Tourism Product Development in China, Asian and European Countries [1st ed.] 9789811544460, 9789811544477

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Yuhua Luo Jinbo Jiang Doudou Bi   Editors

Tourism Product Development in China, Asian and European Countries

Tourism Product Development in China, Asian and European Countries

Yuhua Luo Jinbo Jiang Doudou Bi •

•

Editors

Tourism Product Development in China, Asian and European Countries

123

Editors Yuhua Luo University of the Balearic Islands Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Jinbo Jiang South China University of Technology Guangzhou, China

Doudou Bi South China University of Technology Guangzhou, China

ISBN 978-981-15-4446-0 ISBN 978-981-15-4447-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4447-7

(eBook)

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Preface

This proceedings book is a collection of the selected papers of the 9th International Conference on Tourism and Hospitality between China and Spain (www.chinaspain.org) held in Barcelona, September 30–October 2, 2019. Among many papers presented in the conference we chose a special set of papers that are concentrated on the development of tourism products. The book covers the entire chain of tourism product business process including market analysis, product positioning, marketing and sales, etc. Many papers in this book use both cutting-edge IT technology tools and advanced methodology to analyse some typical tourism products and the factors that affect them. AI, big data processing, data mining, visual content analysis, etc. are among those cutting-edge technological tools applied to the studies in this book. To identify the sustainable tourism products, a chapter describes the result of a survey of literature published in a sustainable tourism products journal. The authors discovered ten most popular forms of sustainable tourism products. Data visualisation techniques are applied in their study for the analysis. Tourism products under analysis in the book include products from food tourism, cruise tourism, medical tourism, youth adventure tourism, coastal destination tourism, cultural and religion tourism, etc. A couple of chapters of this book look at the tourism products in a geographic area with a much-detailed scale. The regional policy, promotion media for these products are also studied. Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay is one of these geographic areas. Some high-end tourism products and intelligent tourism products have been identified. Caribbean, Tibet, Barcelona, Majorca are also among the areas our authors paid special attention to. Each area has its own set of favourable tourism products to match the specific features of the area. Two chapters in the book concern the medical tourism. One is about the progress and impacts of the so-called “fertility tourism” after the end of the one-child policy in China. This opens some new market possibilities in the destination countries. Another chapter discusses how to explore the development of tourism products with traditional Chinese medicine to satisfy the increasing demand.

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Preface

To study the destination image for tourism product marketing is one of the topics the book addresses. The image of a tourist destination should be thoroughly investigated before product positioning attempts are undertaken. Two chapters analyse the images of Caribbean area and Barcelona city, respectively, among the Chinese tourists. The strategies of how to position the tourism products in these destinations are discussed. The tourism product pricing is a vital element in the product process chain. One chapter of the book compares the prices of cruise tourism products in China and Spain. A large amount of cruise price information has been collected using big data. Hedonic approach is applied in the study. The outcome of the study helps to improve the pricing of the cruise tourism products. There is one chapter dedicated to an in-depth analysis for one particular tourism product—the youth adventure tourism in the author’s country—Bangladesh. The inherited traditions, behavioural and societal values, family traditions, etc. of the target group have been studied to analyse their travel motivation. To find out the relationship between the regional tourism innovation ability and the new tourism product creation, one chapter studies the tourism innovation ability data of 31 provinces in China from 2000 to 2016. The spatial, temporal patterns and the evolution characteristics of tourism innovation ability have been obtained. One chapter examines the role of tourism products for promoting the destination image through social media. The authors tried to identify the factors that have impacts on their home country Iran’s image as a tourism destination. The result shows that Instagram can be considered as an effective visual tool for promoting the inbound tourism. The close relationship between the economic and tourism product development can be seen clearly from a chapter concerning the pro-poor tourism products. Such relationship can also be seen from another chapter which studies a special phenomenon—the tourism islanding effect that affects the economic development of surrounding areas of tourism hot spots. We hope that this book can provide an in-depth insight about the tourism products in China, Asia and European countries. China is currently positioning tourism as a dominant industry in certain areas by integrating regional resources to coordinate the economic and social development. This has been considered as one of the national strategies. Spain is a traditional tourism country and plays an important role in the tourism development in the world. We believe that the experience and research outcomes presented in this book can benefit the two countries and other areas in the world. The series of our conferences (www.chinaspain.org) has been contributing and will continue to contribute along this direction.

