sheffield business school -...

Sheffield Business School

BSc (Honours) Hospitality Business Management

Title Success Factors of Halloween Event in Ocean Park

Name CHEUNG Pik Yan

Student No 91206529

Month Year April 2011

Success Factors of Halloween Event in Ocean Park CHEUNG Pik Yan 91206529

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Sheffield Hallam University

Sheffield Business School

Title Success Factors of Halloween Event in Ocean Park

FULL NAME CHEUNG Pik Yan

STUDENT No 91206529

Supervisor: Prof. Ray Pine

In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in

Hospitality Business Management.

Month Year April 2011


iii

Acknowledgements

I would like to give my full-hearted thank to all of the following people who give me

great support and help me to finish the dissertation.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Mr. Ray Pine who gives

me helpful feedback and guidance. He provides valuable suggestion and supports me

to complete my dissertation.

Besides, special thank to my family and friends for their encouragement and assistance.

Having their support and tolerate, the dissertation can be finished smoothly and

successfully.

Lastly, I would also like to thank the interviewees who help me to fill up the

questionnaire.


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Abstract

Based on the high attendance of the Halloween event in Ocean Park last year, this

dissertation aimed at finding out the reasons behind the motivation factors of

consumers to participate that leads the success of Halloween event.

Pull and push factors were classified to discover the motivation factors. Both primary

and secondary researches were adopted in this study. In the primary research,

questionnaire was used to find out the motivation and expectation of respondents.

Mean and standard deviation were also calculated.

The findings show the highest push factor is “as an activity with others”. It reflects

respondents emphasized on social interaction with others. Therefore, the peers may

easily influence one’s decision-marking process. It also indicates word-of-mouth is

important in this stage. Besides, the highest rated pull factor of Halloween event is the

“decoration of the theme park”, which means respondents are more focused on the

appearance and the tangible elements.

Successful event also requires effective marketing strategy. Effective usage of the

media can help spreading the words through the public, thus to increase the awareness

and attractiveness to customers. Lastly, conclusion and recommendations were

provided to improve the management of Halloween event in the future development.


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Contents

Title Page ii

Acknowledgements iii

Abstract iv

Contents v

List of Figures vii

List of Tables vii

Chapter 1 – Introduction 1

1.1 Aims and Objectives 3

Chapter 2 – Literature Review 4

2.1 Theme Park 4

2.1.1 Special event 5

2.1.2 Influencing factors for visitation of theme park 5

2.2 Customer Motivation 6

2.2.1 Push and Pull Factors 6

2.2.2 Multi-motivation 7

2.2.3 Consumer Decision-Making Process 7

2.3 Special events towards young adulthood 10

2.4 Cultural Study in Tourism 11

2.5 Competitive Advantages 13

2.5.1 Customer Value 13

2.5.2 Repeat Participation 15


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Chapter 3 – Methodology 16

3.1 Secondary Research 16

3.2 Primary Research 16

3.3 Data Collection 17

3.4 Questionnaire Design 17

3.5 Limitation of Research 19

Chapter 4 – Findings and Analysis 20

4.1 Respondents’ background information 20

4.2 Mean and Standard Deviation of main Reasons towards visiting 23

Hong Kong Ocean Park Halloween Event

4.3 Mean and Standard Deviation of attractiveness of Ocean Park 26

Halloween Event

4.4 Mean and Standard Deviation of the Price in Ocean Park 30

Halloween Event

4.5 Mean and Standard Deviation of the Characteristics in Ocean Park 31

Halloween Event

Chapter 5 – Conclusion and Recommendations 33

5.1 Conclusion 33

5.2 Recommendations 36

Chapter 6 – Bibliography 39

Chapter 7 – Appendix 42

7.1 Questionnaire Sample 42

7.2 Online Questionnaire – my3q.com 46


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List of Figures

Figure 1 – Factors influencing the travel decision 8

Figure 2 – Consumer decision-making process for event 9

Figure 3 – The hierarchy of customer value 13

List of Tables

Table 1 – Background information of respondents 22

Table 2 – Mean and Standard Deviation of main Reasons towards visiting 25

Hong Kong Ocean Park Halloween Event

Table 3 – The push factor of “As an activity with others” (N = 66) 25

Table 4 – Mean and Standard Deviation of attractiveness of Ocean Park 28

Halloween Event

Table 5 – The pull motivation factor of “Decoration of the theme park” (N = 66) 29

Table 6 – Mean and Standard Deviation of the Price in Ocean Park 30

Halloween Event

Table 7 – Mean and Standard Deviation of the Characteristics in Ocean Park 32

Halloween Event


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Chapter 1 – Introduction

People in Hong Kong often busy at work. Fast pace of life often end up in

ignorance of appropriate rest. When stress is increasing, people would like to escape

from work. They need a place to relax and have fun.

Ocean Park, which was established in 1977, is a famous theme park in Hong

Kong. It adopts ocean-aquarium and animals, with funny cartoon characters, as the

main themes. Besides the attractions and rides, it also provides entertainment with

education to teach children how to take care of the Earth. It is no doubt that the theme

park can attract children and adults, as well as local visitors and foreign travelers.

Understanding customers’ expectation is very important, because it will notify

the theme park’s management team how to improve. When customers are satisfied, the

band loyalty will be built. Customers share the experience with others, which will also

gain a positive word-of-mouth image to the company. Therefore, it will probably lead

the theme park to an incredible amount of revenue.

