1. Introduction
Yachting tourism is a new form of tourism that integrates sports, sailing, entertainment, leisure, and socialization and involves yacht cruising, sailing, rowing, kayaking, motorboating, fishing boats, and other ocean-friendly activities [
1]. As a product of the integration of the yachting and tourism industries, the economic, sociocultural, and environmental impacts of yachting tourism, consumer motivation and market segmentation of yachting tourists, and the management and collaborative governance of local governments are topics of interest for international scholars [
2,
3,
4,
5]. Scholars generally agree that yachting tourism development has a positive impact on economic development, as it ensures the differentiation of tourism products and promotes the development of tourism enterprises [
6,
7,
8].
North America and Europe currently dominate yachting tourism worldwide. 15.75 million yachts have been reported in the U.S. (~33% of the world total); in Europe, ~4.76 million yachts and a total of 10,197 marinas [
9]. With the rapid development of the Chinese economy and the expansion of the middle class, China has entered the stage of rapid development of yachting tourism. As of 2020, mainland China has 114 marinas, 12,000 water berths, 2000 dry storage facilities, and 2600 yachting-related enterprises [
10]. However, the consumption potential of yachting tourism in China still has room to grow, mainly due to the low per capita yacht ownership ratio and the underdevelopment of yacht infrastructure. For instance, the number of marinas and water berths in China is only 9/1000 in the United States and 1/100 in Europe, and there is only one public yachting marina in Haikou, making it difficult to popularize yachting tourism consumption.
The “Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–2025) for National Economic and Social Development and Vision 2035 of the People’s Republic of China” proposed improving the yachting development policy. The “14th Five-Year Tourism Development Plan” also proposed promoting the mass development of yachting consumption and supporting the development of an innovative yachting industry in coastal cities such as Dalian, Qingdao, Weihai, Zhuhai, Xiamen, and Sanya. Under the guidance of the central government, local governments strongly support yachting tourism development, the active construction of several yachting berths, and the formation of yachting tourism routes and networks. In this study, 12 Chinese coastal cities are selected to illustrate developments in China’s yachting tourism.
Current research on yachting tourism consumption focuses on yachting tourism consumption behavior and its influencing factors [
11,
12,
13], consumer market segmentation [
5,
8,
14], and barriers to marketing promotion [
2,
15,
16]. The research on tourism potential mainly focuses on the evaluation of tourism industry potential and tourism development potential [
17,
18]. By establishing the evaluation index system, the measurement and evaluation of tourism development potential are carried out, and the countermeasures are put forward. Tourism consumption potential is the unrealized consumption demand, which is the potential energy that can finally be transformed into actual tourism consumption expenditure through the satisfaction of certain factors and conditions [
19]. The consumption potential of yachting tourism comprehensively reflects tourists’ consumption demand and willingness to sail, but there is still a lack of empirical research to evaluate it [
20,
21,
22]. Effectively identifying the influencing factors and avoiding the adverse factors is of great significance for releasing the consumption potential of yachting tourism in China.
Therefore, the main objective of this study is to develop a comprehensive evaluation system consisting of consumption capacity, expenditure, quality, and environment to evaluate the consumption potential of yachting tourism and also to reveal the spatial and temporal differences and influencing factors of yachting tourism consumption potential of major coastal cities in China. This research is not only helpful in unleashing the consumption potential of China’s yachting tourism and meeting the demand for high-quality tourism but also expands the research on yachting tourism consumption and provides a reference for developing countries in the world. The organizational structure of this study is thus:
Section 2 presents the literature review;
Section 3 describes the study area, methods, and data sources;
Section 4 describes the results of yachting tourism consumption potential and its influencing factors; and
Section 5 is the conclusion, the theoretical and practical implications, future research prospects of the paper are proposed.
5. Conclusions
Current research on tourism consumption potential is scarce, with previous studies focusing on the tourism industry potential [
18,
59,
60] and tourism development potential [
61,
62,
63]. The consumption potential of yachting tourism is not only the “gap” between the ideal level and the current actual level but also the sum of the existing resource elements that can guarantee future development. From the perspective of the “support guarantee” theory, the consumption potential of yachting tourism can be regarded as a comprehensive system composed of consumption capacity, expenditure, quality, and environment, so this study constructs an index system to evaluate the consumption potential of yachting tourism.