Palma de Mallorca, Spain Guangzhou, China Guangzhou, China

Editors Yuhua Luo Jinbo Jiang Doudou Bi

Contents

Bibliometric Analysis and Visualization for Sustainable Tourism Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wei Wei, Donghui Lu, Xin Xu, Xiaoyu Wang, and Hongxi Zhang

1

Discovering Tourists’ Perception About Food by AI and NI . . . . . . . . . Kun Zhang, Hongyu Wang, Junjiao Zhang, and Mingmin Zhu

25

A Comparative Analysis of the Cruise Price in China and Spain . . . . . Josep Mª Espinet Rius, Ariadna Gassiot Melian, and Ricard Rigall-I-Torrent

43

Analysis of Factors Influencing the Growing Motivation of Asian Youths for Adventure Tourism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dilip Kumar Bhadra

63

The Characteristics and Trends of Tourism Development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area . . . . . . . . . . . . Doudou Bi and Wanrong Tian

93

Open Chinese Tourism Market for Coastal Destinations in Spain—Taking Majorca Island as an Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Yijing Tan and Shangqi Huang Chinese Tourism in the Caribbean—Destination Image and Future Expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Xinge Liao and Dolores Sánchez Aguilera Exploring Emotional and Memorable Tourism Experiences . . . . . . . . . 137 Mingge Tian and Gemma Cànoves Influence of Religions in the Development of Hospitality Culture in Asia—The Case of Tibet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Xinru Liu, Duojie Suolang, and Xueying Lu

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Contents

Role of Tourism Products to Promote Iran’s Image as a Destination via Social Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 Mahdieh Jahangir Bolourchian and Mahdi Karroubi Let’s Talk About Chinese Tourism, but Fertility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Águeda Parra Pérez Medical Tourism in China: Traditional Medicine Serving as an Emerging Tourism Resource . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Yao Yan Study on Spatio-Temporal Distribution and Evolution of Tourism Innovation Ability in China’s Provinces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Jinbo Jiang, Min Zhang, and Yi Guo Residents’ Perception and Participation Behavior on the Poverty Alleviation Effect of Tourism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 Mu-chun Li and Bing-chen Han Tourism Islanding Effect: A Conceptual Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Li Tian, Wei Pu, and Liang Liu

Bibliometric Analysis and Visualization for Sustainable Tourism Products Wei Wei, Donghui Lu, Xin Xu, Xiaoyu Wang, and Hongxi Zhang

Abstract The concept of Sustainable Tourism Products (STP) derives from the discussion of sustainable tourism. This paper takes Journal of Sustainable Tourism as an analyzed example and tries to provide a comprehensive bibliometric overview on the research of sustainable tourism products. Data of 750 articles and reviews published between 2008 and 2018 in the journal are collected from Web of Science Core Collection, using CiteSpace for collaboration analysis, co-citation analysis, and the keywords co-occurrence analysis. The visualization results show that sustainable tourism products have been developed in a very diverse way. 10 forms of sustainable tourism products research hotspots are identified which are ecotourism, nature-based tourism, volunteer tourism, rural tourism, wildlife tourism, indigenous tourism, community-based tourism, pro-poor tourism, heritage tourism and cultural tourism. This paper also describes the evolution and emerging trends of sustainable tourism research for practitioners. Keywords Sustainable Tourism Products · Journal of Sustainable Tourism · Bibliometric analysis · Visualize analysis · CiteSpace W. Wei · X. Xu · H. Zhang South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China e-mail: [email protected] X. Xu e-mail: [email protected] H. Zhang e-mail: [email protected] D. Lu (B) Guangdong Polytechnic College, Zhaoqing, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China e-mail: [email protected] X. Wang South China Normal University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China e-mail: [email protected] D. Lu School of Economics and Management, Guangdong Polytechnic College, Ave. Qi Fu, Gao Yao District, Zhaoqing, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 Y. Luo et al. (eds.), Tourism Product Development in China, Asian and European Countries, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4447-7_1

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W. Wei et al.

