PROGRESS IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH, VOL.
3, 107–117 (1997)
Some Considerations of Impacts
of Attitude to Foreigners by
Hotel Workers in the Peoples
Republic of China on Hospitality
Service
Jeremy R. Huyton and Anthony Ingold*
Birmingham College of Food, Tourism and Creative Studies, The University of
Birmingham, Summer Row, Birmingham B3 1JB, UK
ABSTRACT
Chinese people have long been considered to
be xenophobic, and this has not been helped
by the isolationist stance imposed by the
communist (Chinese socialist) leaders over the
past several decades. The present study was
carried out to discover the attitudes of hotel
workers in the Peoples Republic of China
(P.R.C.) to visitors to their country who stayed
in hotels. A rationale is presented for
subdividing visitors into ethnic groupings,
these being: Western; Japanese; South East
Asian; overseas (compatriot) Chinese; and
local Chinese. Given these groupings, the
study goes on to use repertory grid analysis to
analyse the attitudes of a sample of hotel
workers from a variety of departments within
hotels, and from a diverse regional spread
throughout PRC, to their hotel guests. It was
found that there was considerable uniformity
of view of the workers, independant of hotel
department, as to the attributes of their guests
relative to their ethnic origin. The most
significant distinction was that the Japanese,
South East Asian and local Chinese were all
linked together as sharing negative attributes,
that is to say they were generally disliked by
the hotel workers. Conversely, the Western
people and other (compatriot) Chinese were
generally perceived to have positive attributes
and were less unwelcome. These findings are
* Correspondence to: A. Ingold
CCC 1077–3509/97/020107–11 $17.50
discussed in more detail in the paper. © 1997
by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Received 25 March 1996; Accepted 11 July 1996
Progr. Tourism Hospit. Res. 3, 107–117 (1997)
No. of Figures: 3 No. of Tables: 2 No. of Refs: 12
Keywords: xenophobia; worker attitudes;
service quality; Peoples Republic of China
INTRODUCTION
O
ne recurrent key word of the inter-
national hotel circuit is ‘Service’ and it
is generally accepted that the only way
to give good service is to fully understand what
it is that the customer wants (Albrecht and
Zemke 1985, Shames and Glover, 1989, Zeithaml
et al. 1990). It is generally understood that the
international visitor is not prepared to accept
sub-standard furnishings, fittings and facilities
from any hotel which purports to be of a world-
class standard. Similarly it is expected that
visitors are not prepared to accept staff attitudes
which are less than caring and considerate.
If it is perceived that customers to hotels in
China will not tolerate standards any less than
those which they receive in their own home-
lands, it becomes necessary to understand what
mainland Chinese think about the hotel industry
as a career, and their attitudes towards the
service aspect of this type of work. It is open to
question whether the past decades of Commu-
nist doctrine and ideology, particularly with
© 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
108
regard to egalitarianism, have had any lasting
effect upon local staff, and if so in what way?
China has always been perceived as being
xenophobic, for as Cullen (l984) states:
China has alternatively welcomed and
shunned foreign visitors since the time of
Confucius some 2500 years ago
and this antipathy, at worst, or general ambiva-
lence towards the ‘foreigner’ is seen as being a
barrier to providing quality service to hotel
guests. Once again it is necessary to try to
understand if this dislike or distrust of ‘foreign-
ers’ is as universal as it is stated, and to what
extent this may impede the service role within a
hotel, or whether it is simply colonial folklore
and myth.
To ensure that the service quality is sat-
isfactory, one must understand what it is that
customers want from a hotel and in this instance
what they want from a hotel in China. Because of
China’s previous isolationist policies most hotel
employees have a very limited knowledge of the
expectations of the international traveller. This
lack of understanding has caused problems in
matching hotel service provision to guests’
needs, wants and expectations.
