (i.e. the Finnish tourism product); and, the demand side from Hong Kong for the Finnish tourism product. With the assistance of the custom-er behaviour model, the research part is conducted based on the model with a clear structure for further exploration.
In-depth qualitative approach was selected for the research. Semi-structured interviews were con-ducted by seven respondents from Hong Kong, who ages are ranging from 21 to 59. Data obtained was well transcribed for further analysis.
Briefly summarizing the research results, Hong Kong people hold a positive image towards Finland as a tourism destination. Perceptions of Finland are mostly positive. Since the two places are very distinct from each other, with the adventurous personality of Hong Kong, people tend to have high motivation level to travel to Finland as they can expect an exotic experience which would be nature- and winter- oriented. However, accessibility to Finnish tourism information in Hong Kong appears to be insufficient. Without thorough knowledge to a destination, Hong Kong people may hold back onto such option as vacation in Hong Kong does not come easily. Therefore, the main challenge would be to raise Finland’s profile exposure to Hong Kong people to get them more fa-miliar with this exotic Scandinavian country where it is the homeland of the world’s most famous elderly, the Santa Claus.