Attributes that form romantic travel experience: a study of Chinese Generation Y tourists

This paper examines attributes that form Chinese Generation Y tourists’ romantic travel experience from five perspectives, including travel companions, physical attributes, destinations’ services, social and cultural interactions and meanings. Based on 30 in-depth semi-structured interviews, this study finds that travel companions and destinations’ physical attributes are the most important antecedents of romantic travel experience. Moreover, Chinese Generation Y tourists tend to evaluate their romantic travel experience based on an overall travel experience instead of only focusing on one romantic attribute. As sex is not identified as an important attribute that form Chinese Generation Y tourists’ romantic experience, this study challenges the existing studies which highlight the importance of sexual behaviours and romantic encounters among tourists for romantic travel experience. Finally, based on these findings, a model of Chinese Generation Y tourists’ romantic travel experience is suggested.