Conjoint Analysis Of Consumer Preferences To Urban Tourism Brand Attributes

In recent years, tourism industry has a great development especially the cities become to the first choice of tourism destination. In the year of 2013, our country passed the Tourism Law and The National Tourism and Leisure Programs which lead to the change of citizens’ lifestyle and leisure style. Furthermore, it extends the opportunity of tourism consumption and promotes the development of tourism economy. As one of the most popular tourism destinations, urban tourism market keeps changing all the time. Destination marketing and destination brand have become the strategy tools in the destination competition all over the world. More and more destinations begin to accept the concept of destination brand, such as Australia, Brazil and Spain. Experts believe that urban tourism would still be the popular choice of destination tourism and would still be the hotpots and difficulties in academic research. Meanwhile, as the image of the city, urban tourism brand plays an important role.In market research, conjoint analysis is an efficient way to forecast influential factors of consumption decision. Conjoint analysis is widely used in the area of market expansion and marketing, especially in the new product, new service and improvement of existing product. Based on the Choice Based Conjoint Analysis, this paper tries to apply conjoint analysis into the area of urban tourism brand. From the perspective of tourists, this research makes a further analysis of attributes choice preference.Firstly, this paper discusses the traits and progress of related research of urban tourism brand through the literature review of domestic and overseas. Additionally, this paper concludes the consumer preference theory through the reviews which make a basis of the further analysis. Secondly, this research makes two surveys-preliminary research and formal research. In the preliminary research, it defines the consumer’s perception of brand attributes and defines the most attractive attributes when consumers make their choice. This research distribute questionnaires to tourists and practitioners in tourism related industry. With this survey, this paper defines 10 urban brand and 6 most attractive brand attributes. Based on these brands and attributes, this paper makes a formal questionnaire which aims to obtain the attributes perception of the 10 brands, making a data basis of further research.Considering of all the analysis, this paper makes a forecast of the possible popular city based on the utility and puts forward the strategic advice for tourism management which aims to offer the decision basis of brand management and brand preservation. The coastal city as Qingdao, Weihai, Yantai and Rizhao performs well in the attribute of "the natural environment cleanliness" which means that these cities take preferences from tourists. This conclusion leads to the future development that they should be place emphasis on environment and points the future development for Heze which is the last preferred city. Taian and Jining performs well in the attribute of "Historical culture and cultural heritage" which means that these cities are famous for the history. Qingdao also performs well in security, festivals and transportation which means that Qingdao is the most famous city in Shandong Province. From the conclusion of cross analysis, some similar cities can take collaborating marketing to realize "win-win".