Description
This paper aims to report on the views that tourists in China have about the country, its
people, the country as a destination and the 2008 Olympic Games that were held there.
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
China's Olympic destination: tourist evaluations of China and the Games
J ohn Nadeau Norm O'Reilly Louise Heslop
Article information:
To cite this document:
J ohn Nadeau Norm O'Reilly Louise Heslop, (2011),"China's Olympic destination: tourist evaluations of China and the Games", International
J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 5 Iss 3 pp. 235 - 246
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Patrick De Groote, (2005),"Economic & Tourism Aspects of the Olympic Games", Tourism Review, Vol. 60 Iss 3 pp. 20-28 http://
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Ilias Kapareliotis, Anastasios Panopoulos, George G. Panigyrakis, (2010),"The influence of the Olympic Games on Beijing consumers'
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China’s Olympic destination: tourist
evaluations of China and the Games
John Nadeau, Norm O’Reilly and Louise Heslop
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to report on the views that tourists in China have about the country, its
people, the country as a destination and the 2008 Olympic Games that were held there.
Design/methodology/approach – The study utilizes a survey in which responses were gathered from
288 tourists in Beijing, China during the 2008 Olympic Summer Games. The study presents results for
China’s three images (country, destination, and mega-event) using an attitudinal framework and
explores the patterns of relationships using linear regression.
Findings – Results of the study show that tourists perceive China positively in terms of the country and
people competencies and the character of the people. China is less positively viewed in terms of country
character. As a destination, China is seen positively for its built environment but less positively for its
natural environment. Positive experiential and logistical beliefs characterize the Olympic Games, while
beliefs about security are less positive. The data support the assertion that the three images are
important and related. In addition, the evaluation of China as a destination involves the relationship of the
country image evaluation to the evaluation of the Olympic Games.
Originality/value – This paper addresses a gap that exists in image-based research on mega-events.
In particular, this study explores mega-event image in the context of the host country and destination
images.
Keywords Olympic Games, China, Destination image, Country image, Mega-event image
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
One of the bene?ts of hosting mega-events is that they attract tourists to the city, region, and
country that is hosting the mega-event. These bene?ts include both short-term
(e.g. spending, attendance at the event) and long-term (i.e. potential return visits, brand)
advantages for the host destination. This research focuses on the shorter-term impacts of
hosting a mega-event by empirically examining tourist views of the host country during a
mega-event. Speci?cally, the researchers explore the Summer Olympic Games of 2008,
held in Beijing, China, with the aim of examining the in?uence of a mega-event on tourist
perceptions of the host country, its people and the Olympic Games.
A common approach to assessing tourist perceptions of destinations is place image theory.
Place images are used to understand the complex reality of geographic locations such as
countries, cities, towns, etc. These images are useful in the tourism context where tourism
marketers promote, develop and communicate images to attract tourists and where people,
as potential tourists, use these images to make decisions about their where to travel (Baloglu
and McCleary, 1999; Goodrich, 1978; Hunt, 1975; Pike and Ryan, 2004; Tapachai and
Waryszak, 2000). Destination (or place) images include the beliefs, feelings and impressions
associated with a place, developed in people’s minds in a variety of ways (Baloglu and
McCleary, 1999). The unit of analysis in place image research is typically the country, although
a place can certainly refer to a city or region as well. This paper reports on the image of the
DOI 10.1108/17506181111156934 VOL. 5 NO. 3 2011, pp. 235-246, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1750-6182
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CULTURE, TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH
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PAGE 235
John Nadeau is an
Associate Professor at the
Nipissing University, North
Bay, Canada. Norm O’Reilly
is an Associate Professor at
the University of Ottawa,
Ottawa, Canada. Louise
Heslop is a Professor at
Carleton University, Ottawa,
Canada.
Received: December 2009
Revised: May 2010
Accepted: October 2010
This research is supported by a
Strategic grant from the
SSHRC. The authors would also
like to acknowledge the Capital
Institute of Physical Education
in Beijing, China for providing
support that enabled some of
the data collection. In addition,
the authors extend their
gratitude to the research
assistants who collected the
data – Tyler Aird, Don Lord,
Ryan McLeod, Junzhe Xu, and
Kathleen Zinn.
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Olympic Games host at the country level, given that people often refer to country as the host of
the mega-events and most often the countries fund, organize and bid for mega-events. Thus,
in an effort to improve collective understanding of the role of host country images with
mega-events, this paper explores the 2008 Summer Olympic Games host country image (its
people, country, products and as a destination) on the image of the Games.
Place image
Research on the topic of place image evolves from two literature roots: destination images
are frequently examined in tourism studies while place images are investigated in marketing
studies exploring the relationship of place images with product selection decisions. To
illustrate, the development of the country-of-origin or the product-country image ?eld in
marketing examines the relationship of product and country images on evaluations
(Nebenzahl et al., 1997). Other research demonstrates that the image of the country is a
salient consideration in the destination decision-making process (Nadeau et al., 2008).
Intuitively, therefore, the host country image is an important aspect of the destination
evaluation.
In order to understand place image, one must possess an understanding that images
summarize, standardize, and generalize information from many sources and about many
aspects of the image object. That is, an image is created in the mind of an individual from
many sources and experiences, some of which can be managed or leveraged by a tourism
marketer. The body of literature that explores place image in the tourism context, via
empirical assessments of destination image, normally utilizes an attitudinal approach that
includes beliefs, evaluative feelings, and behavioral intentions about the destination
(Baloglu and McCleary, 1999). Like general consumers, potential tourists use images to
simplify the complex destination choices that they face by managing information and
applying this information to direct their behavior (Kotler and Gertner, 2002). Thus, attitudes
play an important role in how images impact consumer behavior, whereby an attitude
towards some object is a summary of the many captured psychological in?uences (Ajzen,
2001). Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) outline howattitudes are built via three aspects – cognition
(or beliefs held), affect (emotions or evaluations), and conation (intent to behave) – about
image of interest.
While the means of measuring place images in the tourism literature differs, a common thread
is that place image is a multidimensional construct within an attitudinal framework. This
multidimensional approach conceptualizes beliefs about the natural and built environments,
as well as evaluations and intentions to visit the destination. For example, the natural
environment beliefs construct includes measures about the scenery and climate (Echtner and
Ritchie, 1993) and measures about the built environment include beliefs about quality of
shopping, nightlife and sport facilities (Baloglu and McCleary, 1999; Echtner and Ritchie,
1993). Evaluation measures include an overall assessment of the destination (Reilly, 1990)
while the travel intention measures include the destination selection decision (Chon, 1990;
Foster and Jones, 2000) and the willingness to recommend the place to others (Chon, 1991).
Marketing research on place images typically explores the relationship of place images to
product decisions. Building from early unidimensional studies of country image (Erickson
et al., 1984; Han, 1988), the ?eld now takes a multidimensional approach that encompasses
a context broader than focusing solely on products and includes an attitudinal framework
(Heslop et al., 2004; Laroche et al., 2005; Orbaiz and Papadopoulos, 2003). Conceptually,
the belief dimensions of product-country image include people character (e.g. likeability,
friendliness), country character (e.g. wealth, role in world politics), people competencies
(e.g. work ethic, industriousness), and country competencies (e.g. technology level, skill
level of workers) (Heslop et al., 2004).
