| Summary: | Due to the rapid growth of the Chinese economy, outbound tourism has become a major part of Chinese nowadays. As it was predicted by the World Tourism Organization, China will become the world‟s major source of outbound tourists by 2020 with over 110 million travellers per year. In addition, inbound tourism to Finland has experienced steady growth over the last years. In 2008, over 6 million foreign visitors arrived in Finland, con-stituting an increase of 6 % compared to 2007. This development has built the fundament for this study. The purpose of this study was to research the demand of nature related tourism in Northern Finland for the Chinese outbound market. This study identified to what extent nature attractions in Northern Finland are sig-nificant for Chinese tourists, what type of image Chinese travel agencies have on Finland and to what extent Chinese travel agencies are interested in including Northern Finland in their product range. In addition, sources were discovered that could make Northern Finland unappealing for Chinese tourists. Based on these findings, impulses were identified that help promote Northern Finland and its touristic offer in China. For the theoretical part of this study, the focus was on the description of nature tourism aspects and concepts of Chinese consumer behaviour. Therefore, tourism and consumer behaviour related literature was researched. Secondary data was mainly derived from academic books, statistics, and other thesis material and from internet sources. In terms of primary data, a qualitative research was conducted in form of telephone interviews. The questions asked were partly unaided open-ended, dual-choice and multiple choice as well as in the form of metric response format questions. This study discovered that Chinese tourists are mainly attracted to Finland due to its unspoiled nature, environ-mental friendliness and cultural aspects of the country. In addition it was identified that the distance and the high price category are the main sources why Northern ...
|
|---|