Study On The Behavioral Characteristics Of Self-Driving Tourists In Beijing

With the rapid social and economic development of China, the number of private cars is increasingly higher. This creates favorable conditions for the expansion of self-driving tourism. As a new form of tourism, self-driving tourism draws attention from an increasing number of citizens, because of its characteristics of freedom and personality. When compared with the development of self-driving tourism in Europe and United States, self-driving tourism in China starts later but develops more quickly, especially in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen where private cars are numerous and market potential huge.With regard to self-driving tourism, domestic study is currently rare and far behind its development. Furthermore, the retrieval result shows that domestic study focuses on self-driving tourism in terms of market situation, influencing factors, and development measures, while little research on self-driving tourists is conducted. Such a situation is unfavorable for further development of self-driving tourism market.Via making questionnaires and doing field interviews, this paper analyzes and studies the behavioral characteristics of self-driving tourists in Beijing which has the most private cars in China Mainland. The model of behavioral characteristics of self-driving tourists in Beijing was constructed with reference to previous relevant literature and theory. Based on this model, behavioral characteristics of self-driving tourists were analyzed, development trend in future was summarized, and pertinent advice as well as improving strategy was proposed.This paper consists of six sections. The first section introduces the background, purpose, methods, and framework of this study together with the research status at home and abroad; the second section analyzes the relevant concept of self-driving tourism; the third section analyzes geographical condition and current situation for Beijing to develop its self-driving tourism; the fourth section analyzes behavioral characteristics of self-driving tourists by combining questionnaires and interviews. Development trend and pertinent advice is given on the basis of questionnaires and interviews in the fifth section, serving as a reference for tourism enterprise and decision-making department. A conclusion is made in the sixth section.