A new tourism management study scheduled for publication next year found multinational hotel chains wanting to attract Chinese tourists to U.S. properties needed to rethink branding strategies.

A preview chapter of the study by tourism professors Joy Huang, of the University of Illinois, and Liping Cai, of Purdue University, found the Chinese cultural attribute of demonstrating "face" was a major motivator for newly minted middle class Chinese citizens to travel at home and abroad.

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Middle class Chinese represented the fastest growing travel segment in the country, researchers said. Middle class citizens also represented the greatest growth segment of society expected to rise from 7 percent of the population in 2014 to 25 percent of the population in 2020, they said.

Demand for hotel rooms in China should grow 10 percent annually through the next two decades, according to the Boston Consulting Group. International travel by Chinese similarly would increase with about 2.1 million Chinese visiting the U.S. in 2014, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, which also predicted that growth to increase by 20 percent annually for the next five years.

Researchers conducted interviews of more than 600 Chinese consumers at Shanghai shopping malls asking them questions related to U.S. travel and three major hotel chains; Holiday Inn, Super 8 and Hilton. Participants earned between US$10,000 to US$60,000 annually, representing middle class Chinese earning demographics. Researchers based survey questions on company branding materials.

Hilton and Holiday Inn are top-rated luxury brand hotels in China while Super 8 is a budget brand. Chinese tourists said face was important in choosing luxury brands over the budget brand. Likewise, They said if they traveled to the U.S., face would prompt them to choose Hilton and Holiday Inn over Super 8.

Researchers found Chinese respondents would pay more for what was perceived as luxury branded hotels than for budget hotels even if the hotels offered similar experiences and services in the U.S. while they wouldn't do so for travel within China.

Choosing the luxury brand gave Chinese visitors a sense of prestige and being special that showed they had greater social status and, therefore, face, researchers said. They looked for symbolic value rather than actual value when choosing a place to stay, researchers said.

U.S. travel industry professionals didn't understand that principle of face when it came to marketing to Chinese visitors because U.S. hotels emphasized value and services rather than prestige and social status, Huang and Cai concluded based on their Shanghai market research.

Promoting brand identity and corporate values by U.S. hotels over services would enable those hotels to attract more future middle class Chinese tourists, Huang and Cai said.

Tagstourism, Hotels, joy huang, liping cai, purdue, University of Illinois, tourism research, chinese middle class, chinese tourism, U.S. tourism, motels, holiday inn, hilton, Super 8, face, U.S. Department of Commerce