In the recent years, Halloween has been one of the most popular special events

in Ocean Park. Originated from Western countries, Halloween is well known for

young people wearing strange costumes and going around at night for “Trick or Treat”.

The Governor of Hong Kong, Mr. Murray MacLehose, foresaw this business

opportunity and brought this culture to Hong Kong by decorating the theme park,


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adding haunted houses and special performance, in order to create the whole

atmosphere of Halloween to attract customers. Then, celebrating Halloween gradually

becomes a trend, especially for teenagers and young adults to entertain.

The year of 2010 is the tenth anniversary of Ocean Park’s Halloween event.

The attendance of Halloween event is increasing each year continuously. According to

the official webpage of Ocean Park (2010), “in October, the Park recorded a near

double-digit percentage increase in attendance over the previous year, and in the

process setting a historical high. Sales revenue for Halloween Bash-related souvenir

items is 40% higher than last year, while the figure for themed food and beverage

items has recorded a substantial rise of almost 25%”. It can be inferred that Ocean

Park is successful in both marketing strategy and customer target.


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1.1 Aims and Objectives

Since there is an increasing amount of people willing to spend money and time

for entertainment for Halloween event in Ocean Park, this study aims at finding out

the motivation of consumers’ participation. The outcome of the research can generate

suggestions for improvements of the future development of the Halloween event.

The following are the objectives which help to achieve the aim of this study:

1. To find out the factors that affect people to take part in Ocean Park for Halloween

event.

2. To find out customers’ expectations of the Halloween events.

3. Research Ocean Park’s unique events during Halloween.

4. Give recommendations for Ocean Park to improve the quality of events for

Halloween.


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Chapter 2 – Literature Review

This section is to summarize the theories and concepts from journals and books,

aim at having a better understanding of research in relevant topics. Research includes

the motivation factors of visitors to participate special events, the affect of

cross-culture exchange, as well as the visitors’ behavior and their decision making

process.

2.1 Theme Park

Theme park undertakes to create an atmosphere in a place and time, which

usually focus on one dominant motif, providing shows, costumed personnel, food

service and goods that fit the theme selected (Milman, 1988). It also considers itself as

a form of leisure activity, since it offer various types of entertainment during people

discretionary free time (Milman, 1991). The popularity of theme park and its

attractiveness will grow up continuously, as they are increasing with new vacation

experiences (Milman, 2001).


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2.1.1 Special event

According to Allen, et al. (2008), he states that special event is “to describe

specific rituals, presentations, performances or celebrations that are consciously

planned and created to mark special occasions or achieve particular social, cultural or

corporate goals and objectives. It can include national days and celebrations, important

civic occasions, unique cultural performances or major sporting fixtures”. It seems

special event is so vast and difficult to be defined. However, Getz (2005) suggests

special events can be defined by their own context. For the point of view of the

customers, it can be defined as “an opportunity for an experience outside the normal

range of choices or beyond everyday experience”, mentioned by Getz (2005).

2.1.2 Influencing factors for visitation of theme park

This tends to identify visitors’ preferences relating theme parks (McClung,

1991). An investigation from McChlung (1991), mentions there are four important

factors influencing visitors’ consideration of whether or not to participate a theme park,

which are climate, preference for theme parks, children’s desire to attend and the cost.

Visitors’ preferences are abstract and complex to be understood. To better clarify the

visitors’ preferences, their needs and wants as well as the consumer’s motivation

should studied deeply.


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2.2 Customer Motivation

Motivation is the driving force which help human to achieve goals. It is

classified as psychological, biological or social needs and wants, both intrinsic and

extrinsic forces (Uysal and Hagan, 1993). There is a wide range of factors motivate

consumers to participate theme park (Swarbrooke and Horner, 2007) and these factors

explain how individual are pushed into making decisions and how they are pulled by

the destination attributes (Uysal and Hagan, 1993).

2.2.1 Push and Pull Factors

According to Uysal and Hagan (1993), push factors refers to an origin-related

and concerning with the intangible, intrinsic desires of the individual. These factors

include health and self opinion as well as the ideological of escape, relaxation,

entertain and adventure.

Besides, pull factors comes from external environment of the individual. It can

be mainly related to the attractiveness of a given destination and tangible features such

as the promotion of theme park, word-of-mouth, recreation facilities, as well as

cultural and historical resources (Uysal and Hagan, 1993).

Understanding the relationship of push and pull factors between customers can

help marketers and developers determine the most successful combination of push and

pull factors of tourism product packages (Goodrich, 1977).


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2.2.2 Multi-motivation

Theme park motivation is a multi-motive dimension. Visitors are likely to be

affected by a number of motivations at the same time (Swarbrooke and Horner, 2007).

For example, visitors would like to escape the boredom of their daily working-life and

go to relax in a theme park by having adventure in rides. Thus, going to a theme park

may fulfill most of their needs.

2.2.3 Consumer Decision-Making Process

The determinants of customer behavior are complicated and diversified. They

include individual decisions, which are different from each visitor. There are also

external determinants, which is interpreted in different ways by each guest

(Swarbrooke and Horner, 2007). The following figure 1 discusses the examples of

internal and external factors which may motivate a customer taking part in a theme

park.


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Figure 1 – Factors influencing the travel decision

Source: adapted from Horner and Swarbrooke (1996)


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Besides, according to Getz (2005), the following figure 2 shows the six

processes which customer may consider when deciding weather to take part in the

event.

