Santa Claus Is Coming to Town: A Case Study of Santa Claus Park in Mohe, China International Business Communication Master's thesis Yang Xu 2013 Department of Communication Aalto University School of Business Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org) Santa Claus Is Coming to Town Santa Claus Park in Mohe, China International Business Communication Master’s Thesis Xu Yang 2013 Department of Communication Aalto University School of Business AALTO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS International Business Communication Master’s Thesis Xu Yang Santa Claus Is Coming to Town: A Case Study of Santa Claus Park in Mohe, China Objectives The objective of this study was to examine the perceptions of Santa Claus among Chinese tourists and to provide a study for promoting Santa Claus Park to them. This study focused on three tasks: 1) identifying the image of Santa Claus and its cultural impact in China, compared to its Western origin; 2) identifying the market segmentation for Mohe Santa Claus Village in China; and 3) providing suggestions for Santa Claus Village marketing activities to best attract potential customers. Methodology The study used a single-case approach consisting of qualitative interviews with 16 respondents in three major Chinese cities and a quantitative survey among 100 people from nine provinces in China. Santa Claus Park in Mohe has been chosen as the case company. It is a newly established theme park in China that used Santa Claus Village in Lapland as its model. Santa Claus Park was chosen because it provided the perfect comparison of a well-known cultural feature exported from its original culture to a destination culture. Findings The present study has provided good insight of how the Chinese perceive Santa Claus as a feature associated with Western culture. It also gave information about current Chinese tourism trends, thus giving guidance for the development of Chinese tourism generally. This study also defined different ways of communication needed to promote Santa Claus Park in China compared to Finland. Key words: Santa Claus, Mohe, Santa Claus Village, Chinese, culture, communication, branding, marketing, tourist, tourism 1 Contents 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................... 6 1.1 Background of Study ............................................................................................................................. 8 1.2 Research problem ................................................................................................................................ 15 1.3 Importance of topic in the IBC domain ....................................................................................... 16 1.4 Structure of Thesis .............................................................................................................................. 17 2 Review of Literature ................................................................................................................................... 19 2.1 Santa Claus, Past and Present ......................................................................................................... 19 2.2 Santa’s Home .......................................................................................................................................... 23 2.3 Santa Claus in China ............................................................................................................................ 24 2.4 Tourist Destination and Theme Park Study ............................................................................. 27 2.5 Summary of Literature Review ...................................................................................................... 32 3 Case: Santa Claus Park in Mohe ............................................................................................................ 34 3.1 Santa Claus Village in Lapland ........................................................................................................ 34 3.2 Mohe in China ........................................................................................................................................ 36 4 Research Methodology and Data ........................................................................................................... 40 4.1 Research Design ................................................................................................................................... 40 4.1.1 Quantitative and qualitative research strategy ............................................................. 41 4.1.2 Case study method ..................................................................................................................... 42 4.2 Data collection and analysis ............................................................................................................ 43 4.2.1 Survey .............................................................................................................................................. 43 4.2.2 Semi-Structured Interviews ................................................................................................... 44 4.2.3 Data analysis ................................................................................................................................. 45 4.3 Trustworthiness and reliability ..................................................................................................... 46 5 Findings and Discussion ........................................................................................................................... 48 5.1 Quantitative Research and Results .............................................................................................. 49 5.2 Qualitative Research and Results ................................................................................................. 60 6 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................... 67 6.1 Research Summary ............................................................................................................................. 67 6.2 Summary of Results ............................................................................................................................ 68 6.3 Limitations of the study .................................................................................................................... 70 6.4 Practical implications ......................................................................................................................... 71 6.5 Suggestions for further research ................................................................................................... 72 References .................................................................................................................................................................. 73 Appendix .................................................................................................................................................................... 79 2 List of Figures Figure 1 The Global Middle-Class Expansion ............................................................................................... 8 Figure 2 Chinese Tourist Attraction Map, 2012 ........................................................................................... 10 Figure 3 Mohe in Heilongjiang Province ...................................................................................................... 12 Figure 4 Saint Nicholas ........................................................................................................................................ 20 Figure 5 Folktale depiction of Father Christmas riding a goat .......................................................... 22 Figure 6 Rovaniemi in Finland ......................................................................................................................... 34 Figure 7 Mohe in North East China ................................................................................................................ 37 Figure 8 Reached Group Gender Division ................................................................................................... 50 Figure 9 The Age Division of Respondents ................................................................................................. 51 Figure 10 Respondents’ Channel Division .................................................................................................. 51 Figure 11 Have You Heard About Mohe Santa Claus Park? ................................................................. 53 Figure 12 How Many Times a Year Do You Travel? ................................................................................ 54 Figure 13 Survey Feedback on Chinese Travel Map ............................................................................... 55 Figure 14 The Resources of Knowing Santa Claus .................................................................................. 56 Figure 15 Most Important Element For Choosing Tourist Destinations ....................................... 57 Figure 16 What Programs Are Travelers Looking For In Heilongjiang? ....................................... 58 Figure 17 Survey Feedback: Where Is Santa Claus's Hometown? .................................................... 59 3 List of Tables Table 1 COSMOS's Table