A Comparison of Shopping Satisfaction of Japanese and Chinese Tourists in Korea
Authors:   Asia-Europe Perspective Association, Park Choon-Yup , Chung Wol-Soon 
Published: June 2018

The sum of Japanese and Chinese tourists visiting Korea in 2008 accounts for more than 50% of the total foreign tourists visiting Korea according to relevant statistics published in 2009. This research is specially timely because we need to develop appropriate tourism strategy to attract both Japanese and Chinese tourists which have assumingly different shopping needs, and Korea is pushing hard to increase Chinese tourists in Korea.
The purpose of this study is compare shopping satisfaction of Japanese and Chinese tourists in Korea. We study satisfaction in nine shopping attributes: price, quality, design, performance, package, knowledge, attitude to customers, communications, and transportation. Satisfaction is measured by the difference or the gap between perceptions and expectations in the nine shopping attributes. We use 7-point Likert scale.
The results of this research indicate that the Japanese and Chinese tourists are quite different in many aspects. First, shopping goods and services of the Japanese and Chinese tourists are quite different. Second, expectations of Japanese tourists in all of the nine shopping satisfaction attributes are lower than or equal to the median value, while those of Chinese tourists are higher than the median for all selected nine attributes. Third, in regard to perceptions, tourists of the both countries are higher than or equal to median value. However, comparing the expectations of the tourists, we find that those of Chinese tourists are significantly higher than those of Japanese.
Forth, examining satisfaction of the tourists using the differences between expectations and perceptions, we find that Japanese tourists are satisfied in seven shopping attributes except price and packaging. It should be noted that Japanese tourists have low expectation and perception in packaging. However, Chinese tourists appear to be dissatisfied significantly in the of attributes of communication and knowledge on products.
Finally, in the survey question on overall satisfaction, both Japanese and Chines tourists indicate higher than median number, meaning that both of them are satisfied with shopping in Korea. Comparing values of the countries, Japanese response is higher than that of Chinese in more number of attributes. In particular, the Japanese overall satisfaction score is significantly higher than that of Chinese tourists.
Implications of the findings of this research in regard to tourism policy and retail strategies are as follows. First, since shopping goods of the tourists of the two countries are different. Korean retailers of shopping goods for tourists should be aware of this fact, and put this in consideration in developing composition of goods and services and retail strategies. Second, the results of this research indicate that Korean retailers should give more elaborate packaging service especially for Japanese tourists. Third, for Chinese tourists on the other hand, Korean retailers should develop means to improve communication with Chinese tourists and ability to explain features of products and services in the Chinese language. Finally, these implications suggest that tourism policy makers in Korea should develop adequate programs to educate the retailers and travel guides so that they can improve satisfaction of Japanese and Chinese tourists for the shopping attributes in which they are not sufficiently satisfied yet.