A Study on Youth Tourists' Perception of Sichuan as a Tourism Destination

Abstract

Tourism has become one of the most important sectors of the world’s service economy. According to UNWTO research, youth tourism is the fastest developing tourism market. As a rich tourism resource destination the Sichuan province in China has many tourism attractions to ride on this trend, and successfully cater to youth tourists’ needs. The aim of this research is to study youth tourists’ perceptions of Sichuan as a tourism destination as youth tourism is rapidly growing (WTO 2006). A questionnaire was put together based on the two independent and dependent variables. The data was collected from 356 domestic and international youth tourists (aged 15-30) who were traveling in Sichuan. The Pearson Correlation was used to test the ten hypotheses. The two independent variables are all influencing youth tourists’ perception of Sichuan as a tourism destination. Most of respondents’ perceptions are positive especially the overall perception of Sichuan. Youth tourists mainly have different perceptions on the transportation conditions in Sichuan. These findings provide tourism marketers with valuable information about youth tourists’ characteristics and their perceptions of Sichuan as a tourism destination and about the factors which influence youth perception. They also cast light on the suitable tourism products that can meet the needs of youth tourists and make more young people come and visit Sichuan.