Mega-events and the Summer Olympic Games
Mega-events have the ability to reach multiple mass markets, to attain signi?cant resources
through sponsorship and media rights, and to attract considerable interest from outside the
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region in which they take place. Research in the area assesses their impact on business and
society (Dolles and So¨ derman, 2008) as well as empirical examinations of their reach via
sponsorship and intent-to-purchase longitudinally (O’Reilly et al., 2008). Examples of large
global properties which ?t the de?nition of a mega-event include the Olympic Games, the
Grey Cup, the FIFA World Cup, the Masters Golf Tournament, the Ryder Cup, the Super
Bowl, the World’s Fair, Mardi Gras, Wimbledon, the Running of the Bulls (Pamplona) and the
Tour de France. All play important roles in their local economies and act as central elements
of the media-based culture (Wise and Miles, 1997).
When considering a mega-event like the Summer Olympic Games, tourism marketing
begins on the basis that the mega-event provides the host country with an opportunity to
reinforce or change the attitudes held by the rest of the world. Recent research emphasizes
the economic, social and marketing bene?t of mega-events (Dolles and So¨ derman, 2008;
O’Reilly et al., 2008). The focus of this research is an unmatched global property in terms of
interest generated, the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, which attracted approximately
10,000 athletes from over 200 countries, with an estimated television audience of more than
4.7 billion people (Nielsen, 2008). ‘‘The Games’’ are a mega-event that involves a two-week
multi-sport athletic competition that has taken place every four years since 1896 in most of
the world’s great cities, including London, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, and most recently Beijing. The
rights holder of the Games is the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which accepts
bids (one bid per country) for the Games and awards the Games to a single city
approximately seven years before the Games are scheduled. As such, the Games are rarely
held in the same location more than once, thus providing opportunities for cities to bid for the
event and build programming around the event to promote their country and enhance the
related images. The Games were held in a number of venues, mostly around the capital city
of Beijing; however satellite facilities were found throughout China, including Hong Kong.
The IOC (2001, 2002) is very concerned about the image and the desired Olympic values
(e.g. peace, festive, cultural exchange, fair play, equality, tradition, honor, etc.). They
demonstrate this concern through efforts in the areas of exclusivity, environment, brand
protection, size reduction, new rules cities, etc. (IOC, 1999). Similarly, international
perceptions of the host country are important to both the IOC and the host in terms of a
variety of important considerations including international relations, revenue generation,
tourism, product purchasing, export/import issues and investing decisions. Given the
interests of governments, the views of the host country’s citizens are also of considerable
interest, where both positives (image, infrastructure, legacy, etc.) and negatives
(opportunity cost, disruption, etc.) exist concerning the hosting of the Games. The IOC
also possesses a resilient image that includes the Olympic rings, National Olympic
Committee logos, and other related symbols that are recognized around the world
(Seguin and O’Reilly, 2008). Previous research (Jaffe and Nebenzahl, 1993) found that
hosting the 1988 Olympic Games positively in?uenced beliefs about South Korea and
consumer willingness to buy their products, showing that hosting the Olympic Games
could alter the image of the host country.
A primary motivator for China to host the Olympic Games was the enhancement of its
international image (Goodspeed, 2008). In this regard, China has acted to control media
stories about the country (Bodeen, 2008; Goodspeed, 2008; Foss and Walkosz, 2008; Fram,
2008). A second important point is that China is a developing country host. From an external
perspective, China’s status as a developing country suggests that its image would be similar
to other developing countries where a poor image is associated with its products (Ahmed
and d’Astous, 1993; Chao, 1993; Cordell, 1992; Kaynak et al., 2000; Mohamad et al., 2000;
Tse and Gorn, 1992). Previous research illustrates that consumers and retail buyers hold a
preference for developed countries and their products (Heslop et al., 2004). Speci?c to
China’s image, however, other studies con?rm this general trend and show that consumers
hold a poor image of products from China (Brunner et al., 1993). Negative publicity also
exists for China about its product quality and safety (Rennie, 2008). Negative publicity is also
present in Western media, by criticizing China’s human rights record, in particular; this
coverage intensi?ed as the Olympic Games approached (Human Rights Watch, 2007).
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Hypotheses
The preceding discussion has identi?ed the theoretical framework for the current study.
Theory about attitudes and images provides the basis for this research. These areas help us
to understand the relationship around the evaluative dimension of images when hosting a
mega-event such as the 2008 Olympic Games in China. Although some country image
beliefs are related to speci?c dimensions of tourism destination image (Nadeau et al., 2008),
evaluations underlie the relatedness among these images. Evaluations for each image
involve a cognitive process enabling the integration of additional information provided by
other images. Figure 1 illustrates the hypothesized relationships and stated as follows:
H1. The evaluation of the country and people image is positively related to the
evaluation of China as a destination.
H2. The evaluation of the country and people image is positively related to the
evaluation of the Olympic Games.
H3. The evaluation of China as a destination is positively related to the evaluation of the
Olympic Games.
H4. The evaluation of China as a destination intervenes on the relationship between the
evaluations of country and people and the Olympic Games.
Methodology
The researchers collected data to test the study’s hypotheses using image measures based
on a previous study of country and destination images (Nadeau et al., 2008) and with
measures from the literature reviewed above. The questionnaire contained sections to
measure attitudes towards China as a destination (22 measures), the country and people of
China (33 measures), and the Olympic Games as a destination (26 measures). All image
measure responses were made on a ?ve-point scale (1 being low/poor, 5 being high/good).
Demographic questions were also asked to garner information about the respondent’s
gender, age and level of education. The sample was gathered during the 2008 Olympic
Games in Beijing. Street- and mall-intercept techniques were employed as tourists were
randomly approached in busy public areas. In exchange for their time, respondents
received a small token of appreciation. The researchers collected a total sample size of 288.
This sample is characterized as 51.4 per cent males with an average age of 21-30 years old.
Figure 1 Framework for hypothesis testing
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The sample represents those with relatively high levels of education as 39.6 per cent of
respondents hold a university degree and 33.9 per cent hold a graduate degree.
Results
Developing countries often have negative or less positive images as a destination or as
places of production when compared to developed countries (Ahmed and d’Astous, 1993;
Chao, 1993; Cordell, 1992; Kaynak et al., 2000; Mohamad et al., 2000; Tse and Gorn, 1992).
The preference for developed countries may be re?ected in some of the descriptive results
of country image presented in Table I. For instance, the character of the country displays
less positive mean scores than other dimensions of their country image. Indeed, two items
representing the country character construct are below the scale midpoint of 3 (rights and
freedoms ¼ 2:22, environmental/pollution controls ¼ 2:21). These items seem to re?ect the
public criticisms China experienced around the Olympic Games on these issues
(e.g. Human Rights Watch, 2007). However, China is also viewed very positively as the
people character and the country and people competencies measurement items achieve
relatively strong ratings indicating the people are well liked and are considered to be well
Table I Mean responses for country image items
n Mean
People character of China (0.906)
Likeability 283 4.05
Fascinating people 279 4.01
Friendliness 283 4.01
Helpful 283 3.98
Courteous 279 3.88
Honest 279 3.73
Trustworthiness 280 3.59
Country character (0.839)
Role in world politics 275 3.44
Political stability 274 3.18
Quality of life 280 3.05
Wealth 276 3.01
Rights and freedoms 277 2.22
Enviro/pollution controls 281 2.21
Country and people competencies (0.696)
Industriousness 279 4.15
Work ethic 275 4.10
Technology level 282 3.75
Avail. skilled workers 272 3.58
Stability of economy 275 3.54
Education level 275 3.48
Workers’ skill level 279 3.34
Individualism 280 3.03
Evaluations of people and country (0.685)
Appealing culture 281 4.07
Enjoy being with 279 3.85
Overall rate 279 3.80
Knowledge of China 279 3.53
Rating compared with others 279 3.44
Alignment with own country 277 2.78
Desired links (0.779)
Tourists to China 281 3.99
Visitors from China 281 3.98
Exports to China 279 3.96
Political/economic ties 279 3.95
Imports from China 280 3.24
Immigration from China 281 3.14
Notes: 1 ¼ low/poor, 5 ¼ high/good
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skilled and hard working. In addition, the evaluations of China’s image are generally positive.
