Mode Choice and Cross Border Tourism via China Pakistan Economic Corridor: Attitudes, Socio-Demographics, and Policy Implications

This study investigates the mode choice of Pakistani tourists along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) for cross-border tourism under the mediating effects of attitudes toward different modes and socio-demographic variables. The novelty of our approach is testing the hypothesis that the choice of mode is more related to socio-demographics than attitudes toward different modes. Employing a stated preference survey, multinomial logit models analyze the impact of contributing variables on mode choice. The results indicate private cars (PC) are the preferred mode among all age groups, especially females. While younger males prefer public modes, this preference seem to decrease with age. Couples with or without children, valid driving licenses, vehicle possession, and high income significantly contributed to PC as a mode choice, while the opposite was true for public modes. Positive attitudes towards safety and comfort of PC and tour operators (TO) were observed while public transport (PT) and railway (RW) fell short. Although, public modes were preferred for group and family tours, but overall people were dissatisfied. Improving PT and RW for safety and cross border services, visa on arrival, and effective marketing campaigns can bring about a shift toward public modes, and increased tourism between both countries.