Using empirical research, we found that the consumption potential of yachting tourism in China’s coastal cities was closely related to consumption quality and capacity, and the consumption expenditure and environment of yachting tourism still had great room for improvement. It is essential to strengthen the construction of a yachting tourism consumption environment and increase support for the yachting industry.
This study explored the factors that influence the consumption potential of yachting tourism. It was found that the level of residents’ income, household fixed assets, level of economic urbanization, and residents’ household burden were the main factors influencing yachting tourism consumption potential. The child dependency ratio, social fixed asset investment, average selling price of commodity houses, and per capita disposable income all positively influence tourism consumption potential in coastal cities in China, and the effects are in increasing order. What’s interesting here is the relationship between the price of housing and the potential for yachting. Based on the China Household Group Study (CFPS), property wealth significantly increased travel spending, and the influence of residential wealth on tourism consumption is not through the mortgage effect but the wealth effect. The possible reason is that the families who buy houses may have the pressure of mortgage in the short term and reduce the travel consumption expenditure, but in the long term, with the increase in family income and housing wealth accumulation, they will expand the travel consumption expenditure and may choose to pay off the housing mortgage loan in advance [
63]. Thus, economic and social development, housing policies, and population policies all have key roles in harnessing the leisure consumption potential of residents [
34].
This study also found that the main path to unleashing the potential of China’s yachting tourism consumption is to effectively increase residents’ income, enhance consumption capacity, improve the quality of tourism consumption, and create a good consumption environment. However, there is a large gap in yachting tourism consumption potential among Chinese cities, with Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and other cities having higher yachting tourism consumption potential. In response to the uneven regional development, different regions should find weak links in the development of consumption potential and make up for the shortcomings according to local conditions.
Developing countries such as Turkey, Egypt, and Estonia regard yachting tourism as an alternative form of tourism and are choosing to invest capital in this area [
8]. This study proposes a method to measure a comprehensive index of consumption potential based on consumption capacity, expenditure, quality, and environment of yachting tourism. This approach provides a theoretical basis and provides a practical tool for coastal cities in other countries to promote the consumption and development of yachting tourism.
Based on the above conclusions, we offer the following recommendations. First, it is necessary to continuously improve the income of residents, increase the corresponding wage, family business, and property income, implement a paid leave system, and improve the social security system to relieve the worries of workers. At the same time, yachting tourism consumption payment willingness and purchasing power should be enhanced by reducing the yachting consumption tax and mooring and membership fees. Second, the construction of yachting tourism infrastructure and service upgrades can be promoted, and public marinas can be reasonably laid out to satisfy the demand for a large amount of low-end yachting consumption. Third, there is the need to extend the yachting tourism industry chain to create a good consumer environment, whereby the product structure of yachting tourism on land, shore, and water is enriched. Additionally, the relationship between yachting activities and the regional ecological environment should be handled well, and shoreline resources should be protected. Finally, socioeconomic development is crucial to harnessing yachting tourism consumption potential. For example, it is necessary to improve the supporting measures of the three-child policy, formulate marine sports events or sponsorship programs for teenagers, and cultivate potential consumer markets to develop yachting tourism. This study has some limitations, which offer opportunities for future research. First, given the lack of statistical data on China’s yacht industry, it is still difficult for relevant information to form time series data; hence, the selection of cross-sectional data from the past three years cannot explain the development trajectory of the sample more comprehensively, and the consumption potential of yachting tourism cannot be grasped and analyzed in the longer term. Second, the study units also failed to reflect all cities in China’s yachting tourism development, especially inland non-coastal cities. Future studies could select data with longer time series and expand the number of sample units to improve the scientific and objective nature of the findings. Variables such as nautical culture and specific consumption expenditure of yachting tourism can be continuously incorporated into the construction of an indicator system to measure the consumption potential of yachting tourism more thoroughly.