Figure 2 – Consumer decision-making process for event

Source: adopted from Getz (1997)


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2.3 Special events towards young adulthood

Teenagers and young adults are the main target age group of Halloween event

in Ocean Park, but young adults are more capable of spending money. There are

different definitions of young adulthood in different regions. However, base on the

culture in Hong Kong, young adults can be defended as the people who aged between

18-25 years old (Developmental Psychology, 2007).

Regarding to the characteristics of young adults, according to Developmental

Psychology (2007), there are three kinds of essential needs in this life stage, which are

freedom to take steps into the world, to explore all possibilities and the independent

choices. Kathleen (2003) states that young adults are those people “striving for

competence, self-actualization, and power new task and challenges often arise before

existing ones are completed or resolved”.

They require more peer acceptance. Also, social networking is important for

young adults, because it is value fitting in and connecting with their peers (Gerritsen,

2008). In other words, young adults participate the Halloween event are often

influenced by their friends and peers during the decision-making process. They take

part in special events as a social activity, intending to maintain the relationship

between the peers.


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2.4 Cultural Study in Tourism

Halloween, as a theme to create special event in theme park, is a cultural

exchange between eastern and western. Theme park in tourism is a service industry

where people from different culture can meet (Pizam, 1987), many people visit

overseas destinations to experience the different ways of tradition, living, and customs

(Reisinger and Turner, 2003).

Although culture is complicated and difficult to define, there is a classic

definition of culture stated by Tylor (1924). He describes culture is “complex that

which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, customs, and any other

capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.”

Cultural exchange can be used in many ways by human interaction, such as

non-verbal behavior, customs, body language or gestures. Besides, customer can

experience the culture of Halloween through the visual of the decoration, the hearing

of scare voice or by the feeling of horror atmosphere. The more the customer

interaction, the more experience the guests can gain.

Reisinger and Turner (2003) states that “one of the most important aspects of

successful international tourism development is to understand the cultural differences

between international tourists and a host society”. These differences are mainly related


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to the cultural values as well as the needs and perceptions of overseas visitors and

hosts.


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2.5 Competitive Advantages

2.5.1 Customer Value

According to Zeithaml (1988), value is consumer’s general evaluation of the

utility of a product, based on the perceptions of what they received and what is given.

Besides, customer value is related to “the market perceived quality adjusted for the

relative price of the product”, mentioned by Gale (1994).

Albrecht (1994) creates the hierarchy of customer value which shows four

product levels that can be offered by a company, shown in the following figure 3.

Figure 3 – The hierarchy of customer value

Source: adopted from Albrecht (1994)

At the basic level, a company has to provide essential core elements that

customers need, such as the leisure facilities for entertainment in the theme park


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(Bowie and Buttle, 2004). If there is no leisure item in the theme park, guests will not

be satisfied, thus leave and never come again.

For the expected level, a company provides attributes that expected by the

customers and take for granted, such as the acceptable waiting time for playing the

leisure facilities. The company can simply provide standard service in this level, and

there is no incentive to return or recommend this company (Bowie and Buttle, 2004).

Regarding to the desirable level, a company can satisfy customer needs that

they do not usually expect, such as friendly service provider and high quality of food.

Company provides the desirable offer, which competes more effectively than other

competitors (Bowie and Buttle, 2004).

The top stage is the unanticipated level, which company offers “delightful and

surprising” attributes to customers and demonstrates outstanding service quality.

Examples may include an unforgettable performance show or out-standing service

from staff. Company operates with unanticipated elements can delight their customers

with memorable experience, as well as achieving significant advantages towards the

competitors (Bowie and Buttle, 2004).


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2.5.2 Repeat Participation

Repeat participation refers to an individual come to visit again by any purpose.

Company with a sustainable advantage can ensure repeating and recommended

business by “delighting their customers” (Bowie and Buttle, 2004). Repeat customer is

important in any theme park, because retain guests can lower the cost than attracting

new visitors (Gitelson and Crompton, 1984).

Besides, repeat participation can build customer loyalty. There is a positive

relationship between customer loyalty and profitability (Bowen and Chen, 2001).

When a company retains 5 percent more of its consumers, the profit can increase by 25

percent to 125 percent, because loyal customers are more likely to purchase frequently

than non-loyal guest (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990). Moreover, loyal customer can also

help promoting the company and building word-of-mouth. Raman (1999) states that

loyal customers serve as a “fantastic marketing force’’ by providing recommendations

and dispersal positive word-of-mouth; those partnerships are the best advertising a

company can get.


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Chapter 3 – Methodology

This section concerns about the research methods in this study. Both primary

and secondary researches are used. Besides, the data collection method, questionnaire

design and format, pilot test and sample size, will also be discussed.

3.1 Secondary Research

Secondary research is about the data which already exist, such as journals,

books, articles, newspapers and reports. These data can be in either quantitative or

qualitative form (education forum, 2009). Compare with the primary research,

secondary research is relatively low in cost. However, the data used to analysis may be

out-of-date which may cause inaccurate results (Research Portals, 2011). Therefore we

need primary research as an evidence to prove the finding results.

3.2 Primary Research

Primary research is the data did not exist before; it involves getting the original

data directly about the products or market. The examples of primary research are

interviews, surveys and questionnaires. It is designed to respond specific questions of

concern to the business (Tutor2u, 2010). The main advantage of primary research is

up-to-date, as well as completely relative to the investigate purpose. However, there

may have difficulties with the survey, as primary research may have a low response

ratio.


