A STUDY ON THE EFFECTS OF PROVIDING DETAILED INFORMATION ON PERCEPTIONS AND EVALUATIONS IN TOURIST SPOTS

-Comparison between Japanese and Chinese subjects-

Abstract

1. Introduction　For the development of the tourism industry, the authors compared the psychological evaluations of Japanese and Chinese subjects before and after their visit to the tourist spots. As a result, we found that the amount of information about the tourist spots has a great impact on the evaluation.

　If we consider the situation of actual sightseeing, tourists are more likely to pick up the detailed information about the tourist spots in the form of the brochures or guidebooks. If they have brochures, they can gain more information and knowledge of tourist spots. This may change their psychological evaluation of the tourist spots. So, in this study, we conducted the psychological evaluation experiment of tourist spots in Hiroshima with Japanese and Chinese subjects to compare the evaluation between subjects who were given the detailed information about tourist spots and those who were not.

2. Experiment overview　In this study, we conducted Actual Scene experiment (AS) to evaluate the impressions of sightseeing in the tourist spots in Hiroshima, because it was necessary to conduct the same experiment with the detailed information as the previous one.

3. Brochure overview　We prepared the brochures that were almost same of the amount of information and format at each tourist spot. The brochure included a map of the tourist spot, the text information such as the features and the history, and photographs and the text information of 10 objects that could be seen from and within the tourist spot.

4. The results of comprehensive evaluation　According to the average evaluation score profile, in the case of "Satisfaction", the Japanese and Chinese with the brochures evaluated higher than them without the brochures in Itsukushima Shrine and Kousanji Temple. We found the detailed information provided by the brochures to be useful for these tourist spots. In contrast, the scores declined in the tourist spots that didn’t include many descriptions of historicity in the brochures, such as Onomichi and Setoda. Also, according to the differences between the Japanese and Chinese, on the whole, the Chinese with the brochures showed a greater change in their evaluations when they were given than the Japanese, because the part of information unknown to the Chinese was known to the Japanese.

5. The results of factor analysis　According to the results of factor analysis based on the integrated data, four factors were extracted. Each factor was interpreted as follows: “Inherency”, “Openness”, “Traditionality” and “Harmony”. Also, the evaluation tendencies between “Inherency” and "Satisfaction" were very similar, so it was thought that “Inherency” affected "Satisfaction".

6. Comparison of the psychological evaluation structure　According to the correlation coefficients between "Satisfaction" and the four factors, for both the Japanese and Chinese, the correlation coefficients with “Inherency” were higher when the brochure was given. Since the subjects were able to obtain the detailed information that they did not know, the relationship between "Satisfaction" and “Inherency” became stronger. The results of the multiple regression analysis show that the standard partial regression coefficients of “Inherency” were higher when the brochure was given. It was suggested that the importance of “Inherency” in "Satisfaction" increased, because the subjects were able to discover new attractions and characteristics about the tourist spots from the features and history described in the brochures.