While there are notable exceptions, few of
China‘s hotel or restaurant employees have
any idea of international standards, and
mediocre food, facilities, and service are
common. (Cullen, 1988)
ETHNIC GROUPINGS OF THE HOTEL
GUESTS
Because of the occidental–oriental mix of cus-
tomers, it was anticipated that there would be a
substantial variation between the needs, wants
and expectations from the various guest types.
Thus it was decided to categorize the guests into
five principal groupings. These groupings were
based around the market mix figures provided
by the Holiday Inn Corporation (Asia/Pacific),
and the National Tourism Administration of
China‘s international arrival statistics. The ethnic
groupings were: Western; Japanese; South East
Asians; local Chinese from the People's Republic
of China, and overseas (compatriot) Chinese.
© 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. PROGRESS IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH, VOL. 3, 107–117 (1997)
J. R. Huyton and A. Ingold
First, the Western grouping incorporated all
persons who gave their nationality as coming
from Europe, North and South America, Aus-
tralia, New Zealand and South Africa. From the
authors‘ personal experience of the hotel indus-
try internationally, and from discussions with
local Hong Kong hoteliers, it was felt that in
general travellers from these countries had sim-
ilar expectations and wants from a hotel.
A second group was the Japanese people. The
reason for Japan having its own category was
because, of all arrivals to China, Japan consti-
tuted 23.6% (NTA, 1992), the single largest
number of international arrivals from any one
country. Once again, from personal experience
and observation, it was felt that the Japanese
traveller/business person tends to be specific in
their wants and preferences.
The third segment, South East Asians, as a
collective grouping constitutes a large percent-
age of international arrivals to China: 27.6%
(NTA, 1992). To date no specific research regard-
ing the needs, wants and expectations of this
group of guests has been carried out. This may
well be due to the relatively sudden and rapid
expansion of affluence in this part of the world,
with countries such as Singapore, Indonesia,
Malaysia and Korea now becoming regular intra-
regional travellers. According to the Hong Kong
Hotels Association and the Hong Kong Tourist
Association, this category of guest is the fastest
growing sector for hotel guests within the
tourism industry. Because of the size of this
market, and its importance to the hotel industry
in the region, it was decided to allocate them a
category of their own. Within this group were all
countries from Korea across to India and Paki-
stan, and as far south as Brunei, Indonesia and
the Philippines. It would also include any of the
newly emerging nations of Indo-China. Future
research could well demonstrate a need to
subdivide this group yet again.
Fourth, the overseas (compatriot) Chinese
group are those Chinese peoples on the periph-
ery of Mainland China, namely Hong Kong,
Macau and Taiwan. The P.R.C. officially recog-
nizes Macanese and Hong Kong Chinese as
returning compatriots. The same is now true for
the Taiwanese; however, they have only been
officially welcomed back to China since 1988.
Because these three groups of people are seen as
returning compatriots, they are not in the official
Chinese Worker Attitudes Towards Foreigners
figure for international visitors to China. The
arrival figures for these three countries in l991
amounted to 31,452,863 (NTA, l992). However, it
must be realised that most of these visitors
would be visiting friends and family, and would
be unlikely to use a hotel. Yet of those travellers
and business people who would use hotel
facilities, it is anticipated that their needs and
wants would be distinct from other groupings.
Quanzhou attracts more tourists who are
visiting friends and relatives, which leads to
a longer stay during their visits and a
greater use of host families. (Xiao and
Huyton, 1996)
The fifth and final grouping was for local
Chinese, that is people from the People’s Repub-
lic of China. According to Mr Tom Armstrong,
(Regional Director for Recruitment and Training,
Holiday Inn Worldwide, Asia/Pacific Region,
1993), the local Chinese market is becoming the
fastest growth area within China for the Holiday
Inn Corporation. As with the South East Asian
market, no research has been conducted into the
expectations and wants of P.R.C. locals.
In order that all staff and guests were able to
comprehend the questions on the questionnaire,
it was written in English, Chinese and Japanese.