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3.3 Data Collection

Data collection mainly divided into two types, questionnaire and interview.

Questionnaire survey was adopted in this study. The ideal way to spread out

questionnaire is by face-to-face surveys. Face-to-face survey is the most direct way to

interact with people which help to get a high response rate. However, it is costly and

time consuming. Therefore, the online question method is chosen because respondents

can complete the survey through the internet.

Questionnaire was posted on the my3q.com (see appendix), which is an

international questionnaire database. Questionnaire was designed in English and

Chinese respectively, aiming at drawing people to complete it and reducing any

confusing meaning or misunderstanding. Questionnaire also forwarded on the

facebook and friend’s e-mail, where help to raise the response rate.

3.4 Questionnaire Design

A four-page questionnaire was developed for online survey. The questionnaire

was divided into six parts (see appendix): Part A is about the background information

of respondents who have been to Ocean Park for Halloween event. Part B is

concerning about the reason for participating, which is the push motivation factor. Part

C involves the attractiveness of Halloween event, which is the pull factor of Ocean

Park. Part D regards the actual characteristics of Halloween event. Part E is the


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recommendation of the respondents, and finally Part F is about the personal

information of the respondents.

For the response format, generally questionnaire simply asks closed-ended

questions, which are convenience for researchers to carry out analysis; thus only

several open-ended questions will be provided. Closed-ended questions can be divided

into nominal data and ordinal data. Ordinal data can also name as five scaled-response

questions. Besides, “not applicable” was added for those respondents do not want to

answer.

Pilot test was filled up by my family members for adjustment of the

questionnaire. Besides, there is no target age of respondents in the survey, but

respondents should have been at least once in the Ocean Park Halloween Event.

Regarding to the sample size of the questionnaire, there were 71 respondents

approached for the survey. 68 questionnaires were completed. The response rate was

95.8%.

In this survey, the data was recorded and generated by the Microsoft Office

Excel 2003. The part of respondents’ background information was analyzed in terms

of the number, percentage of each alternative, and the rest of the parts were generated

by calculating the mean and standard deviation of each option.


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3.5 Limitation of Research

There are some limitations needed to be acknowledged in this survey, which

can be resolved next time:

1. Due to the limitation of time, the sample size is not sufficient to become

convincing and reliable.

2. This survey has ignored the opinion of foreign visitors, since the questionnaire

posted on the webpage is in Chinese therefore the respondents are almost Hong

Kong people.

3. This survey did not extensively exposed to different age groups of people, as

most of the respondents were young adults, which may affect the outcome of the

survey.


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Chapter 4 – Findings and Analysis

4.1 Respondents’ background information

There were 68 respondents selected in this questionnaire survey. Based on the

findings of the demographic profile, there were 40 male and 28 female completed the

survey respectively. According to the age group, table 1 showed the majority of the

age group was 21-30, which may reflect that young adults were the target in the

Halloween event.

About the participating frequency of the Halloween event, more than half (62%)

of the respondents took part 1-2 times only, while over one quarter (26%) of them had

taken part 3-4 times, and there were 2 (3%) of the visitors had taken part 7-8 times

correspondingly. Besides, there were six kinds of information sources provided to

choose from. The top three most useful media were TV (36%), friends (32%) and

magazine (13%), while radio was the least people (0%) that pay attention to.

Moreover, more than two-third (71%) of the respondents participated the event

with friends, while about one-fifth (21%) of the visitors participated with lover and

two of them participated by themselves. Regarding to the dress code, majority (94%)

of the respondents mentioned that they did not dress up to attend the Halloween event

and only 4 (6%) visitors did.


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According to the occupation, findings show that there were 78% student and

18% of them got a full time job. About their education level, more than half (53%) of

the respondents were university students. Among them, 41% got a diploma or higher

diploma. Concerning about the monthly income of the respondents, 18 of them earned

around HK$5,001 - $10,000, while 24% of the respondents earned below HK$5,000

and over $20,001 correspondingly.


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Table 1 – Background information of respondents

Questions N % Questions N %

2. Frequency

a) 1 - 2

b) 3 - 4

c) 5 - 6

d) 7 - 8

e) 9 - 10

42

18

6

2

0

61.76

26.47

8.82

2.94

0

54. Age group

a) 15 - 20

b) 21 - 30

c) 31 - 40

d) 41 - 50

e) 51 - 60

f) 61 or above

10

42

10

2

4

0

14.71

61.76

14.71

2.94

5.88

0

3. Information sources

a) TV

b) Magazine

c) Newspaper

d) Radio

e) Webpage

f) Friends

g) Other

56

20

6

0

18

50

6

35.90

12.82

3.85

0

11.54

32.1

3.85

55. Occupation

a) Student

b) Housewife

c) Working

d) Self Employed

e) Retired

f) Other

53

1

12

1

1

0

77.94

1.47

17.65

1.47

1.47

0

4. Go with whom

a) Friends

b) Family

c) Lover

d) Colleagues

e) Individual

f) Other

48

4

14

0

2

0

70.59

5.88

20.59

0

2.94

0

56. Education level

a) Primary School

b) Secondary School

c) Higher Diploma

d) University or above

e) Other

0

4

28

36

0

0

5.88

41.18

52.94

0

5. Dress up

a) Yes

b) No

4

64

5.88

94.12

57. Monthly income

a) $5,000 or below

b) $5,001 - $10,000

c) $10,001 - $15,000

d) $15,001 - $20,000

e) $20,001 or above

f) N/A

16

18

6

0

16

12

23.53

26.47

8.82

0

23.53

17.65

53. Gender

a) Male

b) Female

40

28

58.82

41.18


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4.2 Mean and Standard Deviation of main Reasons towards visiting Hong Kong

Ocean Park Halloween Event

This part talks about the findings of the push motivation factors towards

participate in the Ocean Park Halloween Event. Five-point Likert rating scale method

and “not applicable” (N/A) options were used in the questionnaire (1 = not important;

5 = most important). Markusic (2009) states that “Likert scale was a popular format of

questionnaire used in education research, which was invented by Rensis Likert”.