However, the alignment with one’s own country is one item that is below the scale midpoint.
Table I also presents the Cronbach’s Alpha test of reliability for each construct. The test
scores are all generally in the acceptable range of greater than 0.700 with one exception.
The evaluations of people and country, achieve a relatively low Cronbach’s Alpha value of
0.685. The construct receives a much higher Cronbach’s Alpha value of 0.795 when one item
is dropped (i.e. appealing culture). Therefore, the item is excluded from further analysis and
not included in a summary variable based on average responses to these items
representing the construct. The relatively low Cronbach’s Alpha value of 0.696 for the
country and people competencies construct is improved to 0.780 by dropping the education
level item from further analysis.
Using attitude theory as a guide for organizing the constructs, a linear regression
demonstrates that the three aggregate belief constructs of people character, country
character and country and people competencies are signi?cantly related to the evaluation of
China’s country image (adj:R
2
¼ 0:487, F ¼ 76:6, sig: ¼ 0:000). At the individual construct
level, people character (std.beta ¼ 0:392, sig: ¼ 0:000) and country character
(std.beta.434, sig: ¼ 0:000) are related to country image evaluation while the
competencies of the country and people construct (std.beta ¼ 0:021, sig: ¼ 0:745) is
found not to be related to the evaluation construct. Therefore, the relatively weak image
dimension of country character for China does seem to be harming the country’s overall
image in this case. Further, the evaluation of country’s image is related to the linkages
respondents would like to see between China and their home country (adj:R
2
¼ 0:300,
F ¼ 76:6, sig: ¼ 0:000, std.beta ¼ 0:547, sig: ¼ 0:000).
A similar ?nding is discovered with China’s destination image where one belief construct is
viewed more positively than the other. Table II presents the mean scores for the destination
image items. Table II is organized by relevant tourism destination image constructs and
shows the Cronbach’s Alpha values attained by each construct in parentheses. The mean
scores for the belief constructs show overall that the built environment of China is more
positively viewed than the natural environment. The natural environment has one item with a
mean score below the scale midpoint of 3 (climate ¼ 2:82) while the built environment had
three items achieve ratings over 4 (culturally interesting ¼ 4:52, tourist attractions ¼ 4:15,
shopping facilities ¼ 4:06). The relatively low Cronbach’s Alpha value of 0.697 for the
destination evaluation construct may be improved dramatically to 0.848 by dropping one
item (i.e. memorability of experience). Therefore, this item is excluded from the summary
construct in further testing. A linear regression analysis testing the attitude theory base of
cognition leading to evaluations and intentions demonstrates support (adj:R
2
¼ 0:549,
F ¼ 148:2, sig: ¼ 0:000). Both the natural environment beliefs (std.beta ¼ 0:331,
sig: ¼ 0:000) and the built environment beliefs (std.beta ¼ 0:483, sig: ¼ 0:000) constructs
are shown to be related to the evaluations of China as a destination. These results show that
the built environment is more important to the evaluation as indicated by the higher
standardized beta coef?cient. However, both environmental belief sets are important with
strong relationships to the evaluation of China. In addition, the destination evaluation
construct is related to respondents’ travel intentions (adj:R
2
¼ 0:639, F ¼ 468:4,
sig: ¼ 0:000, std.beta ¼ 0:800, sig: ¼ 0:000). Therefore, both belief sets are ultimately
related to travel intentions about China.
The country as a destination, the people and the country itself provide the context for the
Olympic Games. However, the mega-event itself has a unique image and the attributes of
this image are presented in Table III. Attribute based image research on mega-events or,
more speci?cally, the Olympic Games, are limited (Walliser, 2003). Therefore, a more
exploratory approach to the constructs has been embraced for this portion of the study and
the items are organized by the results of a factor analysis. The table provides the Eigenvalue
for each factor in parentheses as well as the loadings for each item. This approach yields ?ve
factors with Eigenvalues over one and these factors re?ect the underlying theoretical
framework of attitudes and its three components (i.e. cognitive, affect and conative). While
the value for money item has a low loading with the evaluation factor, value for money is
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included here to present the mean score in the empirically and theoretically best ?tting
factor. Further, the construct achieves a Cronbach’s Alpha value of 0.886 when the item is
included indicating that the item contributes to the re?ection of the underlying evaluation
construct.
Three beliefs sets exist with the experiential beliefs achieving the highest mean scores
followed by logistics beliefs and security beliefs. A linear regression of these belief sets on
the evaluation of the Olympic Games’ image shows overall support for the attitudinal
framework (adj:R
2
¼ 0:542, F ¼ 104:6, sig: ¼ 0:000). Among the three belief constructs,
experiential (std.beta ¼ 0:497, sig: ¼ 0:000) and logistics (std.beta ¼ 0:257, sig: ¼ 0:000)
beliefs are signi?cantly related to evaluations while no support exists for the relationship with
the security beliefs construct (std.beta ¼ 0:082, sig: ¼ 0:106). The evaluation of the Olympic
Games’ image is related to respondents’ intentions about engaging in the event
(adj:R
2
¼ 0:349, F ¼ 147:1, sig: ¼ 0:000, std.beta ¼ 0:592, sig: ¼ 0:000). Therefore,
despite less positive perceptions about security issues with the Games, intentions to
engage in the event are ultimately driven by beliefs about the experience and logistical
issues.
The descriptive statistics provide the views of respondents for China and its people, for the
country as a destination, and for the Olympic Games. However, the hypothesis testing is
focused on understanding the relationship of these images at the evaluation level. For
Table II Mean responses for destination image items
n Mean
Natural environment of China (0.76)
Attractive scenery 282 4.0
Variety of activities 280 3.8
Peaceful/quiet 285 3.3
Wilderness 275 3.3
Climate 282 2.8
Built environment beliefs (0.86)
Culturally interesting 283 4.5
Tourist attractions 286 4.2
Shopping facilities 280 4.1
Safety 281 3.9
Nightlife/entertainment 279 3.8
Selection of restaurants 282 3.8
Accommodation 283 3.8
Quality of service 281 3.7
Ease of ?nding interesting places 281 3.7
Sport facilities 275 3.7
Ease of getting around 282 3.6
Family 274 3.4
Evaluations of destination (0.70)
Memorability of experience 284 4.6
Originality of experience 281 4.3
Proud to visit 283 4.2
Value for money 284 4.2
Overall rating 286 4.1
Overall satisfaction 283 4.0
Relative to expectations 285 4.0
Rating compared with others 284 3.6
Knowledge of destination 284 3.6
Travel intentions (0.93)
Like to visit again 280 4.2
Willingness to recommend 282 4.2
Willingness to return 285 4.0
Intention to visit again 286 4.0
Willingness to extend stay 284 3.4
Notes: 1 ¼ low/poor, 5 ¼ high/good
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hypothesis testing, the summary measures of the constructs, calculated by creating an
average score among those items that re?ect the evaluations of each image, are used to
assess the relationships. Table IV shows the results of the hypotheses tests using linear
regression. The results demonstrate support for the four hypotheses. Multicollinearity of the
data is not of concern as the VIF statistics are all below 10 that normally indicates a problem
(Stevens, 1992).
