Taste China

Taste in Hong Kong

Group 4

CHAN, Wai Yin 10325824D

LAM, Hon Po 10267149D

TAM, Ka Man 10075481D

TSANG, Hing Kit 10209381D

WONG, Choi Fung 10307963D

WONG, Wing Suet 10357217D

HTM 2113 Introduction and Principles of Tourism Seminar 2

Ms. Anne Tang
2010/10/22
 Table of Contents
Taste China –Taste in Hong Kong...................................................................................................1
Introduction..................................................................................................................................1
Market Segment: Profile and Needs............................................................................................2
Analysis of Demographic Profile..........................................................................................................................2
Analysis of Socio-economic Profile......................................................................................................................4
Needs of American Childless Couples..................................................................................................................5
Analyzing the psychological type.........................................................................................................................6

Key Competitor – Chinese Food Festival....................................................................................9

Background of The Chinese Food Festival...........................................................................................................9
Strengths of the Competitor in Mainland China.................................................................................................10
Strengths of Local Designed Product in Hong Kong..........................................................................................11
Weaknesses of the Competitor in Mainland China.............................................................................................13
Weakness of local designed product in Hong Kong...........................................................................................14

New Tourism Product: Taste China –Taste in Hong Kong.......................................................16

Name, Logo and Advertising Slogan..................................................................................................................16
Features of Taste China- Taste in Hong Kong....................................................................................................18
Satisfying the Target Customer Needs................................................................................................................20
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................................22

Work Cited.....................................................................................................................................23
Appendix I.....................................................................................................................................24

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong ii

 Taste China –Taste in Hong Kong
Introduction

Hong Kong Tourism Board has developed a new tourism product called “Taste China-Taste in

Hong Kong” which is a Chinese buffet inside a mall, targeting inbound leisure travelers who are

the American childless couples. Its key competitor is the “Chinese Food Festival” held in china.

The following is the analysis of the comparative advantage of our new product.

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong 1

 Market Segment: Profile and Needs

ANALYSIS OF DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE

(Abraham & Yoel, 1999)The demographic profile of our target customers is as follow:

1. Nationality: The United States of America

2. Gender: Male and female

3. Age: 30-40

4. Marital status: Married

5. Family size: Small - childless couples

6. Family lifecycle: Coupling

We chose the USA tourists to be the target customers since by quoting the Visitor Arrival

Statistics of Hong Kong in 2009 (Hong Kong Tourism Board, 2010), the total number of

inbound tourists of Hong Kong is 29,590,654 in 2009. The Americas including the USA, Canada

and South & Central America occupied 5.3% of the total, while the USA tourists occupied a

population of 3.6%. This implies that the USA tourists could be a large potential market to Hong

Kong tourism.

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong 2

According to the same set of statistics, the mean age of American tourists coming to Hong Kong

in 2009 is 37.6 and married couples occupied a large percentage, 64%, of the total foreign

visitors, implying that the middle age group of Americans has greater perference and proactive

desire for outbound tourism for leisure travel in Hong Kong.

The childless couples with small family size are targeted since the couples with occupations

might have a busier lifestyle, thus time is a major barrier to travel with their dual career. If the

childless couples are targeted with a small family size, they are expected to have more time and

expenditure for leisure travel when comparing the couples with children.

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong 3

ANALYSIS OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROFILE

The target customers belong to middle social class with middle income. For middle social class,

they are mainly college educated, and their incomes are considerably higher than the average

income and compensation of normal citizens, meaning that a man will make $57,000 while a

woman will make $40,000 according to the study of Class-Typical characteristics by Leonard

Beeghley, 2004.

With such economic security, then they can support their expenses used in travelling, given by

the statistics of Vacation Overnight Visitors in 2009 (Hong Kong Tourism Board), the per capita

spending of the USA overnight tourists is HK$4,522. Under the category of recreation and

dining, the USA tourists spent 20% of their expenditure on dining. Among their consumption

pattern throughout their travel, the USA tourists spend 18.8% of their total expenditure on

dining, while their expenditure on hotel ranked the first and expenditure spend on shopping

ranked the second. This gives a strong support and explains that the USA tourists spend a

considerable percentage of their travelling expenses on food.

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong 4

NEEDS OF AMERICAN CHILDLESS COUPLES

The needs and expectations of target customers for outbound leisure travel are as follow.

(Abraham & Yoel, 1999, p. 421)

1. They want to get rid of stress arisen from their hectic lifestyle and enjoy the vocation

without the planned schedules.

2. They want to spend more time with spouse and share the same memorable and enjoyable

travel experiences with their partners.

3. They want to see and do some new and exotic things in order to add excitement to their

lives and broaden their horizons.

4. With the trend of health-consciousness, they are eager to join trips involving outdoor

activities or sightseeing so as to have more exercise and body movement.