In the cases of the Chinese and Japanese ques-
tionnaires, these were translated from the
English and then given to another translator who
blindly translated them back into English, with
any misunderstandings or colloquialisms
removed or rectified.
THE ATTITUDES OF THE CHINESE HOTEL
WORKERS TOWARDS THEIR VISITORS
In a previous study (Huyton and Ingold, 1995),
customer expectations of Chinese hotels were
ascertained to enable an educational and training
curriculum to be developed which could be
aligned to the needs and wants of the hotel
guests. A second area of investigation was the
elicitation of what the hotel worker in China felt
about the hotel industry as a long-term career.
Again it was felt that staff attitudes towards the
industry would have a direct bearing as to how
© 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. PROGRESS IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH, VOL. 3, 107–117 (1997)
109
the industry would develop in the future. In the
present study, the area explored was the atti-
tudes of those same staff towards the visitors
who stay in their hotels.
In order to gain the most meaningful inter-
pretation as to what Chinese hotel workers feel
regarding the latter aspect, the staff were asked
to complete two questionnaires which were
drawn up using a bi-polar scale and analysed
using a repertory grid (Kelly, 1955).
The grid elements were chosen to represent
the field in which the construing was investi-
gated. The grid constructs provide a basis for
measuring the attitudes or personal perceptions
which the subject has towards those elements. In
the case of the Chinese hotel workers‘ attitudes
towards hotel visitors‘, the elements were deter-
mined by the authors.
The elements for the hotel visitors were
Japanese, Western, South East Asian, local Chi-
nese and other (compatriot) Chinese. These
elements were selected to relate to the customers’
needs wants and expectations.
The elicitation of the constructs was done
using local Chinese hotel staff from the New
World Hotel in Hong Kong. A total of 15 staff
were asked to join one author (J. Huyton) and a
senior member of the hotel’s personnel and
training department. The meeting was held in an
informal and friendly atmosphere, and its pur-
pose was explained in both English and
Cantonese as to what was expected of the staff
members. The staff were asked to give their
feelings regarding the different customer groups.
That is, what did they like or dislike about
Japanese, Westerners, South East Asians, local
Chinese and compatriot Chinese. The discus-
sions about the visitors’ perceived traits was let
to ‘just happen’, with any translation which may
have needed to be done being given by the
hotel’s staff member from the personnel depart-
ment. As the various attributes of the different
nationalities were discussed, notes were taken by
the author and a list compiled.
At the end of the discussion the list was
reviewed, and the assembled staff were invited
to reduce the numbers of disseminated traits into
more generic categories. This was done and
finally 19 categories were reached, which were
then arranged into a series of bi-polar scales (Fig.
1). However, following a pilot run in a hotel in
Tianjin in North Eastern China, construct 12 was
110 J. R. Huyton and A. Ingold
Figure 1. List of constructs used in the study.
© 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. PROGRESS IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH, VOL. 3, 107–117 (1997)
Chinese Worker Attitudes Towards Foreigners
removed. This construct,’Complaints to the man-
ager–complaints to the staff’, was preceded by
‘Complaining–Uncomplaining’. The Tianjin
hotel staff found it hard to differentiate the
seriousness between whether a guest complains
in general or whether they complain to a specific
person or people. The very fact that a customer
complains was sufficient to make them feel ill at
ease. Thus the questionnaire eventually used in
China for the local hotel staff had 18 constructs.
Manual analysis of repertory grid data is a
lengthy and arduous process. Therefore given
the availability of a computer program (RepGrid
version 2.1b, Centre for Person Computer Stud-
ies, University of Calgary, Calgary Alberta,
Canada), this was chosen to analyse the raw grid
data. The data was analysed by factor analysis
using the PRINCOM section of the program.