Therefore, the data supports direct relationships between the country image evaluation
and the image evaluations of China as a destination (H1) and of the Olympic Games
(H2). However, the support for the relationship between tourism destination evaluation
and the evaluation of the Olympic Games’ image (H3) suggests that an alternative
understanding of the images may exist. Support for the intervening nature of the
evaluation of tourism destination image on the relationship between the evaluation of the
host country image and of the Olympic Games (H4) indicates that an alternative, more
holistic understanding of these relationships is required. Therefore, all three images
appear to be important to assess the impact of hosting mega-events. The relationship
between country image evaluation and the Olympic Games evaluation becoming
insigni?cant under the holistic testing condition is noteworthy. This suggests that the
in?uence of country image on the Olympic Games’ image works through the destination
image. While country image remains important to the evaluation of the mega-event,
country image provides the context for the image of the destination. This interpretation is
consistent with previous research that found country image beliefs informed the beliefs
and evaluation of the destination image (Nadeau et al., 2008).
Table III Mean responses for Olympic Games image items
n Mean Factor loading
Experiential beliefs (2.41)
Memorability 281 4.5 0.57
Originality of experience 281 4.3 0.79
Culturally interesting 281 4.3 0.77
Attractive facilities 280 4.3 0.56
Variety of activities 280 4.1 0.72
Entertainment/nightlife 280 4.1 0.60
Logistics beliefs (1.23)
Overall satisfaction 279 4.2 0.55
Ease of ?nding something of interest 281 4.0 0.57
Quality of service 278 4.0 0.53
Ease of getting around 282 3.8 0.74
Ease of attending 282 3.7 0.65
Security beliefs (1.10)
Safety 282 3.9 0.74
For the family 280 3.7 0.71
Peaceful 279 3.6 0.80
Evaluation (10.58)
Rating compared with other events 277 4.5 0.70
Attractive 284 4.4 0.77
Overall rating 282 4.4 0.73
Likeability 284 4.4 0.69
Proud to visit 284 4.4 0.50
Worthy 284 4.4 0.79
Value for money 284 3.8 0.34
Intentions (1.46)
Willingness to watch on TV 285 4.6 0.73
Willingness to recommend to friends 285 4.6 0.80
Willingness to read about 285 4.5 0.80
Willingness to travel 285 4.5 0.64
Knowledge of the Olympic Games 284 4.1 0.62
Notes: 1 ¼ low/poor, 5 ¼ high/good
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Conclusions
The ?ndings reported in this study have several practical implications derived from the
images of the country, the destination and the Olympic Games. First, the country image of
China among tourists is based on the character of the country and its people. This
multi-dimensional approach to country image is re?ective of previous research in the area
(Heslop et al., 2004; Laroche et al., 2005). The perceived character about the country is seen
as less positive than the other country image dimensions. This may be detrimental to China
because results show that the country character dimension is an important determinant of
China’s image. Therefore, communications about China should address country character
issues and convey its strengths, building on the character of the people (e.g. friendliness,
helpful, courteous), because these dimensions in?uence country image evaluations.
Second, the destination image of China contains two dimensions: the natural and the built
environments. This re?ects previous tourism destination image research that acknowledges
the importance of the natural and built environments (Baloglu and McCleary, 1999; Echtner
and Ritchie, 1993; Nadeau et al., 2008). The built environment is viewed more positively than
the natural environment. While both dimensions appear in?uential in the evaluation of the
destination image and indirectly lead to travel intentions, the built environment has a
stronger relationship to the destination evaluation than the natural environment. Therefore,
China should exploit their strengths as a destination that is culturally interesting, has many
tourist attractions and shopping facilities, and is safe. Meanwhile, the country should also
address some natural environment weaknesses in perceptions about its climate, wilderness
and peacefulness.
Third, organizers of the Olympic Games will be interested to ?nd its image is comprised of
three main belief dimensions: experiential, logistics, and security. The image of the Games is
most positively associated with the experiential dimension and organizers should promote
the event in this way. Message communication should position the event as a memorable,
original and culturally interesting event with excellent facilities, a variety of activities and
good entertainment value. Event organizers should also integrate the logistics dimension by
communicating the ease of ?nding something of interest while addressing less positive
aspects of navigating and attending the event. Both of these dimensions are found to be
related to the evaluation of the Olympic Games and ultimately to the intentions people had
about their engagement with the event.
The study also contributes to the theoretical understanding of mega-event images and the
relationship of these images to those of their host country. Results show that the image of the
host country as a destination intervened on the relationship between the host country image
and the image of the mega-event (i.e. Olympic Games). The ?nding provides support for
previous research that found country image acts as the context for a destination image
Table IV Hypothesis testing results
Relationship Std. Beta Coeff. Std. Error t Sig. of t Collinearity (VIF)
Model for H1
Country image evaluation – tourism destination image evaluation
a
CIEval-TDIEval 0.72 0.04 16.81 0.00 1.00
Model for H2: country image evaluation – Olympic Games image evaluation
b
CIEval-OGEval 0.34 0.05 5.68 0.00 1.00
Model for H3: tourism destination image evaluation – Olympic Games image evaluation
c
TDIEval-OGEval 0.45 0.06 8.11 0.00 1.00
Model for H4: Country image evaluation – tourism destination image evaluation – Olympic Games image evaluation
d
TDIEval-OGEval 0.43 0.09 5.10 0.00 2.11
CIEval-OGEval 0.01 0.07 0.17 0.87 2.11
Notes:
a
Adj. R-square ¼ 0.52, Std. error ¼ 0.42, F ¼ 282.5, Sig. of F ¼ 0.000;
b
Adj. R-square ¼ 0.11, Std. error ¼ 0.58, F ¼ 32.2, Sig. of
F ¼ 0.000;
c
Adj. R-square ¼ 0.20, Std. error ¼ 0.55, F ¼ 65.8, Sig. of F ¼ 0.000;
d
Adj. R-square ¼ 0.183, Std. error ¼ 0.551, F ¼ 28.7,
Sig. of F ¼ 0.000
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(Nadeau et al., 2008) and, by extension, the image of mega-events hosted by the country.
These results demonstrate the salience of all three images and reinforce the importance of
considering perceptions about potential mega-event host countries when making the
selection decision.
Some limitations of the study are evident, based on the methodology employed. First, the
study presents the country and destination images of China during the staging of a
mega-event. The image among tourists may be signi?cantly different if a sample was drawn
at an alternative point in time. Second, the Olympic Games represent a single mega-event.
While the nature of the Olympic Games as a rotational country hosting event is ideal for
testing linkages of relationships that include country image, future research may seek to
replicate the study with an alternative event and in a different country. In addition, future
research should be broadened to explore the relationships of country and mega-event
images with other important images (i.e. sponsors).