1 Introduction Sustainable tourism has emerged as the dominat paradigm in tourism development since the release of the 1987 Brundtland Report [1]. The World Tourism Organization [2, p. 21] defined Sustainable Tourism (ST) development as meeting the needs of present tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunities for the future. Sustainable Tourism is envisaged as leading to the management of all resources in such a way that economic, social and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems. The concept of Sustainable Tourism Products (STP) derived along with the discussion of sustainable tourism. There are in excess of 5000 published works on sustainable tourism [3]. The content of ST debate has broadened to include not only environmental but economic, social and cultural issues, political power and social equality [4]. STP can be defined as any tangible and intangible thing with sustainability attributes which can meet tourists’ needs for balancing the experience during consuming and maintaining sustainable development of tourist destination. The Journal of Sustainable Tourism (JST) is the only journal exclusively devoted to sustainable tourism research since 1993. On its homepage, JST describes itself as a leading academic publication that advances specifically critical understanding of the relationships between tourism and sustainable development. The journal has become the leading research publication dedicated to advancing the understanding and discussion of sustainable tourism, and it is also ranked highly as a journal in the general tourism field. According to the Web of Science journal impact report, JST ranks No. 1 among 5 journals of the same categories. Initially articulated goals for the JST, the first issue included the aim “to foster research and practice in ST; to help develop both a theoretical base for the subject and reliable empirical evidence of its results and impacts; to provide interdisciplinary perspectives and an international outlook on the subject matter” [5, p. 3]. Nowadays JST makes it, and in some respects, the journal could be seen as a thematic or specialist publication of tourism field rather than a general tourism journal [6]. With its outstanding in this specific niche subject, the publications in JST must have generated abundant information concerning about STP, so as to be selected as the objectives of this paper. Berry [7] identified a number of barriers like mistrust government policy, poor administration and unclear lines of communication, to successful implementation of sustainable tourism practices. Lu and Nepal [4] employed a content analysis to review and bibliometrically analysed 341 papers published from 1993 to 2007 in JST, mapping out the research field, tourism forms, and subjects of ST. Ruhanen et al. [1, 8] implemented a bibliometric analysis by selecting ATR, JST, TM, and JTR, the four highest ranked journals in tourism field and had a further discussion in 2018, provided key insights into the nature of academic sustainable tourism research and point towards the possible future progress of this field. Bramwell et al. [6] published an editorial to mark the 25th anniversary of the inaugural issue of JST. That editorial adviced some bright ways for the research in Sustainable tourism area, and offered

Bibliometric Analysis and Visualization …

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some strategic development suggestions for JST in the future to further increase its relevance, innovation and impact by reviewing the publications in JST over the past 25 years. All the studies mentioned above focused on the sub-field of tourism, while this paper tried to find out the development of STP. Bibliometric is defined as an approach to evaluate and monitor the progress of given disciplines by sorting data, including citations, author affiliations, keywords, themes discussed, and methods employed for published studies in this disciplines [9, 10]. This paper tries to present the bibliometric analysis results of STP by using CiteSpace software packages 5.0.

2 CiteSpace CiteSpace5.0, a bibliometric Java application for analysing and visualizing social networks between contributors or between literatures, enables analysts to perform quantitative and qualitative studies of scientific subject domains more easily [11, 12]. Nodes and links are the key units of CiteSpace visualization graphs. The types of nodes include authors, institutions, countries, terms, keywords, categories, cited authors, references, cited journals, references, grants and articles. With CiteSpace5.0, collaborative networks, intellectual basis, landmarks, hotspots, emerging trends, and pivotal points of certain discipline can be defined through implementing co-citation and co-occurrence analysis. There are about 13,900 results keyword-searched CiteSpace by Google scholar on Jun. 5, 2018. CiteSpace has become a practical tool for bibliometric analysis.

3 Material and Methodology 3.1 Data Collection Articles published in leading scientific journals are accepted as “certified knowledge” [13]. According to Samuel Clement Bradford’s literature distribution law, most of the key literatures of a curtain discipline would be published in few core journals, which reveal the research state, trends and scholar level of the discipline. JST, the leading journal focusing on the specific subject of ST as mentioned above, therefore, was selected as the only sample for this paper. All the data of this paper were collected from ISI Web of Science Core Collection to make sure the data contain full records and can be employed co-citation analysis. Three steps were taken to get the data ready. Input “Journal of Sustainable Tourism” as the Publication Name, refine the search results by published year from 2008 to 2018, and choose Articles and Reviews types. Two members of research team checked some reviews from the results and determine not exclude reviews from the data. Second, export 750 data as plain text format and choose Full record and Cited

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references to save contents. WOS offers statistic output and cited analysis of search results. The exported plain text files and cited analysis of search results from WOS are both utilized in this paper. Running CiteSpace and analysing the records of 750 articles is the third steps. The steps above were tried for times for several bibliometric testing since the proposal of this paper from March, 2019. Considering the numbers of articles published in JST are fixed but the cited data may increase daily, the data to analyse finally exported on May, 30, 2019. As the data of 2019 in JST is incomplete with less statistic implication, the published year defined from 2008 to 2018. As Asia and Europe become the most increasing tourism destination around the world according the data of the World Economic Forum, this paper pay more attention to the development of sustainable tourism products in these two areas.