THE PRINCIPAL-COMPONENT (PRINCOM)
PROGRAMS
The PRINCOM analysis looks at the number and
relationship between the independent variables
of a correlation matrix. The analysis asks the
question ‘How many independent dimensions
Figure 2. Example of a PRINCOM analysis (after Stewart et al. 1981).
© 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. PROGRESS IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH, VOL. 3, 107–117 (1997)
111
do we need to describe all the relationships
within this matrix?’ The computer, unlike human
beings who can at best perceive graphical repre-
sentations in three dimensions, thinks in the
abstract of any number of independent dimen-
sions, represented in hyperspace. Thus in their
example, shown in Figure 2, Stewart et al. (1981)
explain how the program has extracted two main
independent dimensions: the horizontal axis and
the vertical axis. The program also prints the
percentage of the total variance accounted for by
each axis: the horizontal axis accounts for 60% of
the total variance and the vertical axis accounts
for 25%. This leaves 15% which could be shown
on other independent axes, but this has been
omitted here. The computer will also print out
the labels of the elements and constructs which
are most closely associated with each axis, thus
allowing the interpreter to label the axes if they
so wish.
In the example given in Fig. 2 the grid shows
elements of people at work, and from a judg-
ment of the constructs that were used to describe
those elements the interpreter named the two
major axes ‘weak–strong’ and ‘I do not get on
well with–I get on well with’. The computer also
prints out the relative positions of each element
112
in the two major axes; so Boss’ Boss scores
somewhat on the ‘strong’ side and very high on
the scale ‘I get on with’, whereas Self is seen as a
little ‘weak’ and seems to like themself a bit, but
not a lot.
The interpretation of this output involves
looking at the relative positions of the various
elements or constructs or elements and con-
structs, for they can be combined on the one
printout
Following from this, 13 hotels spread through-
out China were visited. The regions were Xian in
North Western China, Beijing and Shanghai,
Suzhou and Hangchow in the Jiangsu and
Zhejiang regions, respectively, Shenzen and
Guangzhou in the Southern province of Guang-
dong and Guilin in the South West. The number
of respondents on a regional breakdown are
shown in Table 1.
WORK LOCATION OF RESPONDENTS
The respondents were categorised into four
groups: front of house; back of house; admini-
stration and ancillary; and unspecified. Although
the original objective of the survey was to
include 50% of the sample from the front of
house and the other 50% from back of house and
ancillary, this was not to be the case. The bulk of
the respondents (60%) actually came from the
front of house area of the hotels. This was due to
of the fact that in most instances the Manage-
ment of the hotels thought that it was important
to have staff who could understand or partially
understand English. Also, in subsequent discus-
sions with hotel management it was easier to get
Table 1. Respondents by region.
Region Number of Percentage
respondents of total
Xian 16 10
Beijing 34 20
Shanghai 36 22
Jiangzhe 42 25
Guangdong 25 15
Guilin 14 8 towards the various groupings of guest. The
Total 167 100
© 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. PROGRESS IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH, VOL. 3, 107–117 (1997)
J. R. Huyton and A. Ingold
front of house staff because of their enthusiasm
to mix and work with ‘foreigners’, whilst the
back of house staff apparently felt ill at ease. This
latter is an interesting finding in its own right,
perhaps warranting further study. The second
largest group was from administration and
ancillary (19%). This group was made up of staff
whose primary role was to support front-line
staff and management, but who also irregularly
came in contact with the public.
The third group was the back of house (17%).
The duties of these staff would make it such that
direct customer contact would be slight if not
completely unnecessary. The final group was
small, only 4%, and was made up of staff who
completed the questionnaire, but who, for one
reason or another, did not state their job role
within the hotel.
CHINESE HOTEL STAFF AND THEIR
ATTITUDES TOWARDS ‘FOREIGNERS’
To the Chinese a ‘Foreigner’ is very often seen as
being anyone who is not Han Chinese. Thus
there are People’s Republic of China Chinese
who whilst not being seen as ‘true foreigners’ are
also not seen as true Chinese, they are usually
referred to as simply one of the ‘Minorities’.
