Research On The Perception Of Host And Guest Boundaries Of Mainland Tourists To Hong Kong

Hong Kong returned to the motherland on July 1,1997,becoming the first region where the concept of ‘one country,two systems' was put into practice.China,a country with one single system,has only one state sovereignty,one supreme organ of state power and state administration,where the local governments shall be under the unified leadership of the State Council.The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region enjoys a high degree of autonomy,and practices a system different from the mainland China without changing the essence of China's unitary system.It can be seen that ‘one country,two systems',‘Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong',and ‘a high degree of autonomy' reflects a high degree of innovation.Tourism is an important way to promote cultural exchanges.Data show that with the gradual implementation of the ‘individual visit scheme' policy,Hong Kong has rapidly developed into one of the most important domestic outbound tourism markets.However,few academic studies have been conducted to explore the tourism experience of mainland residents to Hong Kong from the perspective of ‘one country,two systems'.We believe that the boundary is one of the most basic concepts in human social relations,and is also the premise and key of social interpersonal interaction,which exists not only in space but also in mind.The concept of ‘boundary' has important academic value and practical significance in interpreting the relationship between the mainland tourists and the residents of Hong Kong.And we propose three research questions:Firstly,will the existence of the mental boundary become a certain motive and tourist interest for mainland tourists to visit Hong Kong?Secondly,what are the characteristics of mainland tourists' perception of the host-guest boundary? And what is the specific process?Thirdly,what action strategies will mainland tourists take to reduce the sense of boundary between the host and the guest?This paper divides the perception of the host-guest boundary of mainland tourists to Hong Kong into five aspects,namely physical,system of government,economic,cultural and social.It comprehensively invokes the ‘hedonic theory' of tourism consumption,generation theory,national identity theory and negotiation theory,etc.,and adopts the research method combining quantitative and qualitative analysis.Through the analysis of questionnaire data(689 valid questionnaires)and interview text data(17 interview samples),this paper focuses on the analysis of several interaction stages between the mainland tourists and the residents of the reception areas,such as ‘encounter',‘de-border' and ‘negotiation',ideally restoring and revealing the essential characteristics of the host-guest relationship.The conclusions of this paper are as follows:Firstly,although the people of both places are Chinese,some kind of mental boundaries objectively exist between the two sides due to historical reasons.This has indeed become one of the motives and tourist interests of mainland tourists visiting Hong Kong.Secondly,the intensity of Hong Kong's boundaries at five aspects perceived by mainland tourists ranges from strong to weak,which is in order of the system of government,the economic and cultural,the physical,and the social.Moreover,it is related to the geographical distance between Hong Kong and the place where mainland tourists live,‘year of birth',‘education' and other demographic characteristics of them.Thirdly,the formation process of the perception of host-guest boundary of mainland tourists includes three stages: ‘before going to Hong Kong',‘when crossing the geographical boundary',and ‘in encountering'.Among them,‘want to go but can not go' makes yearning mythic,which forms the initial sense of boundary between mainland tourists and Hong Kong.When mainland tourists cross the customs of the two places and accept transit inspections,the ‘crossing geographical boundary' will not only enhance the positive tourist experience of the mainland tourists,such as novelty,excitement and de-border,but make them feel some distance from Hong Kong.When mainland tourists really ‘encounter' Hong Kong(people and place)to implement tourism behaviors,their mental boundary perception is manifested to varying degrees on the system of government,economic,cultural,and social aspects.Fourthly,when the system of government boundaries between the two places are perceived,mainland tourists will take action strategies such as ‘avoid',‘want to know' or ‘reject directly' driven by the three mental states of tourism consumerism,self-consciousness and national identity.When the cultural boundaries are perceived,they will adopt strategies such as changing with the environment.When the social boundaries are perceived,they will deliberately reduce the sense of boundaries influenced by the touristic mentality of ‘passer-by'.The innovation of this paper lies in attaching importance to uncover new dimensions of mainland visitors' motivation,enriching and reinterpreting the ‘boundary' analysis framework of the host-guest relationship,further expounding the significance of social and cultural practice of tourism,and putting forward an important viewpoint that mainland tourists to Hong Kong have the sequence of mental characteristics from ‘touristic consumerism' to ‘national identity'.In the field of tourism marketing and destination management,this paper reveals the intergenerational differences in tourism experience of mainland tourists to Hong Kong,and emphasizes the importance of paying attention to the detailed characteristics of the relationship between the people of the two places.The deficiencies of this study are mainly reflected in the fact that the operationalization of the boundary concept still needs to go through multiple case tests,and the original data is missing in northeast China.Also,the final theoretical improvement is limited.We believe that the integration of Hong Kong into China's high-speed rail network and the further development of Greater Bay Area will profoundly affect the behavior of mainland tourists to Hong Kong,and the host-guest relationship between the two places will also take on new features.However,the integration of Hong Kong into the motherland is the trend of the times and the common aspiration of the people.Our academic research should make more contributions to this end.