3.2 Methodologies Bibliometric studies are categorized into three groups: (1) review studies, (2) evaluative studies, and (3) relational studies [14]. Review techniques include structured literature reviews, systematic literature reviews, or meta-analyses/reviews, all of which are called traditional review methods [14]. They generate knowledge by using bibliographic data from published studies via frequency analysis or basic statistics Evaluative techniques measure the impact of scholarly work when compared to the performance or scientific contributions of two or more individuals or groups [15]. Hall [16] classifies evaluative metrics into three groups. The first group includes productivity measures. The second includes impact measures. The third consists of hybrid metrics. Relational techniques explore relationships among the research fields, the emergence of new research themes and methods, or co-citation and co-authorship patterns [15]. Relational techniques can be divided into four categories: co-citation analysis, co-word analysis, co-authorship analysis, and bibliographic coupling which can be accomplished by downloading cited analysis from WOS and implementing into CiteSpace5.0 software.

4 Results 4.1 Search Results Table 1 shows that the counts of the publications (purple bar) in JST and their cited times (blue bar) during 2008 and 2018 which both increase over the last decade. There were about 40 articles published in JST each year during 2008 and 2009. The number increased about 50% to 60 articles each year during 2010 and 2014, then kept rolling up year by year from 2015, and reached to 110 articles by 2018. According to the features of the growth bars in Fig. 1, the last decade can be identified

Bibliometric Analysis and Visualization … Table 1 Publications and their cited times of JST (2008–2018)

Fig. 1 Published articles (Blue) and cited articles (Purple)

5

Year

Articles (%)

Cited times (%)

2008

37 (4.933)

3 (0.020)

2009

38 (5.067)

38 (0.252)

2010

60 (8.000)

203 (1.348)

2011

43 (5.733)

446 (2.962)

2012

59 (7.867)

803 (5.333)

2013

64 (8.533)

1100 (7.306)

2014

63 (8.400)

1155 (10.327)

2015

74 (9.867)

2095 (13.914)

2016

90 (12.000)

2390 (15.873)

2017

105 (14.000)

2949 (19.536)

2018

117 (15.600)

3475 (23.079)

Total

750 (100.000)

15,057 (100.000)

4000 3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0

120 100 80 60 40 20 0

Cited arƟcles

Published arƟcles

as physical publishing era (2008–2014) and digital publishing era (2015–2018). As the digital media are applicable widely and shared easily, the traditional print media are replaced and fading out of our sight. This is the worst time and best time for the journals. It offers an easy way to overview each journal’s performance which may lead to Matthew effect. On the contrary, with digital technology, the size of each volume becomes unlimited and is up to the high-quality productive of the research field. The publication data of JST in WOS Core Collection only begins from the year of 2008. The cited times of the articles in JST before 2008 are not available. The cited times of each year for JST was only 3 in 2008 but increased dramatically to 1186 by 2018, which explains why JST accumulated impressive impact factor of 3.339/4.169 by the end of 2017. Human beings are facing challenges related to poverty and inequality, food and water security, health and well-being, socio-cultural change, clean energy, biodiversity, resource depletion and climate change [6]. It is predictable that the more the issues of sustainable development were concerned, the more articles would be cited from JST.

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The strategic naming of this journal needs to be addressed. Sustainable tourism is often now seen as a normative orientation that seeks to redirect societal systems and behaviour on a broad and integrated path toward sustainable development [6]. The name of JST dynamically states out its vision and principle which might help it to attain more motivated research articles and as a competitive advantage of its development.

4.2 Collaborative Networks of Authors and Cited Authors Authors of scientific literature are the subject of scientific research activities. The core authors are leading the research orientation of the discipline. Therefore, the research status of specific discipline can be accurately understood by positioning the core authors. CiteSpace5.0 was used to conduct visualized analysis on the researchers of JST. The node type was set as “author” or “cited author”, and the time slice was set as 1, so as to find out the productive authors. Derek John de Solla Price’s wellknown square root law (1964) [17] is used to position and examine the core authors in specific discipline. The formula is as follow: 1/2

Formula1:N = 0.749nmax Figures 2 and 3 visualize the social network of the authors. The size of node shows the importance, the circles on the node represent the frequency. The purple external rings mean high centrality of the node which indicates that someone holds authority over collaboration controls between clusters in a network. The more the productive or contributed, the bigger the nodes are. The more the links between the nodes, the more collaborative connect there are.

