Hotel location and tourist activity in cities

A growing body of research is focusing on tourism in urban destinations. However, there has been no research examining the impact of hotel location on subsequent tourist behaviour. This article fills this gap both theoretically and empirically, through an analysis of the time-space activity of tourists staying at four hotels in different areas of Hong Kong. The movements of 557 tourists’ day-trips were tracked using GPS loggers. The study concluded that hotel location has a profound impact on tourist movements, with a large share of the total tourist time budget spent in the immediate vicinity of the hotel. Further, the study illustrated the impact of geomorphic barriers on tourist movements. The findings have important implications at both a destination and enterprise level.

► Hotel location has a profound impact on tourist movements.
► Large share of tourist time is spent near the hotel.
► Geomorphic barriers have an impact on tourist movements.
► GPS devices provide accurate time-space information.