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Corresponding author
John Nadeau can be contacted at: [email protected]
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doc_802779563.pdf
This paper aims to report on the views that tourists in China have about the country, its
people, the country as a destination and the 2008 Olympic Games that were held there.
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
China's Olympic destination: tourist evaluations of China and the Games
J ohn Nadeau Norm O'Reilly Louise Heslop
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To cite this document:
J ohn Nadeau Norm O'Reilly Louise Heslop, (2011),"China's Olympic destination: tourist evaluations of China and the Games", International
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China’s Olympic destination: tourist
evaluations of China and the Games
John Nadeau, Norm O’Reilly and Louise Heslop
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to report on the views that tourists in China have about the country, its
people, the country as a destination and the 2008 Olympic Games that were held there.
Design/methodology/approach – The study utilizes a survey in which responses were gathered from
288 tourists in Beijing, China during the 2008 Olympic Summer Games. The study presents results for
China’s three images (country, destination, and mega-event) using an attitudinal framework and
explores the patterns of relationships using linear regression.
Findings – Results of the study show that tourists perceive China positively in terms of the country and
people competencies and the character of the people. China is less positively viewed in terms of country
character. As a destination, China is seen positively for its built environment but less positively for its
natural environment. Positive experiential and logistical beliefs characterize the Olympic Games, while
beliefs about security are less positive. The data support the assertion that the three images are
important and related. In addition, the evaluation of China as a destination involves the relationship of the
country image evaluation to the evaluation of the Olympic Games.
Originality/value – This paper addresses a gap that exists in image-based research on mega-events.
In particular, this study explores mega-event image in the context of the host country and destination
images.
Keywords Olympic Games, China, Destination image, Country image, Mega-event image
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
One of the bene?ts of hosting mega-events is that they attract tourists to the city, region, and
country that is hosting the mega-event. These bene?ts include both short-term
(e.g. spending, attendance at the event) and long-term (i.e. potential return visits, brand)
advantages for the host destination. This research focuses on the shorter-term impacts of
hosting a mega-event by empirically examining tourist views of the host country during a
mega-event. Speci?cally, the researchers explore the Summer Olympic Games of 2008,
held in Beijing, China, with the aim of examining the in?uence of a mega-event on tourist
perceptions of the host country, its people and the Olympic Games.
A common approach to assessing tourist perceptions of destinations is place image theory.
Place images are used to understand the complex reality of geographic locations such as
countries, cities, towns, etc. These images are useful in the tourism context where tourism
marketers promote, develop and communicate images to attract tourists and where people,
as potential tourists, use these images to make decisions about their where to travel (Baloglu
and McCleary, 1999; Goodrich, 1978; Hunt, 1975; Pike and Ryan, 2004; Tapachai and
Waryszak, 2000). Destination (or place) images include the beliefs, feelings and impressions
associated with a place, developed in people’s minds in a variety of ways (Baloglu and
McCleary, 1999). The unit of analysis in place image research is typically the country, although
a place can certainly refer to a city or region as well. This paper reports on the image of the
DOI 10.1108/17506181111156934 VOL. 5 NO. 3 2011, pp. 235-246, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1750-6182
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CULTURE, TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH
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PAGE 235
John Nadeau is an
Associate Professor at the
Nipissing University, North
Bay, Canada. Norm O’Reilly
is an Associate Professor at
the University of Ottawa,
Ottawa, Canada. Louise
Heslop is a Professor at
Carleton University, Ottawa,
Canada.
Received: December 2009
Revised: May 2010
Accepted: October 2010
This research is supported by a
Strategic grant from the
SSHRC. The authors would also
like to acknowledge the Capital
Institute of Physical Education
in Beijing, China for providing
support that enabled some of
the data collection. In addition,
the authors extend their
gratitude to the research
assistants who collected the
data – Tyler Aird, Don Lord,
Ryan McLeod, Junzhe Xu, and
Kathleen Zinn.
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Olympic Games host at the country level, given that people often refer to country as the host of
the mega-events and most often the countries fund, organize and bid for mega-events. Thus,
in an effort to improve collective understanding of the role of host country images with
mega-events, this paper explores the 2008 Summer Olympic Games host country image (its
people, country, products and as a destination) on the image of the Games.
Place image
Research on the topic of place image evolves from two literature roots: destination images
are frequently examined in tourism studies while place images are investigated in marketing
studies exploring the relationship of place images with product selection decisions. To
illustrate, the development of the country-of-origin or the product-country image ?eld in
marketing examines the relationship of product and country images on evaluations
(Nebenzahl et al., 1997). Other research demonstrates that the image of the country is a
salient consideration in the destination decision-making process (Nadeau et al., 2008).
Intuitively, therefore, the host country image is an important aspect of the destination
evaluation.
In order to understand place image, one must possess an understanding that images
summarize, standardize, and generalize information from many sources and about many
aspects of the image object. That is, an image is created in the mind of an individual from
many sources and experiences, some of which can be managed or leveraged by a tourism
marketer. The body of literature that explores place image in the tourism context, via
empirical assessments of destination image, normally utilizes an attitudinal approach that
includes beliefs, evaluative feelings, and behavioral intentions about the destination
(Baloglu and McCleary, 1999). Like general consumers, potential tourists use images to
simplify the complex destination choices that they face by managing information and
applying this information to direct their behavior (Kotler and Gertner, 2002). Thus, attitudes
play an important role in how images impact consumer behavior, whereby an attitude
towards some object is a summary of the many captured psychological in?uences (Ajzen,
2001). Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) outline howattitudes are built via three aspects – cognition
(or beliefs held), affect (emotions or evaluations), and conation (intent to behave) – about
image of interest.
While the means of measuring place images in the tourism literature differs, a common thread
is that place image is a multidimensional construct within an attitudinal framework. This
multidimensional approach conceptualizes beliefs about the natural and built environments,
as well as evaluations and intentions to visit the destination. For example, the natural
environment beliefs construct includes measures about the scenery and climate (Echtner and
Ritchie, 1993) and measures about the built environment include beliefs about quality of
shopping, nightlife and sport facilities (Baloglu and McCleary, 1999; Echtner and Ritchie,
1993). Evaluation measures include an overall assessment of the destination (Reilly, 1990)
while the travel intention measures include the destination selection decision (Chon, 1990;
Foster and Jones, 2000) and the willingness to recommend the place to others (Chon, 1991).
Marketing research on place images typically explores the relationship of place images to
product decisions. Building from early unidimensional studies of country image (Erickson
et al., 1984; Han, 1988), the ?eld now takes a multidimensional approach that encompasses
a context broader than focusing solely on products and includes an attitudinal framework
(Heslop et al., 2004; Laroche et al., 2005; Orbaiz and Papadopoulos, 2003). Conceptually,
the belief dimensions of product-country image include people character (e.g. likeability,
friendliness), country character (e.g. wealth, role in world politics), people competencies
(e.g. work ethic, industriousness), and country competencies (e.g. technology level, skill
level of workers) (Heslop et al., 2004).