The reason for ascertaining the personal atti-
tudes to the different groups of hotel guest was
to try and find out the extent to which traditional
Chinese xenephobia and the years of isolation-
ism under Mao Zedong had a affected the
ordinary Chinese in the street in their reaction to
outsiders. It was felt that whilst the Bamboo
Curtain had been pulled down there would
remain a strong undercurrent of animosity to
overseas visitors because of the huge disparity
between the local Chinese standard of living and
that of the overseas visitor. If there was to be
animosity then this must affect the levels of
service which would be offered to hotel guests
and thus reduce China’s chances of attaining
international standards in the hotel and catering
industry.
Figure 3 shows the principal component ana-
lysis of the repertory grid of staff attitudes
numbers of the constructs relate to the bipolar
constructs shown in Fig. 1, which may thus be
used as a key. The most striking and significant
Chinese Worker Attitudes Towards Foreigners
finding which this analysis demonstrates is the
East–West split of constructs along the central
axis. The Japanese, South East Asian and local
Chinese groups are clearly to the left whilst the
Westerners and other (compatriot) Chinese are to
the right.
However, it is the positive and negative
aspects of the constructs which are important
and this grid shows that all of the negative
aspects are to the left and all of the positive are to
the right. Thus Japanese, South East Asians and
local Chinese are seen in a totally indifferent
light whilst Westerners and other Chinese are
perceived as being agreeable. Whilst it was
expected that there would be divisions between
113
the different groups, it was never conceived that
such an obvious split would be created.
The Japanese
The hotel staff place the Japanese in a very
isolated aspect within the grid. They have only
one construct closely related to them and that is
that they are seen as being hard to talk to (2b).
This may be due to the extreme levels of courtesy
and ritual which make up the Japanese culture
and therefore, what may be seen as a reluctance
to talk could be the Japanese own xenophobia.
The remainder of the constructs all overlap
with the South East Asians. Of all of the

Figure 3. Principle component analysis of the repertory grid of staff attitudes towards guests.
© 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. PROGRESS IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH, VOL. 3, 107–117 (1997)
114
constructs relating to any of the groups of
people, these have tended to be the most
negative. The hotel staff see these visitors as
being unfriendly (4b), loud (16b), serious (9b)
people who tend to reject any advice (8b) which
may be offered them. They are guests who tip
badly (3b) and of whom the staff feel uncomfort-
able to deal with (18b). Closely aligned to that
construct is (1b), that is they firmiy dislike them.
This construct is seen to be placed equidistant
between the two groups (South East Asians and
Japanese).
The overall attitude towards the Japanese
could be suggested to stem from their traditional
aloofness and introspection. However, it must
also be remembered that China has had a long
history of Japanese territorial expansionism,
stemming back to the late 1800s. In more recent
times there was the 1937–1945 Sino–Japanese
hostilities, during which was one of the bloodiest
attacks on a civilian city ever to have been
recorded. The Nanjing massacre is still vividly
remembered by many Chinese who lived
through it and is known by the rest of China
through the teaching of their modern day his-
tory.
For almost seven weeks the Japanese troops,
who first entered the city on December 13,
unleashed on the defeated Chinese troops
and on the helpless Chinese civilian popula-
tion a storm of violence and cruelty that has
few parallels. The female rape victims,
many of whom died after repeated assaults,
were estimated by foreign observers at
20,000; the fugitive soldiers killed were
estimated at 30,000; murdered civilians at
12,000. Robbery, wanton destruction, and
arson left much of the city in ruins. There is
no obvious explanation for this grim event
nor perhaps can one be found. (Spence,
1990)
South East Asians
Apart from being seen along with the Japanese
group as serious, loud, unfriendly, etc., the South
East Asian group have three constructs which
fall into their cluster alone: they are perceived as
being disrespectful (6b), demanding (l0b) and
yet at the same time they are noted for not being
too questioning (l4b). These constructs are inter-
© 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. PROGRESS IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH, VOL. 3, 107–117 (1997)
J. R. Huyton and A. Ingold
esting because, despite the absence of any
empirical evidence. South East Asians are seen,
regionally, as being ‘good shoppers’ . That is they
spend a long time selecting merchandise, exam-
ining every aspect and want to know a great deal
about the product. Hence the requests and
expectation of correct answers to many ques-
tions. Whether this is the way in which P.R.C.