5. They treat outbound tourism as an opportunity to learn the history and culture of other

countries.

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong 5

ANALYZING THE PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPE

Our target customers share some common characteristics with the allocentrics.

Confident and self-assured

First, the American couples are relatively confident and self-assured because, with relatively

high education level, they should become more open-minded and are willing to accept new

ideals and different countries’ culture in a rational manner.

Inquisitiveness and curiosity

Second, the majority of the target customers also have great inquisitiveness and curiosity as

America is a nation of immigrants and a hub of cultures, Americans are more able to respect and

appreciate other country’s culture. Some Americans are particularly love the Chinese culture and

food. The Americans are known to have a special favor towards authentic Chinese cuisine that is

proved by a research indicating that a Chinese restaurant, F.Chang’s China Bistro, ranked 1 st in

Top 100 Chain Restaurant in US. This shows that the specialty of Chinese cuisine can definitely

draw the attention of the USA tourists and become our potential customers.

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong 6

Reaching out and experimenting life

The American couples might reach out and experiment life because they will go travelling

regularly for relaxation. During the travel, they can try many things and visit different places that

they desire to do, in order to realize the dream.

Visiting more places more often

They would like to visit different places in one trip so as to get as much exciting and inspiring

experience as they can. According to the statistics mentioned above, 95% of the USA inbound

tourists have multi-destination travelling, this gives strong evidence that the target customers

visit more places more often to seek out new, exotic destinations eagerly.

Shunning guided tours

Moreover, according to the same set of statistics, 93% of the USA tourists shun guided tours and

tend to plan and organize the travel by themselves in order to have a personalized travel

schedule.

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong 7

Weaker venturesome personality

Nevertheless, our target customers are not totally allocentric by the following justifications.

Most of them do not have the significant venturesome personality because they do not prefer

adventure travel so much. They would be concerned about the safety of his/her partner when

they go to some unknown and risky places like the wildness. They will plan brief itineraries

before the trip and avoid unexpected dangers. As a rule, they usually go to some developed

countries and prosperous cities like Hong Kong, so that they could enjoy sightseeing and

romance with their spouses.

Besides, most of them want to satisfy their curiosity out of routinized life so they might have

travel seasonally, but travel is not likely to occupy a central place in their lives.

Near allocentric

As a result, by applying the Plog’s psychological-allocentric continuum, our target customers

have a near allocentric psychological type.

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong 8

 Key Competitor – Chinese Food Festival

BACKGROUND OF THE CHINESE FOOD FESTIVAL

In developing the “Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong” Chinese food festival in Hong Kong, the

main and key competitor is The Chinese Food Festival in China. The Chinese Food Festival in

China is an event that holds every year for a period of time, which normally last for few days. It

helps the Food and Beverage industry in China to promote their products to citizens and visitors,

to communicate their professional and proficiency among the industry. The event holds in

different city in China annually. In 2010, it held in Shun Yang and Tian Jin in 2009. (人民網,

2010)

There are strengths and weakness for both China and Hong Kong in different aspects. The

strengths for China and Hong Kong are as follow:

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong 9

STRENGTHS OF THE COMPETITOR IN MAINLAND CHINA

The strength of the Chinese Food Festival is this event brings various advantages to the city. It

can attract citizens and tourist all over the world, as well as the international F&B industry

members, which gains economic benefit for the local hospitality industry.

Well-known Reputation

More than that, the Chinese Food Festival has already held for over 10 years which has already

already build up a well-known reputation. Also, the event holds in the Mainland China, the

cuisines presented could be more localized and authentic but not much mended.

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong 10

STRENGTHS OF LOCAL DESIGNED PRODUCT IN HONG KONG

Language-barrier free

In comparison, Hong Kong is an international city, Hong Kong people are mostly good at

speaking English, which is a common medium of communication in the world. It helps to relieve

the problem of language barrier. Furthermore, generally speaking, citizens in Hong Kong have

higher educational level when comparing with the mainlanders, it also allow us to solve the

communication problem between HongKongers and foreigners.

Higher Safety Standard

Also, the comprehensive public security in Hong Kong can provide a better environment for

tourists. There are number of factors allowing Hong Kong to become a city with good public

security, for instance, the healthy legal system, the police force, high educational level of

citizens, etc. It can ensure the safety of tourists in Hong Kong.

Higher Standard of Food Safety

Besides, there is a good reputation of food safety in Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, there is a

governmental department specifically dealing with the problems of food safety, “Food and

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong 11

Environmental Hygiene Department”. This department aims at inspecting and supervising the

safety of food to ensure the quality of food that flowing in Hong Kong.