Mega-events and the Summer Olympic Games
Mega-events have the ability to reach multiple mass markets, to attain signi?cant resources
through sponsorship and media rights, and to attract considerable interest from outside the
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region in which they take place. Research in the area assesses their impact on business and
society (Dolles and So¨ derman, 2008) as well as empirical examinations of their reach via
sponsorship and intent-to-purchase longitudinally (O’Reilly et al., 2008). Examples of large
global properties which ?t the de?nition of a mega-event include the Olympic Games, the
Grey Cup, the FIFA World Cup, the Masters Golf Tournament, the Ryder Cup, the Super
Bowl, the World’s Fair, Mardi Gras, Wimbledon, the Running of the Bulls (Pamplona) and the
Tour de France. All play important roles in their local economies and act as central elements
of the media-based culture (Wise and Miles, 1997).
When considering a mega-event like the Summer Olympic Games, tourism marketing
begins on the basis that the mega-event provides the host country with an opportunity to
reinforce or change the attitudes held by the rest of the world. Recent research emphasizes
the economic, social and marketing bene?t of mega-events (Dolles and So¨ derman, 2008;
O’Reilly et al., 2008). The focus of this research is an unmatched global property in terms of
interest generated, the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, which attracted approximately
10,000 athletes from over 200 countries, with an estimated television audience of more than
4.7 billion people (Nielsen, 2008). ‘‘The Games’’ are a mega-event that involves a two-week
multi-sport athletic competition that has taken place every four years since 1896 in most of
the world’s great cities, including London, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, and most recently Beijing. The
rights holder of the Games is the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which accepts
bids (one bid per country) for the Games and awards the Games to a single city
approximately seven years before the Games are scheduled. As such, the Games are rarely
held in the same location more than once, thus providing opportunities for cities to bid for the
event and build programming around the event to promote their country and enhance the
related images. The Games were held in a number of venues, mostly around the capital city
of Beijing; however satellite facilities were found throughout China, including Hong Kong.
The IOC (2001, 2002) is very concerned about the image and the desired Olympic values
(e.g. peace, festive, cultural exchange, fair play, equality, tradition, honor, etc.). They
demonstrate this concern through efforts in the areas of exclusivity, environment, brand
protection, size reduction, new rules cities, etc. (IOC, 1999). Similarly, international
perceptions of the host country are important to both the IOC and the host in terms of a
variety of important considerations including international relations, revenue generation,
tourism, product purchasing, export/import issues and investing decisions. Given the
interests of governments, the views of the host country’s citizens are also of considerable
interest, where both positives (image, infrastructure, legacy, etc.) and negatives
(opportunity cost, disruption, etc.) exist concerning the hosting of the Games. The IOC
also possesses a resilient image that includes the Olympic rings, National Olympic
Committee logos, and other related symbols that are recognized around the world
(Seguin and O’Reilly, 2008). Previous research (Jaffe and Nebenzahl, 1993) found that
hosting the 1988 Olympic Games positively in?uenced beliefs about South Korea and
consumer willingness to buy their products, showing that hosting the Olympic Games
could alter the image of the host country.
A primary motivator for China to host the Olympic Games was the enhancement of its
international image (Goodspeed, 2008). In this regard, China has acted to control media
stories about the country (Bodeen, 2008; Goodspeed, 2008; Foss and Walkosz, 2008; Fram,
2008). A second important point is that China is a developing country host. From an external
perspective, China’s status as a developing country suggests that its image would be similar
to other developing countries where a poor image is associated with its products (Ahmed
and d’Astous, 1993; Chao, 1993; Cordell, 1992; Kaynak et al., 2000; Mohamad et al., 2000;
Tse and Gorn, 1992). Previous research illustrates that consumers and retail buyers hold a
preference for developed countries and their products (Heslop et al., 2004). Speci?c to
China’s image, however, other studies con?rm this general trend and show that consumers
hold a poor image of products from China (Brunner et al., 1993). Negative publicity also
exists for China about its product quality and safety (Rennie, 2008). Negative publicity is also
present in Western media, by criticizing China’s human rights record, in particular; this
coverage intensi?ed as the Olympic Games approached (Human Rights Watch, 2007).
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Hypotheses
The preceding discussion has identi?ed the theoretical framework for the current study.
Theory about attitudes and images provides the basis for this research. These areas help us
to understand the relationship around the evaluative dimension of images when hosting a
mega-event such as the 2008 Olympic Games in China. Although some country image
beliefs are related to speci?c dimensions of tourism destination image (Nadeau et al., 2008),
evaluations underlie the relatedness among these images. Evaluations for each image
involve a cognitive process enabling the integration of additional information provided by
other images. Figure 1 illustrates the hypothesized relationships and stated as follows:
H1. The evaluation of the country and people image is positively related to the
evaluation of China as a destination.
H2. The evaluation of the country and people image is positively related to the
evaluation of the Olympic Games.
H3. The evaluation of China as a destination is positively related to the evaluation of the
Olympic Games.
H4. The evaluation of China as a destination intervenes on the relationship between the
evaluations of country and people and the Olympic Games.
Methodology
The researchers collected data to test the study’s hypotheses using image measures based
on a previous study of country and destination images (Nadeau et al., 2008) and with
measures from the literature reviewed above. The questionnaire contained sections to
measure attitudes towards China as a destination (22 measures), the country and people of
China (33 measures), and the Olympic Games as a destination (26 measures). All image
measure responses were made on a ?ve-point scale (1 being low/poor, 5 being high/good).
Demographic questions were also asked to garner information about the respondent’s
gender, age and level of education. The sample was gathered during the 2008 Olympic
Games in Beijing. Street- and mall-intercept techniques were employed as tourists were
randomly approached in busy public areas. In exchange for their time, respondents
received a small token of appreciation. The researchers collected a total sample size of 288.
This sample is characterized as 51.4 per cent males with an average age of 21-30 years old.
Figure 1 Framework for hypothesis testing
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The sample represents those with relatively high levels of education as 39.6 per cent of
respondents hold a university degree and 33.9 per cent hold a graduate degree.
Results
Developing countries often have negative or less positive images as a destination or as
places of production when compared to developed countries (Ahmed and d’Astous, 1993;
Chao, 1993; Cordell, 1992; Kaynak et al., 2000; Mohamad et al., 2000; Tse and Gorn, 1992).
The preference for developed countries may be re?ected in some of the descriptive results
of country image presented in Table I. For instance, the character of the country displays
less positive mean scores than other dimensions of their country image. Indeed, two items
representing the country character construct are below the scale midpoint of 3 (rights and
freedoms ¼ 2:22, environmental/pollution controls ¼ 2:21). These items seem to re?ect the
public criticisms China experienced around the Olympic Games on these issues
(e.g. Human Rights Watch, 2007). However, China is also viewed very positively as the
people character and the country and people competencies measurement items achieve
relatively strong ratings indicating the people are well liked and are considered to be well
Table I Mean responses for country image items
n Mean
People character of China (0.906)
Likeability 283 4.05
Fascinating people 279 4.01
Friendliness 283 4.01
Helpful 283 3.98
Courteous 279 3.88
Honest 279 3.73
Trustworthiness 280 3.59
Country character (0.839)
Role in world politics 275 3.44
Political stability 274 3.18
Quality of life 280 3.05
Wealth 276 3.01
Rights and freedoms 277 2.22
Enviro/pollution controls 281 2.21
Country and people competencies (0.696)
Industriousness 279 4.15
Work ethic 275 4.10
Technology level 282 3.75
Avail. skilled workers 272 3.58
Stability of economy 275 3.54
Education level 275 3.48
Workers’ skill level 279 3.34
Individualism 280 3.03
Evaluations of people and country (0.685)
Appealing culture 281 4.07
Enjoy being with 279 3.85
Overall rate 279 3.80
Knowledge of China 279 3.53
Rating compared with others 279 3.44
Alignment with own country 277 2.78
Desired links (0.779)
Tourists to China 281 3.99
Visitors from China 281 3.98
Exports to China 279 3.96
Political/economic ties 279 3.95
Imports from China 280 3.24
Immigration from China 281 3.14
Notes: 1 ¼ low/poor, 5 ¼ high/good
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skilled and hard working. In addition, the evaluations of China’s image are generally positive.