Likert scale was a bipolar scaling method which used to measure both positive and

negative response to a statement (Likert, 1932). Besides, not applicable option was

provided for the respondents who lacked of information about the statement; thus it

did not apply to the situation.

According to the table 2, it shows the ranking of the highest and lowest means

of the main reasons for the respondents to take part Ocean Park Halloween Event.

Based on the results, the reason “as an activity with others” got the highest push

motivation factors with the mean score of 4.606. This motivation related to the study

of behavioural psychology. Every person tends to develop formal and informal group

that desire to create and maintain its social structure (Trevino, 2009). Halloween event,

as a social activity which can keep up the relationship among friends via experience,

provides a chance for communicate on common topic and perceptions.


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Base on table 3, it shows more than half (61%) of the respondents chose “as an

activity with others” as the most important reason driving them to take part in the

Halloween event in Ocean Park. Nearly 40% (39%) of them believed that this factor

was important.

Besides, “enjoy the festival ambiance” was rated the second highest motivation

factors with the mean score of 4.2424. This result can directly prove that visitors love

the theme of Halloween originally. People can celebrate Halloween festival by

enjoying the event and shows with friends. This was how the festival atmosphere

generated.

On the other hand, the motivation factor of “buy products as souvenirs” was

rated the lowest mean of 1.8125. This may reflect the product souvenirs of Halloween

event in Ocean Part was not attractive enough that catches visitors’ attention. Besides,

the option of “increase the understanding of Halloween” was rated the second lowest

push motivation factors and the mean was 2.2258. This result shows that visitors did

not care about the background knowledge (eg. history) of Halloween festival; or

Ocean Park did not provide such knowledge for the participants. People went to Ocean

Park for Halloween event possibly just for relaxing and entertainment.


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Table 2 - Mean and Standard Deviation of main Reasons towards visiting Hong Kong

Ocean Park Halloween Event

Rank Attributes descriptions Mean Standard Deviation

(S.D.)

1 Q8. As an activity with others 4.6061 0.4886

2 Q11. Enjoy the festival ambiance 4.2424 0.7398

3 Q7. For relaxing 4.0606 0.7761

4 Q12. To gain memorable experience 4 0.6124

5 Q9. To find someone of same interest 3.2581 0.9827

6 Q6. Accessibility 3.1333 0.7180

7 Q13. Increase the understanding of

Halloween

2.2258 1.1559

8 Q10. Buy products as souvenirs 1.8125 0.8455

Table 3 – The push factor of “As an activity with others” (N = 66)

Q8. As an activity with others N %

Valid Least important 0 0

Unimportant 0 0

Natural 0 0

important 26 39.39

Most important 40 60.61

N/A 2 N/A


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4.3 Mean and Standard Deviation of attractiveness of Ocean Park Halloween

Event

Part C talks about the attractiveness of Ocean Park Halloween Event. This part

can be divided into five dimensions, which are activities, ambiance, facilities, service

and promotion activities. Five-point Likert rating scale method and “not applicable”

(N/A) option were also used in this section (1 = not important; 5 = most important).

About the activities of Halloween event in Ocean Park, table 4 shows the highest and

the second highest rank was “creative activities” and “variety of activities”, with the

mean of 4.4848 and 4.3333 respectively. These findings reflect the visitors concerned

about the creativity of the activities, which related to the initial design of the activity.

Also, they wanted different kinds of activities, therefore participants can gain more

experience and satisfied.

According to the ambiance of the Halloween event, the highest rank of

attractive factor was “decoration of the theme park” with the mean of 4.6364, which

also got the highest pull motivation factor of the theme park (base on the compare of

activities, ambiance, facilities and service). This reflects respondents were very

concern about the appearance or any tangible elements with the theme of Halloween.

Table 5 shows there were 64% of the respondents stated that the decoration of the


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theme park was the most important factors that attracted them to participate the

Halloween event.

For the facilities of the Halloween event, “safety of facilities” got the highest

rank of attractive factor with the mean of 4.5152. This reflects respondents realized the

importance of safety. Besides, the theme park should beware of the accident caused by

crowd congestion.

About the service of the Halloween event, the most important motivation factor

was the “waiting time” with the mean of 4.3333. This result reflects the visitors were

quite concerned about the waiting time for going into the haunted house, which may

related to the longer the waiting time because of high attendance rate.

Moreover, according to the promotion activities, TV and webpage got the

highest and second highest pull motivation factor with the mean of 4.6970 and 4.2121

respectively. This finding matches the result of Q3 - asking about the media source to

get Halloween information. This reflects the respondents generally paid attention to

the television advertising promotion.