Better Management for Mega Event

Moreover, Hong Kong people have accumulated a lot of experiences of holding large-scale

activities. There are many experts and professionals who have related skills which are helpful to

hold the large activities such as the technique of the crowd management. This can give

confidence to the foreign tourists.

Higher Accessibility

The well-developed transportation network is also the strength of Hong Kong. The transportation

network is mature in Hong Kong as there are many public transports for people to travel around

in Hong Kong. The network covers in most of the places in Hong Kong. It is very convenient for

tourists to travel in HK.

Westernized city

As we all know that, Hong Kong is a city mixing with oriental culture and western culture,

therefore, the foreign tourists who are come to Hong Kong will be more easily to adopt the

environment in Hong Kong.

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong 12

WEAKNESSES OF THE COMPETITOR IN MAINLAND CHINA

Inconsistency of the festival

There is no doubt that the Chinese Food Festival is an event that brings loads of benefits, but it is

not holding for a long period of time, it can only bring up a temporary benefit to the society.

Also, the event holds in different cities every year but not a fixed venue; it would impose a huge

information cost for the attendees.

Language barrier

Moreover, there are some potential issues may be found. Language poses a communication

problem. In Mainland China, most of the people can’t speak fluent English. Thus, a

communication problem will be occurred and it makes the foreigners can’t communicate easily

in the event.

Poor built-environment

Second, the hygiene condition in China is poor. Since China is still a developing country, some

of the food operation sectors do not pay many concern to the food hygiene issue, so the food

safety issue becomes a big concern towards the visitors. Finally, as mentioned before, China is a

less-developed country, the infrastructures and superstructures are still not well-organized in

some cities, such as no well-connected public transportation, not enough hotels or visitor centers,

which could not meet the visitors’ demand.

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong 13

WEAKNESS OF LOCAL DESIGNED PRODUCT IN HONG KONG

A lack of specific chefs

For the weaknesses of Hong Kong when comparing with the mainland, there may be less chefs

to cook food with authentic Chinese style, especially some special provincial food in Hong

Kong. Because of the huge potential market in China, the chefs in mainland are not willing to

come to Hong Kong to work. Therefore, Hong Kong may lose the advantage of providing

original Chinese cuisine.

Not an exotic destination

Also, Hong Kong may not be a fresh destination to tourists. Because of the success of the

promotion of Hong Kong tourist Board, Hong Kong has become one of the well-known cities in

the world for a long time. Therefore, probably most of the foreign tourists have come to Hong

Kong at least once. It makes tourists having less incentive to come to Hong Kong again.

Pollution problems

Furthermore, the pollution problems are generated by the high density of skyscrapers, large

number of vehicles and the emission of factories. The pollutants have been trapped in the city

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong 14

and decrease the air quality. More importantly, this will threaten the health of the tourists. Some

of the tourist claims that the pollution problem of Hong Kong is very serious that they even can’t

see the Victoria harbor’s view. As a result, the foreigners may not want to visit Hong Kong.

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong 15

 New Tourism Product: Taste China –Taste in Hong Kong

NAME, LOGO AND ADVERTISING SLOGAN

Rationale behind the name -- ‘ Taste the China – Taste in Hong Kong’.

It means that, by staying in Hong Kong, the tourists can try different kinds of Chinese food and

experience the best of the best of Chinese culture in a convenient way.

Rationale behind the logo

The design of logo based on the map of China. We

add the eyes and mouth on the China’s map, making

the logo like a lively chicken. Moreover, as our

product is a buffet holding in the mall, and the

setting bases on the geographical location on

Logo of Taste China - Taste in HK
china’s map. Therefore, we use the map as our logo to

represent the layout of the product. A flag of Hong Kong is added at the position of Hong Kong

in the map, as our product is holding in Hong Kong, we should let people know the location of

Hong Kong and focus on it. In addition, we design the map as a flag of China, it is because we

have to let other people understand the map is representing China more easily.

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong 16

Rationale behind the advertising slogan —

‘Try the best Chinese cuisine, Experience the best you've ever seen’

It is believed that the event can give an extraordinary memory to the tourists. They can try the

best food in the event since professional chefs from the Mainland China were recruited. Also, it

is a total experience of tourists to include the Chinese food and cultural events, performances,

interactions.

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong 17

FEATURES OF TASTE CHINA- TASTE IN HONG KONG

Basic Information of the Product

As dining is an essential activity for tourists, our product focuses on the catering sector, with

support with the entertainment sector. It is a mall including a restaurant providing 23 Chinese

cuisines in buffet format and a theatre providing Chinese traditional performances regularly.

Tourists paying an entrance fee of $230 can enjoy both the Chinese cuisines and the

performances. After enjoying the meal, guests can join the sightseeing tour arranged by the local

travel agencies.

