As tourism, a major pillar of Hong Kong's economy, gradually recovers from the pandemic, the government has planned a series of measures to promote all-round development of the tourism industry. Within the SHTM, the Research Centre for Digital Transformation of Tourism (RCdTT) has developed an innovative large language model-based (LLM) assessment framework, the Hong Kong Tourist Satisfaction Index (TSI), for evaluating satisfaction among inbound tourists to Hong Kong during 2012–2024 across different tourism-related sectors, temporal scales and regions. The findings reveal that despite clear variations in performance across regions, the TSI rebounded and reached its highest-ever recorded score after a temporary decline during the pandemic.
The TSI was initially introduced in 2009 under the leadership of Principal Investigator Prof Haiyan Song, SHTM Associate Dean, Director of the RCdTT and the Mr and Mrs Chan Chak Fu Professor in International Tourism. At that time, a questionnaire-based methodology was used to evaluate tourists' satisfaction with various tourism services. Seeking to provide a more comprehensive and accurate analysis, the team has since transformed the framework of the TSI through an interdisciplinary approach, integrating theories from management science, economics and computer science and taking advantage of advanced LLM technology.
The enhanced TSI framework has multi-dimensional analysis capabilities, enabling the measurement of TSI across different dimensions (e.g., service topics, service sectors and trip types), temporal scales (monthly and annually) and regions. This adaptable approach provides stakeholders with timely, data-driven insights to guide service improvements, policy development and strategic decision-making.
According to Prof Kaye Chon, SHTM Dean, Chair Professor and Walter and Wendy Kwok Family Foundation Professor in International Hospitality Management, Hong Kong must deliver exceptional service quality that meets travellers' expectations to maintain its competitive status as a global tourism hub. The ongoing development of the TSI underscores the commitment of the RCdTT and SHTM to advancing Hong Kong's reputation as a world-class destination for international visitors.
The team has gathered over 1.25 million reviews from TripAdvisor, a global Online Travel Agency (OTA) platform, which cover 13,694 Hong Kong service providers across five tourism service sectors, namely attractions, hotels, restaurants, retail shops and transportation. The LLM-based assessment framework then uses Alibaba's open-source General Text Embedding model to extract semantic insights from the visitor reviews in different languages and formats.
The key findings are as follows.
- Topic-based analysis reveals that the largest proportion of reviews concern "service reliability and safety". This reflects that the emergence of the reliability of tourism services as the most crucial factor influencing tourist satisfaction, as this is the foundation of trust in the travel industry.
- Since 2012, the Hong Kong TSI has shown an overall upward trend, consistently scoring above 75 points on a 0–100 scale for the past decade. Despite a temporary decline during the pandemic, Hong Kong TSI levels fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels in 2024.
- The transportation sector has consistently achieved high TSI scores, largely due to Hong Kong's well-developed public transport infrastructure, which continues to enhance visitors' experiences. In contrast, retail shops and restaurants have lagged behind, primarily owing to price-related factors. The traditional price advantage of retail shops is gradually decreasing due to the substantial impact of e-commerce. Similarly, restaurants in Hong Kong tend to be expensive, prompting some tourists to seek more affordable dining options on the mainland.
- From a spatial perspective, although all districts recorded TSI scores above 73 points, a north–south divide persists, with higher satisfaction levels reported in southern regions and lower levels in northern regions. The highest TSI values were concentrated along both sides of Victoria Harbour in districts such as Central, Western and Yau Tsim Mong. However, Kowloon City district recorded considerably lower TSI levels, creating a distinct localised satisfaction gap compared with its surrounding districts.
- Tourists' satisfaction levels towards Hong Kong vary significantly by trip type. Business tourists generally report the highest satisfaction across most sectors, whereas solo travellers exhibit lower satisfaction overall. This may be due to differences in their needs and preferences: business tourists typically prioritise standardised functional requirements, while solo travellers place greater emphasis on unique and personalised experiences.
- Language-based analysis further highlights differences across languages in the TSI, with reviews in English and European languages yielding higher satisfaction levels than Japanese- and Korean- language reviews. This finding highlights the impact of cultural differences on tourist satisfaction.
The LLM-based TSI framework has been crafted to deliver regular, data-driven insights to benefit tourism service providers, policymakers and destination management organisations. Through topic-level TSI analysis, for instance, businesses can pinpoint specific areas for service enhancement, while destination- and sector-level assessments provide a broader perspective for strategic planning and policy formulation. Additionally, monthly TSI updates ensure that assessment results remain timely and relevant, enabling swift and informed decision-making.
Although the Hong Kong economy has largely recovered from disruptions caused by the pandemic, it continues to face challenges such as labour shortages, supply constraints, changing economic conditions, evolving consumer behaviour and competition. Highlighting the importance of the TSI in tackling these challenges and facilitating relevant decision-making and planning, Prof Song remarked that to sustain ongoing recovery, policymakers and industry practitioners require accurate and timely assessments of the inbound tourists' satisfaction level to develop sustainable tourism strategies that will further fortify Hong Kong's tourism advantages, drive its tourism industry and ultimately promote long-term economic growth in the city.
As technology advances, visitors and destinations increasingly rely on information and communication technologies when making decisions. The enhanced TSI assessment framework aims to support the long-term sustainability of Hong Kong's tourism sector by harnessing artificial intelligence, LLM and big data analytics, with the goal of offering more precise and targeted advice to increase both tourism service quality and Hong Kong's global competitiveness.
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