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Table 4 - Mean and Standard Deviation of attractiveness of Ocean Park Halloween

Event

Rank Attributes descriptions Mean Standard

Deviation

(S.D.)

Activities

1 Q17. Creative activities 4.4848 0.5571

2 Q15. Variety of activities 4.3333 0.6356

3 Q18. New activities 4.2424 0.5521

4 Q16. Halloween shows 4.0303 0.7971

Ambiance

1 Q19. Decoration of the theme park 4.6364 0.4810

2 Q20. Background music 4.3636 0.5404

3 Q23. Scary atmosphere 4.1563 0.7119

4 Q21. Comfortable environment 4.1212 0.7285

5 Q22. Hygiene and cleanliness 4.1212 0.8793

Facilities

1 Q25. Safety of facilities 4.5152 0.7435

2 Q24. Exciting facilities 4.1818 0.7960

Service

1 Q27. Waiting time 4.3333 1.1459

2 Q28. Extended open hours 4.3030 0.7171

3 Q26. Crowd control 4.2121 0.9131

4 Q29. Quality of food and beverages 3.4063 0.7850

Promotion Activities

1 Q39. TV 4.6970 0.5214

2 Q43. Webpage 4.2121 0.8074

3 Q40. Magazine 3.7273 0.7497

4 Q41. Newspaper 3.6970 0.9040

5 Q42. Radio 3.2903 0.9226


29

Table 5 – The pull motivation factor of “Decoration of the theme park” (N = 66)

Q19. Decoration of the theme park N %

Valid Least important 0 0

Unimportant 0 0

Natural 0 0

important 24 36.36

Most important 42 63.64

N/A 2 N/A


30

4.4 Mean and Standard Deviation of the Price in Ocean Park Halloween Event

This part investigates how valuable the ticket prices were in the Ocean Park

Halloween Event. Base on the table 6, the result shows the most valuable ticket price

was the general membership adult tickets with the mean of 3.32. Besides, the second

highest rate was the express lane membership adult tickets with the mean of 3.3043.

However, there were about half of the respondents filled in “N/A” for this section,

which means they were not familiar with the price of certain tickets. Besides, some of

the findings in this part show a high standard deviation, which indicates the data were

spread over a large range of values that the result may not be useful to the survey.

Table 6 - Mean and Standard Deviation of the Price in Ocean Park Halloween Event


Deviation

(S.D.)

1 Q32. General membership adult tickets 3.32 1.1565

2 Q36. Express lane membership adult tickets 3.3043 1.3652

3 Q30. General adult tickets 3.1935 1.0901

4 Q34. Express lane adult tickets 3 1.3053

5 Q33. General membership child tickets 2.9444 0.9112

6 Q31. General child tickets 2.8333 1.0138

7 Q37. Express lane membership child tickets 2.7368 1.0178

8 Q35. Express lane child tickets 2.5263 0.9386

9 Q38. Halloween special food and beverages 2.5 0.8660


31

4.5 Mean and Standard Deviation of the Characteristics in Ocean Park

Halloween Event

This section measures about the actual service of the features in the Halloween

event; aim at finding whether the quality of service match the customer’s expectation

or not (1 = very bad; 5 = very good). Base on table 7, it shows the best feature was the

“different ghost characters” with the mean of 4.1765. The findings may reflect the

respondents loved the ghost characters with different creative designs and postures.

Besides, visitors could request to take photo with the ghost characters as a souvenir.

Moreover, the second highest feature was the “design of haunted house” with

the mean of 4, which was very close to the first one. Ocean Park Halloween event

provided 8 haunted houses last year with different characteristics for people to

experience. The result shows the respondents were quite satisfied with the idea and

design of the haunted house.

On the other hand, the worst feature of the Halloween event was the “special

products and goods” with the mean of 2.7059 only. This reflects the special souvenirs

were not attractive enough, or maybe the respondents did not go inside the store due to

it was time consuming for queue to go inside the haunted houses.


32

Table 7 - Mean and Standard Deviation of the Characteristics in Ocean Park

Halloween Event


Deviation

(S.D.)

1 Q45. Different ghost characters 4.1765 0.8214

2 Q44. Design of haunted house 4 0.8044

3 Q46. Costume, make up and accessories 3.8824 0.8665

4 Q47. Special food and drinks 3.0294 0.8220

5 Q48. Ghosts scaring people frequently 3.4706 0.7759

6 Q49. Special shows and performances 3.8235 0.8565

7 Q50. Special products and goods 2.7059 0.6197


33

Chapter 5 – Conclusion and Recommendations

5.1 Conclusion

In this chapter, summary is generated base on the significant findings from this

study, including recommendations that insight the management of the theme park in

marketing to become more effectively.

A company needs to create its sustainable competitive advantages, which is as

important as the main key to survive. Competitive advantages generates when the

company is able to deliver the same products as competitors but at a lower price, or

deliver goods that exceed those of competing products (quick MBA, 2010). “Thus, a

competitive advantage enables the firm to create superior value for its customers and

superior profits it itself,” stated by quick MBA (2010).

Since Hong Kong Disneyland and other famous attractions for tourists in Hong

Kong, more and more competitors are trying to enter the tourism market. To increase

the competitive advantages, Hong Kong Ocean Park has to provide its uniqueness to

differentiate itself from others. Besides, new attractions are required in order to retain

customers, both local and foreign.