Detailed Product Features

The restaurant provides 23 distinct Chinese cuisines of different provinces, such as Anhui

Cuisine ( 徽 菜 ), Canton Cuisine ( 粵 菜 ), Jiangsu Cuisine ( 蘇 菜 ), Shandong Cuisine ( 魯 菜 ),

Sichuan Cuisine ( 川菜) and Zhejiang Cuisine ( 浙菜), which illustrates special localized food.

Each cuisine occupies a separate booth which is decorated according to its culture. Take Hebei

province as an example, its booth will include the elements of Beijing opera as it is well known

by foreigners. Apart from providing food, the booths will include some information about the

local characteristics of the provinces, like the famous architectures and unique festivals. One of

the special features of the product is that, the booths’ locations in the restaurant will be based on

their locations on the Chinese province map. Visitors will therefore have the chance to taste

different Chinese cuisines as well as gaining knowledge about the provinces.

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong 18

The dining area is set in the central part of the Chinese buffet mall. It is decorated with a

romantic theme with many colourful Chinese lanterns and two or four seats dining tables.

The theatre shows different typical cultural performances like Beijing opera, shadow play (皮影

戲) regularly. To fit with the catering sector, performances will be on stage after lunch time and

dinner time every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, which have higher visitor flow. Regarding

the language barrier, all performances and information provided are based on three languages,

Cantonese, Mandarin and English, so the American couples would share the theme and fun in the

Chinese buffet easily.

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong 19

SATISFYING THE TARGET CUSTOMER NEEDS

Customers might attend vocational leisure travel to Hong Kong because the establishment of the

new and unique Chinese buffet mall in the world could arouse the curiosity and attention for the

exploration of Chinese culture. After visiting it, they could get relaxation and get refreshed

spiritually through a series of interesting performances.

To fulfill customers’ curiosity and inquisitiveness, different types of Chinese cuisines, different

typical Chinese performances and other information like photos and videos are provided inside

the mall, so that customers could receive an integrated and eyes-opening experience and learn

more about Chinese culture more deeply.

Having the cooperation with local travel agencies, sightseeing tour are arranged for the guests, so

that they are not only confined to taste the cuisine, but also participate in outdoors and visit more

places in one trip.

Besides, customers with a weaker venturesome personality prefer a comfortable and safe

environment with their spouse. Therefore they should have great confidence on food hygiene

here since the food handlers have to comply with the food safety guidelines, being regularly

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong 20

inspected by Food and Environmental Hygiene Department. As a result, our Chinese buffet is

guaranteed with the proper food hygiene and safety. Also, there are professionals who are

experienced in the proper crowd management, so that the flow of people could be controlled in a

proper manner during the peak season, preventing tragic accidents.

On the other hand, they might want to reach out and experiment their life by adding entertaining

and interesting elements to their life. That’s why having lunch or dinner in the mall specialized

with Chinese culture and romance allows couples to have more time to stay together and share

joyful and memorable experience, as well as strengthen their relationship.

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong 21

CONCLUSION

As a world city, there are sophisticated hardware and software in Hong Kong and American

couples’ visit could be facilitated. Different components of the designed tourism product could

fulfill the needs of the American childless couples in term of their psychological type. With the

hospitality of Hong Kong people, the American couples would probably receive a memorable

travel experience. Thus customers could taste the best Chinese cuisine, experience the best they

have ever seen in ‘Taste the China – Taste in Hong Kong’

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong 22

 Work Cited
Hong Kong Tourism Board. (2010, January). Visitor Arrival Statistics - Dec 2009. Retrieved
October 2010, from PartnerNet.hktb.com: http://partnernet.hktb.com/pnweb/jsp/doc/listDoc.jsp?
doc_id=129120&cat_id=5587&logs=yes&type=FREE

Hong Kong Tourism Board. (n.d.). Vacation Overnight Visitors. Retrieved October 2010, from
PartnerNet.hktb.com: http://partnernet.hktb.com/pnweb/jsp/doc/listDoc.jsp?
doc_id=131551&cat_id=6121&logs=yes&type=FREE

人民網. (2010, July 15). 人民網. Retrieved October 2010, from 第十一屆中國美食節 8 月登陸
沈陽 -- 人民網食品頻道 --人民網: http://shipin.people.com.cn/BIG5/12155576.html

Abraham, P., & Yoel, M. (1999). Consumer behavior in travel and tourism . New York, U.S.:
Haworth Hospitality Press.

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong 23

 Appendix I
Table 1. A comparison of pleasure trip types of senior and non-senior pleasure travel

Non-senior Group Age Senior group

Pleasure Trip Type aged under 55 aged 55-64 aged 65 and older
(%) (%) (%)

A city trip 22.0 17.7 16.8

A outdoor vacation 24.1 14.8 8.9

A resort vacation 20.2 15.8 16.1

Taste China – Taste in Hong Kong 24