However, the alignment with one’s own country is one item that is below the scale midpoint.
Table I also presents the Cronbach’s Alpha test of reliability for each construct. The test
scores are all generally in the acceptable range of greater than 0.700 with one exception.
The evaluations of people and country, achieve a relatively low Cronbach’s Alpha value of
0.685. The construct receives a much higher Cronbach’s Alpha value of 0.795 when one item
is dropped (i.e. appealing culture). Therefore, the item is excluded from further analysis and
not included in a summary variable based on average responses to these items
representing the construct. The relatively low Cronbach’s Alpha value of 0.696 for the
country and people competencies construct is improved to 0.780 by dropping the education
level item from further analysis.
Using attitude theory as a guide for organizing the constructs, a linear regression
demonstrates that the three aggregate belief constructs of people character, country
character and country and people competencies are signi?cantly related to the evaluation of
China’s country image (adj:R
2
¼ 0:487, F ¼ 76:6, sig: ¼ 0:000). At the individual construct
level, people character (std.beta ¼ 0:392, sig: ¼ 0:000) and country character
(std.beta.434, sig: ¼ 0:000) are related to country image evaluation while the
competencies of the country and people construct (std.beta ¼ 0:021, sig: ¼ 0:745) is
found not to be related to the evaluation construct. Therefore, the relatively weak image
dimension of country character for China does seem to be harming the country’s overall
image in this case. Further, the evaluation of country’s image is related to the linkages
respondents would like to see between China and their home country (adj:R
2
¼ 0:300,
F ¼ 76:6, sig: ¼ 0:000, std.beta ¼ 0:547, sig: ¼ 0:000).
A similar ?nding is discovered with China’s destination image where one belief construct is
viewed more positively than the other. Table II presents the mean scores for the destination
image items. Table II is organized by relevant tourism destination image constructs and
shows the Cronbach’s Alpha values attained by each construct in parentheses. The mean
scores for the belief constructs show overall that the built environment of China is more
positively viewed than the natural environment. The natural environment has one item with a
mean score below the scale midpoint of 3 (climate ¼ 2:82) while the built environment had
three items achieve ratings over 4 (culturally interesting ¼ 4:52, tourist attractions ¼ 4:15,
shopping facilities ¼ 4:06). The relatively low Cronbach’s Alpha value of 0.697 for the
destination evaluation construct may be improved dramatically to 0.848 by dropping one
item (i.e. memorability of experience). Therefore, this item is excluded from the summary
construct in further testing. A linear regression analysis testing the attitude theory base of
cognition leading to evaluations and intentions demonstrates support (adj:R
2
¼ 0:549,
F ¼ 148:2, sig: ¼ 0:000). Both the natural environment beliefs (std.beta ¼ 0:331,
sig: ¼ 0:000) and the built environment beliefs (std.beta ¼ 0:483, sig: ¼ 0:000) constructs
are shown to be related to the evaluations of China as a destination. These results show that
the built environment is more important to the evaluation as indicated by the higher
standardized beta coef?cient. However, both environmental belief sets are important with
strong relationships to the evaluation of China. In addition, the destination evaluation
construct is related to respondents’ travel intentions (adj:R
2
¼ 0:639, F ¼ 468:4,
sig: ¼ 0:000, std.beta ¼ 0:800, sig: ¼ 0:000). Therefore, both belief sets are ultimately
related to travel intentions about China.
The country as a destination, the people and the country itself provide the context for the
Olympic Games. However, the mega-event itself has a unique image and the attributes of
this image are presented in Table III. Attribute based image research on mega-events or,
more speci?cally, the Olympic Games, are limited (Walliser, 2003). Therefore, a more
exploratory approach to the constructs has been embraced for this portion of the study and
the items are organized by the results of a factor analysis. The table provides the Eigenvalue
for each factor in parentheses as well as the loadings for each item. This approach yields ?ve
factors with Eigenvalues over one and these factors re?ect the underlying theoretical
framework of attitudes and its three components (i.e. cognitive, affect and conative). While
the value for money item has a low loading with the evaluation factor, value for money is
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included here to present the mean score in the empirically and theoretically best ?tting
factor. Further, the construct achieves a Cronbach’s Alpha value of 0.886 when the item is
included indicating that the item contributes to the re?ection of the underlying evaluation
construct.
Three beliefs sets exist with the experiential beliefs achieving the highest mean scores
followed by logistics beliefs and security beliefs. A linear regression of these belief sets on
the evaluation of the Olympic Games’ image shows overall support for the attitudinal
framework (adj:R
2
¼ 0:542, F ¼ 104:6, sig: ¼ 0:000). Among the three belief constructs,
experiential (std.beta ¼ 0:497, sig: ¼ 0:000) and logistics (std.beta ¼ 0:257, sig: ¼ 0:000)
beliefs are signi?cantly related to evaluations while no support exists for the relationship with
the security beliefs construct (std.beta ¼ 0:082, sig: ¼ 0:106). The evaluation of the Olympic
Games’ image is related to respondents’ intentions about engaging in the event
(adj:R
2
¼ 0:349, F ¼ 147:1, sig: ¼ 0:000, std.beta ¼ 0:592, sig: ¼ 0:000). Therefore,
despite less positive perceptions about security issues with the Games, intentions to
engage in the event are ultimately driven by beliefs about the experience and logistical
issues.
The descriptive statistics provide the views of respondents for China and its people, for the
country as a destination, and for the Olympic Games. However, the hypothesis testing is
focused on understanding the relationship of these images at the evaluation level. For
Table II Mean responses for destination image items
n Mean
Natural environment of China (0.76)
Attractive scenery 282 4.0
Variety of activities 280 3.8
Peaceful/quiet 285 3.3
Wilderness 275 3.3
Climate 282 2.8
Built environment beliefs (0.86)
Culturally interesting 283 4.5
Tourist attractions 286 4.2
Shopping facilities 280 4.1
Safety 281 3.9
Nightlife/entertainment 279 3.8
Selection of restaurants 282 3.8
Accommodation 283 3.8
Quality of service 281 3.7
Ease of ?nding interesting places 281 3.7
Sport facilities 275 3.7
Ease of getting around 282 3.6
Family 274 3.4
Evaluations of destination (0.70)
Memorability of experience 284 4.6
Originality of experience 281 4.3
Proud to visit 283 4.2
Value for money 284 4.2
Overall rating 286 4.1
Overall satisfaction 283 4.0
Relative to expectations 285 4.0
Rating compared with others 284 3.6
Knowledge of destination 284 3.6
Travel intentions (0.93)
Like to visit again 280 4.2
Willingness to recommend 282 4.2
Willingness to return 285 4.0
Intention to visit again 286 4.0
Willingness to extend stay 284 3.4
Notes: 1 ¼ low/poor, 5 ¼ high/good
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hypothesis testing, the summary measures of the constructs, calculated by creating an
average score among those items that re?ect the evaluations of each image, are used to
assess the relationships. Table IV shows the results of the hypotheses tests using linear
regression. The results demonstrate support for the four hypotheses. Multicollinearity of the
data is not of concern as the VIF statistics are all below 10 that normally indicates a problem
(Stevens, 1992).