This study desires to understand the customers’ preferences and motivation

base on the Halloween event which can help Ocean Park better focus on the right way

in the marketing strategy. An effective marketing strategy can enhance the


34

attractiveness of the event thus can drive people to participate within the

decision-marking process.

Base on the attractiveness of the Halloween event in the survey (part C), it

generally shows that the expectations of the customers were quite high, as majority of

the alternative items were more than 4. On the other hand, the section of the

characteristics in Ocean Park Halloween Event (part D) mentions most of the

alternative items were more than 3 only. This indicates the actual features of the

Halloween event can not completely fulfill the customers’ expectations, but overall

was qualified to the guests. There was room for improvement, especially for the

special products and goods.

Besides, concerning the frequency of the Halloween event, the result show

there were more than 60% of respondents participated 1 - 2 times and about 26% of

the visitors take part 3 - 4 times. This indicates people were willing to repeat

participation the Halloween event, which possibly resulted from the reinforcement of

TV advertising for the promotion. Moreover, there were push and pull motivation

factors behind the reason. Visitors choose Ocean Park for Halloween event as an

activity with others for push factors, and the high expectation with the decoration of

the theme park for the pull factors to attract them.


35

A successful special event requires an effective promotional marketing strategy.

Regarding to the TV advertising in 2010, it included Halloween Bash dance, the

dancer also performed in the busy street of Causeway Bay to attract guests in order to

promote Halloween event (Ocean Park, 2010). On the other hand, the official webpage

of Ocean Park (2010) also mentioned “it made extensive use of the online platform to

launch Facebook games, as well as share the TV commercial, making-of video and

footage of dance rehearsals to YouTube. Total hits have exceeded 1 million which

represents a ten-time boom over the previous year.”

In conclusion, base on various attractions, they were effective in motivating

large amount of participants in last year of the tenth anniversary of Ocean Park’s

Halloween event. Besides, the attendance of last year broke the historical record and

got double-digit percentage increase than previous year. These factors can indicate

Ocean Park did a great job in the last year of the Halloween event.


36

5.2 Recommendations

After analysis the findings of the survey, there were several problems

mentioned by the respondents. The following were some suggestions that provided to

help improving the Halloween event of Ocean Park.

First of all, many of the respondents complained that the waiting time of the

haunted houses were too long. Crowd control actually was a big problem to the

Halloween event. Since excess of people may reduce the quality of service thus

causing the decrease of the satisfaction of the customers. It was recommended to

restrict the attendance each day. Besides, theme park can extend the promotion dates to

balance the crowds. Last year Ocean Park opened 23 days for the Halloween event; it

is suggested extending to 30 days for the event. Although the cost of theme park may

increase, this was the effective way to reduce the guests waiting time and better

control the service quality.

Moreover, several respondents reported that the price of the ticket was too

expensive. In fact, pricing was always sensitive to some customers. It was better to

provide group discount or company discount on the ticket arrangement. For example,

the group with more than 10 people can enjoy a 10% of discount; group with more

than 20 people can get a 20% of discount and so on. Besides, discounts can be also


37

offered in food and beverage to guests therefore it can encourage them to purchase the

products.

Besides haunted houses and shows, Ocean Park can provide more facilities in

the Halloween event. Reference to the theme park of Universal Studio, guests may

curious about the backstage of the theme park. Ocean Park can provide backstage visit

in certain area to let them have a better understanding of the company, but the contents

should include entertain elements and not bored to guests. Moreover, it was

recommended to offer workshop that related to the theme of Halloween in the event,

such as teaching children to produce certain easy decoration of Halloween which can

hang on the body or simply provide Halloween make-up service to guests. This can

increase the interest to child can family and encourage different age group of people to

participate the Halloween event. This kind of alternative experience can makes

customers more value to the ticket price.

Next, as the findings show most of the respondents participate Halloween

event with friends and lover, it is suggested that the customer target should be focused

on group of friends or couples. Ocean Park may offer different packages for targeted

group of friends and couples. The purpose of packages is to encourage people buying

more products but in a lower price. Package can include tickets, snacks and souvenirs

discounts. For the couples, it is preferred to include some luxurious items such as


38

taking photo with the theme park cartoon characters service, dinner coupon in a

high-class restaurant or other customize service.

Furthermore, the survey reflects the respondents were not satisfied with the

special products and goods. It probably because these products were

not the customers’ essential needs, but Ocean Park can still raise the attractions of the

products and souvenirs therefore help to improve the profitability of income. Company

can try to cooperation with other famous brands such as Adidas and LEGO, to provide

cross over products for limited edition. This was a win-win situation due to it can

increase the public awareness and have more chance to promote its company. Besides,

products and souvenirs can be placed in a prominent area to attract customers’

attention.

Lastly, there are some suggestions for overcoming the limitation of research.

Since the sample size is not sufficient to become reliable, it is better to start the

questionnaire survey earlier to increase the respondents. Besides, as most of the

respondents were young adults, researcher can simply focus on that target age group

which can be more specific when researching. Also, it is better to input some

information such as promotion link for reference in the online questionnaire, to let

respondents have better understanding and remind their memory of the Halloween

event.


39

Chapter 6 – Bibliography

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Allen, et al. (2008). Festival and special event management. 4th ed., Milton, Qld. John

Wiley & Sons Australia.

Bowen and Chen (2001). The relationship between customer loyalty and customer

satisfaction. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 13 (5),

213-217.