Chinese view South East Asians specifically
would require further investigation. However,
what is strange is the fact that the South East
Asians ask many questions and yet are also
perceived as not wanting to take advice (8b).
Again this is an aspect of this work which could
benefit from further empirical study.
Another aspect of the findings which would
benefit from further research is the local’s idea
that South East Asians are disrespectful. It was
certainly noted that the way in which some
Asians spoke to the hotel staff was extremely
offhand and curt, and which bordered on the
downright rude. From a purely observational
point of view, the ethnicity of those most severe
with the staff was primarily Mongol. Whether or
not this was done because of their perceived
level of superiority to the newly emerging
Chinese nation or because it is ‘just their way’
was not fully understood. However, in discus-
sions with Hong Kong Chinese, who were
observed to be equally as offensive to the P.R.C.
staff, about their feelings regarding local staff, it
was found that the majority saw them as
‘peasants’ and the Chinese businessman as a
corrupt boor, and as yet not deserving of their
respect.
Local Chinese
This cluster sees only four constructs and none
overlapping with any other cluster. The staff of
hotels in China see their fellow men and women
as being very discourteous (5b), most untidy
(13b) and bad mannered (17b), but a group of
people who do not expect high standards (15b).
This generalist attitude towards local hotel
guests was first encountered when conducting
research at the Holiday Inn in Dalian in North
Eastern China. The hotel had a series of floors
allocated especially for the local Chinese. They
were the same structurally as for the other
visitors and the furnishings had originally all
been the same. However, because of the mal-
Chinese Worker Attitudes Towards Foreigners
treatment they had received the rooms were
definitely sub-standard when compared to the
rest of the hotel’s rooms. They were covered in
burn marks both on the surfaces of the furniture
and the carpets, the furnishings were badly
stained and in some of the bathrooms the
facilities were cracked or chipped. All of this
damage was supposedly done by local Chinese
guests who did not know the ‘proper’ way to
live in a hotel bedroom.
Thus if the local’s tolerate such discrimination,
bearing in mind that there were no discounts for
such poor accommodation, then it is under-
standable that the local staff see their
countrymen as not having high standards and as
being untidy. Because joint-venture hotels are
seen as being ‘international’ any local Chinese
who wishes to impress likes to be seen there; it is
exceptionally good ‘face’. However, their behav-
iour demeanour towards the staff is often
ostentatious and abrupt with little or no care
about the feelings of either the staff or the other
customers. Hence the perception that local Chi-
nese are discourteous (5b) and bad mannered
(l7b). Here again, there is scope for further
study.
While all of these constructs were in a negative
vein, the constructs in the cluster for the other
Chinese and the Westerner are all positive. One
construct standing in isolation and almost equi-
distant from the local and other Chinese is ‘Easy
to talk to’ (2a). This is an obvious position for this
construct because Chinese-speaking customers,
whether in Cantonese or Putonghua (Mandarin)
must be easier to talk with than those guests who
do not know or understand a word of either
Chinese languages.
Other Chinese
As with some of the other groups, a number of
the constructs for the other Chinese cross over
into another grouping, in this case the Western-
ers. However, the constructs which are for this
cluster alone are as may be expected for a group
of people who are officially looked upon by the
government of the People's Republic of China as
compatriot Chinese. The hotel staff like (1a) this
group of people and see them as being quiet
talkers (16a), that is not assertive or aggressive,
they are relaxed with their environment (9a) and
are prepared to listen to and take advice (8a).