Therefore, the data supports direct relationships between the country image evaluation
and the image evaluations of China as a destination (H1) and of the Olympic Games
(H2). However, the support for the relationship between tourism destination evaluation
and the evaluation of the Olympic Games’ image (H3) suggests that an alternative
understanding of the images may exist. Support for the intervening nature of the
evaluation of tourism destination image on the relationship between the evaluation of the
host country image and of the Olympic Games (H4) indicates that an alternative, more
holistic understanding of these relationships is required. Therefore, all three images
appear to be important to assess the impact of hosting mega-events. The relationship
between country image evaluation and the Olympic Games evaluation becoming
insigni?cant under the holistic testing condition is noteworthy. This suggests that the
in?uence of country image on the Olympic Games’ image works through the destination
image. While country image remains important to the evaluation of the mega-event,
country image provides the context for the image of the destination. This interpretation is
consistent with previous research that found country image beliefs informed the beliefs
and evaluation of the destination image (Nadeau et al., 2008).
Table III Mean responses for Olympic Games image items
n Mean Factor loading
Experiential beliefs (2.41)
Memorability 281 4.5 0.57
Originality of experience 281 4.3 0.79
Culturally interesting 281 4.3 0.77
Attractive facilities 280 4.3 0.56
Variety of activities 280 4.1 0.72
Entertainment/nightlife 280 4.1 0.60
Logistics beliefs (1.23)
Overall satisfaction 279 4.2 0.55
Ease of ?nding something of interest 281 4.0 0.57
Quality of service 278 4.0 0.53
Ease of getting around 282 3.8 0.74
Ease of attending 282 3.7 0.65
Security beliefs (1.10)
Safety 282 3.9 0.74
For the family 280 3.7 0.71
Peaceful 279 3.6 0.80
Evaluation (10.58)
Rating compared with other events 277 4.5 0.70
Attractive 284 4.4 0.77
Overall rating 282 4.4 0.73
Likeability 284 4.4 0.69
Proud to visit 284 4.4 0.50
Worthy 284 4.4 0.79
Value for money 284 3.8 0.34
Intentions (1.46)
Willingness to watch on TV 285 4.6 0.73
Willingness to recommend to friends 285 4.6 0.80
Willingness to read about 285 4.5 0.80
Willingness to travel 285 4.5 0.64
Knowledge of the Olympic Games 284 4.1 0.62
Notes: 1 ¼ low/poor, 5 ¼ high/good
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Conclusions
The ?ndings reported in this study have several practical implications derived from the
images of the country, the destination and the Olympic Games. First, the country image of
China among tourists is based on the character of the country and its people. This
multi-dimensional approach to country image is re?ective of previous research in the area
(Heslop et al., 2004; Laroche et al., 2005). The perceived character about the country is seen
as less positive than the other country image dimensions. This may be detrimental to China
because results show that the country character dimension is an important determinant of
China’s image. Therefore, communications about China should address country character
issues and convey its strengths, building on the character of the people (e.g. friendliness,
helpful, courteous), because these dimensions in?uence country image evaluations.
Second, the destination image of China contains two dimensions: the natural and the built
environments. This re?ects previous tourism destination image research that acknowledges
the importance of the natural and built environments (Baloglu and McCleary, 1999; Echtner
and Ritchie, 1993; Nadeau et al., 2008). The built environment is viewed more positively than
the natural environment. While both dimensions appear in?uential in the evaluation of the
destination image and indirectly lead to travel intentions, the built environment has a
stronger relationship to the destination evaluation than the natural environment. Therefore,
China should exploit their strengths as a destination that is culturally interesting, has many
tourist attractions and shopping facilities, and is safe. Meanwhile, the country should also
address some natural environment weaknesses in perceptions about its climate, wilderness
and peacefulness.
Third, organizers of the Olympic Games will be interested to ?nd its image is comprised of
three main belief dimensions: experiential, logistics, and security. The image of the Games is
most positively associated with the experiential dimension and organizers should promote
the event in this way. Message communication should position the event as a memorable,
original and culturally interesting event with excellent facilities, a variety of activities and
good entertainment value. Event organizers should also integrate the logistics dimension by
communicating the ease of ?nding something of interest while addressing less positive
aspects of navigating and attending the event. Both of these dimensions are found to be
related to the evaluation of the Olympic Games and ultimately to the intentions people had
about their engagement with the event.
The study also contributes to the theoretical understanding of mega-event images and the
relationship of these images to those of their host country. Results show that the image of the
host country as a destination intervened on the relationship between the host country image
and the image of the mega-event (i.e. Olympic Games). The ?nding provides support for
previous research that found country image acts as the context for a destination image
Table IV Hypothesis testing results
Relationship Std. Beta Coeff. Std. Error t Sig. of t Collinearity (VIF)
Model for H1
Country image evaluation – tourism destination image evaluation
a
CIEval-TDIEval 0.72 0.04 16.81 0.00 1.00
Model for H2: country image evaluation – Olympic Games image evaluation
b
CIEval-OGEval 0.34 0.05 5.68 0.00 1.00
Model for H3: tourism destination image evaluation – Olympic Games image evaluation
c
TDIEval-OGEval 0.45 0.06 8.11 0.00 1.00
Model for H4: Country image evaluation – tourism destination image evaluation – Olympic Games image evaluation
d
TDIEval-OGEval 0.43 0.09 5.10 0.00 2.11
CIEval-OGEval 0.01 0.07 0.17 0.87 2.11
Notes:
a
Adj. R-square ¼ 0.52, Std. error ¼ 0.42, F ¼ 282.5, Sig. of F ¼ 0.000;
b
Adj. R-square ¼ 0.11, Std. error ¼ 0.58, F ¼ 32.2, Sig. of
F ¼ 0.000;
c
Adj. R-square ¼ 0.20, Std. error ¼ 0.55, F ¼ 65.8, Sig. of F ¼ 0.000;
d
Adj. R-square ¼ 0.183, Std. error ¼ 0.551, F ¼ 28.7,
Sig. of F ¼ 0.000
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(Nadeau et al., 2008) and, by extension, the image of mega-events hosted by the country.
These results demonstrate the salience of all three images and reinforce the importance of
considering perceptions about potential mega-event host countries when making the
selection decision.
Some limitations of the study are evident, based on the methodology employed. First, the
study presents the country and destination images of China during the staging of a
mega-event. The image among tourists may be signi?cantly different if a sample was drawn
at an alternative point in time. Second, the Olympic Games represent a single mega-event.
While the nature of the Olympic Games as a rotational country hosting event is ideal for
testing linkages of relationships that include country image, future research may seek to
replicate the study with an alternative event and in a different country. In addition, future
research should be broadened to explore the relationships of country and mega-event
images with other important images (i.e. sponsors).
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Corresponding author
John Nadeau can be contacted at: [email protected]
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