Bowie and Buttle (2004). Hospitality marketing: an introduction. Oxford: Elsevier

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Developmental Psychology (2007). Young Adulthood. [online]. Last accessed 5th April

2011 at: http://www.mesacc.edu/dept/d46/psy/dev/Spring99/youth/index.html

Education Forum (2009). Secondary Research Methods Lesson. [online]. Last

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April 2011 at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=SI91WDbYRbw

Getz (2005). Event management and event tourism. 2nd ed., New York, Cognizant

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Gitelson and Crompton (1984). Insights into the repeat vacation phenomena. Journal

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Goodrich (1977). Benefit Bundle Analysis: an Empirical study of International

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Horner and Swarbrooke (1996). Marketing Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure in Europe.

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40

Kathleen (2003). Application in recreation & leisure. 3rd ed., New York, McGraw-Hill.

Likert (1932). A technique for the measurement of attitudes. Journal of Archives of

Psychology, 140, 1-55

Markusic (2009). Simplifying the Likert scale. [online]. Last accessed 29 March 2011

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McClung (1991). Theme park selection: Factors influencing attendance. Journal of

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=465

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http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/competitive-advantage/

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41

Reisinger and Turner (2003). Cross-Cultural Behaviour in Tourism: concepts and

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810

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42

Chapter 7 – Appendix 7.1 Questionnaire Sample

Questionnaire regarding the attractions of customers to visit the Halloween Event in Hong Kong Ocean Park

I am a Sheffield Hallam University student and studying Hospitality Business

Management. I am now conducing a survey about the Halloween event in Ocean Park.

It is important for me to fulfill a graduation dissertation. The data collected will be

used only for academic purpose and all information will be kept confidential.

Thank you for your kindness and helpfulness in answering this questionnaire.

Part A - Background Information

1. Have you ever taken part in Ocean Park’s Halloween Event?

a) Yes b) No (End of the questionnaire, thank you.)

2. How many times have you been to Ocean Park for Halloween Event?

a) 1 – 2 b) 3 – 4 c) 5 – 6

d) 7 – 8 e) 9 – 10

3. Which of the following(s) do you get your information about the event? (choose

not more than three)

a) TV b) Magazine c) Newspaper

d) Radio e) Webpage

f) Friends g) Other:

4. Who did you go with?

a) Friends b) Family c) Lover

d) Colleagues e) Individual f) Other:

5. Did you dress up when you attend the Halloween Event?

a) Yes b) No


43

Part B - Reasons for Participating the Halloween Event

Please circle one number only for each item. Not Most

important important N/A

6. Accessibility

7. For relaxing

8. As an activity with others

9. To find someone of same interest

10. Buy products as souvenirs

11. Enjoy the festival ambiance

12. To gain memorable experience

13. Increase the understanding of

Halloween

14. Other:

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

Part C - Attractiveness of Halloween Event

Please circle one number only for each item. Not Most

Activities important important N/A

15. Variety of activities

16. Halloween shows

17. Creative activities

18. New activities

Ambiance

1

1

1

1

2

2

2

2

3

3

3

3

4

4

4

4

5

5

5

5

N

N

N

N

19. Decoration of the theme park

20. Background music

21. Comfortable environment

22. Hygiene and cleanliness

23. Scary atmosphere

Facilities

1

1

1

1

1

2

2

2

2

2

3

3

3

3

3

4

4

4

4

4

5

5

5

5

5

N

N

N

N

N

24. Exciting facilities

25. Safety of facilities

Service

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

N

N

26. Crowd control 1 2 3 4 5 N


44

27. Waiting time

28. Extended open hours

29. Quality of food and beverages

1

1

1

2

2

2

3

3

3

4

4

4

5

5

5

N

N

N

Not Most Price reasonable reasonable N/A

30. Adult tickets

General 31. Child tickets

32. Membership adult tickets

33. Membership child tickets

34. Adult tickets

Express 35. Child tickets

lane 36. Membership adult tickets

37. Membership child tickets

38. Halloween special food and

beverages

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

Not Most

Promotion Activities important important N/A

39. TV

40. Magazine

41. Newspaper

42. Radio

43. Webpage

1

1

1

1

1

2

2

2

2

2

3

3

3

3

3

4

4

4

4

4

5

5

5

5

5

N

N

N

N

N

Part D - Characteristics of Halloween Event

Please circle one number only for each item.

Very bad Very good N/A

44. Design of haunted house

45. Different ghost characters

46. Costume, make up and accessories

47. Special food and drinks

48. Ghosts scaring people frequently

49. Special shows and performances

50. Special products and goods

51. Other:

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N


45

Part E - Recommendation

52. Do you have any suggestions that want to improve the Halloween Event in Ocean

Park in the future?

Part F - Personal Information

53. Gender:

a) Male b) Female

54. Age group:

a) 15-20 b) 21-30 c) 31-40

d) 41-50 e) 51-60 f) 61 or above

55. Occupation:

a) Student b) Housewife c) Working

d) Sale Employed e) Retired f) Other:

56. Highest education level:

a) Primary School b) Secondary School

c) Diploma / Higher Diploma d) University or above

e) Other:

57. Monthly income:

a) HK$5,000 or below b) HK$5,001 - $10,000

c) HK$10,001 - $15,000 d) HK$15,001 - $20,000

e) HK$20,001 or above f) N/A

End of the Questionnaire

Thank you


46

7.2 Online Questionnaire – my3q.com

sheffield business school -...

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