Exploring Mainland Chinese students’ motivations of re-visiting Hong Kong as a familiar place and their links to student life experiences

Non-local students in a study destination are likely to re-visit that destination as a familiar place in the future. However, little is known about the motivation to re-visit the study place and how this motivation may be explained by their life experiences during the time spent there. This study explores the motivation to re-visit Hong Kong as a familiar place by Mainland Chinese students. Based on 20 semi-structured personal interviews, this study identifies the major motivations to re-visit Hong Kong as nostalgia, socializing, place mediation and interpretation, seeking in-depth experiences, and shopping. These motivations are clearly associated with life experiences the Mainland Chinese students had while they were staying in Hong Kong as temporary residents. Marketing implications are provided to target non-local students as potential future tourists to the study destination.