© 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. PROGRESS IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH, VOL. 3, 107–117 (1997)
115
This is understandable because for many of the
Chinese travellers from Macau, Hong Kong and
Taiwan, visits to Mainland China are visits
‘home’.
Compatriot Chinese are perceived in the same
light as Westerners when it comes to tipping well
(3a) and being friendly (4a), and this could be
because of the gregarious nature of the West-
erner and the relaxed attitude of the other
Chinese. Overall the local staff feel comfortable
with both groups of people (18a), but obviously
this feeling is more biased towards the Other
Chinese than to the Westerners.
The Westerners
This group of people have only two constructs
which are singularly applicable to them, and that
is they are seen as being the most respectful (6a)
of all of the ethnic groups and they are also noted
as being courteous (5a). Once again any justifica-
tion for such perceptions stems from personal
observations and untested theory. In both
instances it is perhaps the Western attitude
towards other cultures that has caused them to
be seen as obeisant and cordial. The fact that
many Western nations have had a long history of
foreign nationals living within their borders, and
that there have been laws against racial discrim-
ination existing in these countries for many
years. The tolerance of other's cultures and ways
of life may be more a form of conditioning rather
than a genuine acceptance, but it appears to be
seen by non-Westerners or at least mainland
Chinese as being a positive attribute.
There is another construct which is equidistant
between these two ethnic groupings, but not in
either, and that is the attribute of tidiness (13a).
Whilst neither the Japanese nor the Westerner is
specifically noted by Chinese hotel staff as being
tidy, they have suggested that of all of the
groupings these two are the tidiest. Similarly
there a number of constructs which do not fit
into a particular cluster, but hover on the edge.
The following are predominantly gathered near
to the western cluster which shows that local
staff see the Westerner as having elements of all
of these:
d (15a)—expects high standards;
d (17a)—are good mannered
d (10a)—are casual
d (14a)—they don't question the staff.
116
On the periphery of the ‘other Chinese’ cluster is
(12a) the perception by the staff of equality. They
perceive that of all the groupings the compatriot
Chinese give the least appearance of superiority,
whilst the South East Asians are seen as being
the converse.
The constructs of patience and impatience (7a
and 7b) and complaining and non-complaining
(11a and 11b) did not fit within or particularly
near to any grouping, being located fairly cen-
trally. Thus these two constructs were not seen as
an issue for any of the ethnic clusters.
A PRACTICAL INTERPRETATION
As was originally explained the single most
important aspect of this study is the dichoto-
mous split between the Japanese, South East
Asian and Local Chinese guests on the one hand
and the Westerners and the compatriot Chinese
on the other. Table 2 shows the sources of foreign
investment in China, reduced to the respective
groupings as used in this study.
It can be seen that the largest investors by a
very long way are the other Chinese and the
Western nations. However, what also must be
born in mind is that at the time when these
figures were published, China did not have the
open relationship with Taiwan which it has
today. Therefore, no Taiwanese figures for invest-
ment are given.
What does all this mean for the hotel industry
in China? Probably not a great deal to the
ordinary hotel worker except that the preponder-
ance of overseas visitors will be from those
countries which have the largest investments in
China. Whether or not the sheer numbers of
Western and compatriot Chinese visitors to the
People's Republic have any bearing on the
attitudes of the staff towards ‘foreigners’ is a
matter for further exploration. It may be that
constant exposure to these visitors allows the
Table 2. Foreign investment in P.R.C. (1990).
Foreign Investor US$ (million)
Compatriot (other) Chinese 4257.7
Western nations 634.7
Japan 478.5
South East Asia 160.2
© 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. PROGRESS IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH, VOL. 3, 107–117 (1997)
J. R. Huyton and A. Ingold
staff to feel comfortable in handling them. Yet on
the other hand it could be said that ‘familiarity
breeds contempt’. Further research is needed
into this particular aspect of the study. There is
also potential for further study into the staff's
attitudes towards the less-liked visitors, namely
the Japanese, South East Asians and their fellow
countrymen. This would be to ascertain whether
these attitudes are made obvious to the customer
or whether all guests are treated in the same
manner and personal feelings are just that,
personal feelings.
It was, as has been already stated, the authors‘
view that China's past history of communism
and isolationism would have a detrimental affect
on the ability of the staff in hotels in China to
either serve correctly or even relate to foreign
customers. This has been shown not to be the
case, and there are four possibilities for this.
Firstly, the hypothesis was simply wrong, and
that the Chinese were never particularly xeno-
phobic. Yet there is plenty of evidence both
within this work and other commentaries to
suggest that this was not the situation.
Secondly, the reluctance to deal and mix with
non-Chinese does not apply to hotels. However,
from the comments of some hardline Maoist staff
in a Hangchow hotel they were not particularly
pleased to have to look after overseas visitors.
Yet they were also not particularly happy about
being employed in a hotel. It must be considered
that all of the staff spoken to were employees of
leading international hotel chains and therefore
they could be a particularly gregarious sort of
person. It would be of great interest to test this
hypothesis with hotel staff in state owned and
run hotels.
Thirdly, the methodology and constructs used
to ascertain the data were wrong, but as Kelly's
Personal Construct theory has had both wide use
and acceptance the methodology can be seen to
hold up under scrutiny. As for the constructs,
this would require further research using the
same properties and the same methodology, but
with different constructs. Or alternatively there
could have been the use of the full Kelly
Construct methodology, but administered by
Chinese researchers so as to ensure complete
understanding by all of the parties concerned.
The fourth speculated reason for the hypoth-
esis to be shown to be inconsistent with the
present findings is that the people of China have
Chinese Worker Attitudes Towards Foreigners
changed following their Nationalist and Com-
munist revolutions. Such major upheavals in a
nation's life cannot leave the individual unaf-
fected. Initially the Nationalist revolution
dragged China from a feudalistic agrarian soci-
ety into a pseudo-democratic dictatorship. The
counter revolution of the Communists removed
all vestiges of democracy and supplanted them
with hardline Chinese Communism. Under Mao
Zedong's regime, the Chinese saw some 44
million of their people die in the name of the
State. Following Mao's death, Deng Xiaoping
came to power and even greater changes
occurred with his controlled market economy,
and the ‘open door’ policy. With so many
monumental changes happening, and for many,
all of them in their lifetime, it is hardly surpris-
ing that ‘old ways’ and prejudices have been
dropped and forgotten.
It was said earlier that this research was
conducted in joint venture international hotels,
and that more data needs to be gathered from
State hotels, but it must also be remembered that
these findings are only from the urban Chinese
of the country's principal cities. The bulk of the
1.2. billion Chinese population are from the
country, thus the findings in this work can not be
said to be truly representative of the whole
country. However, there is a need to recognise
that all overseas visitors will stay in a conurba-
tion.
The findings, even if relevant to urban Chi-
nese, do not mean that their basic culture has
also been altered or eroded. What is being
suggested is that the fundamental Chinese Con-
fucianist tenets of harmony, respect, filial piety
and so on as were discussed in a previous paper
(Huyton and Ingold, 1995) still remain. What has
happened is that with the opening of China's
borders to business people and tourists; the
relaxation of mainland Chinese being allowed to
© 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. PROGRESS IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH, VOL. 3, 107–117 (1997)
117
visit outside their own country; the ever increas-
ing influx of compatriot Chinese visiting their
families; the huge increase in availability of
television sets to both rural and urban Chinese
homes, communication with the ‘outside world’
for the average Chinese household has never
been greater or easier. With this increase in
external communication comes a potential
reduction in the fear of the previously
unknown.
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