Fig. 2 Visualization of Authors network in JST (2008–2018)

Bibliometric Analysis and Visualization …

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Fig. 3 Visualization cited Authors network in JST(2008–2018) Table 2 Top 32 productive authors in JST (2008–2018)

Authors

Freq.

Authors

Freq.

Gossling S

18

Prideaux B

6

Hall CM

16

Ramkissoon H

6

Becken S

12

Ryan C

6

Scott D

12

Zhang CZ

6

Font X

11

Coles T

5

Ruhanen L

9

Higgins DF

5

Weiler B

9

Higham J

5

Dolnicar S

8

Laing J

5

Han H

8

Lee TH

5

Boley bb

7

Mair J

5

Coghlan A

7

Mcgehee NG

5

Peeters P

7

Moscardo G

5

Dickinson JE

6

Mckercher B

5

Dredge D

6

Wearing S

5

Filimonau V

6

Woosnam KM

5

Jamal T

6

Xu HG

5

8 Table 3 Top 24 citing authors of JST (2008–2018)

W. Wei et al. Authors

Freq.

Authors

Freq.

Han H

52

Wall G

21

Gossling S

44

Kim S

20

Hall CM

44

Weiler B

20

Becken S

36

Lee TH

19

Nunkoo R

26

Ramkissoon H

19

Font X

25

Bramwell B

19

Boley BB

23

Law R

18

Lee S

22

Ruhanen L

18

Woosnam KM

22

Saaynan M

18

Filimonau V

21

Gursoy D

17

Saarinen J

21

Kim W

17

Scott D

21

Moyle BD

17

Table 2 lists out the most productive authors in JST. Gossling S ranks No. 1 with 18 articles as the most productive author and the N = 0.749 * 181/2 ≈ 3.2 ≈ 4. Adjust the threshold to 4 in CiteSpace, the contributed authors will be visualized. Table 2 shows the contributed authors who have published at least 5 articles in JST, among which the contributed Asia and European authors are Gossling S(18) from Norway, Hall CM(16) from Sweden, Font X(11), Dickinson JE(6), Filimonau V(6) and Coles T from England, Han H(8) from South Korea, Peeters P(7) from the Netherlands, Dredge D(6) from Denmark, Zhang CZ(6), Mckercher B(5), and Xu HG(5) from P. R. China, with Lee TH(5) from Taiwan region as well. The names listed on Table 3 are the top citing authors in JST. It can be interpreted the list of the most influential authors in STP domain. Han H from South Korea ranks No. 1 as the most citing author, followed by the European authors as Gossling S(44), Hall CM(44), Font X(25), etc. Not all the articles of STP were published in JST, for instance, Gossling S published 18/44 * % = 41% of his research article in JST. But the ranking of the Table 2 is similar with that of Table 3, which proves the sample representativeness of this paper. Table 4 listed the frequent cited authors of JST. Bramwell B and Hall CM rank both No. 1 with 206 counts. Bramwell B, with 19 citing times in Table 3, is the ex-chief editor of JST, whose research results and viewpoints of articles must have inspired many authors and landmarked the evolution of STP researches and debates. Sharpley R, Cohen E and Eagles PFJ are not listed on Tables 2 and 3 but Table 4, which suggest that they have published a few but important articles to STP discussion, which even may be regarded as the base key stones of STP topic. The researchers, post graduate, doctorial students, and the new comers to STP top should not miss the articles written by the authors listed in Tables 2, 3 and 4.

Bibliometric Analysis and Visualization … Table 4 The cited frequencies of Authors in JST (2008–2018)

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Cited Authors

Freq.

Cited Authors

Freq.

Bramwell B

206

Dwyer L

47

Hall CM

206

Tosun C

46

Gossling S

180

Urry J

46

Scott D

126

Lane B

44

Becken S

122

Saarinen J

44

Mckercher B

116

Bohdanowicz P

43

Buckley R

101

Hunter C

44

Sharpley R

98

Mccool SF

43

Weaver DB

94

Font X

43

Butler RW

93

Ajzen I

42

Cohen E

76

Dredge D

42

Ryan C

75

Higgins DF

40

Jamal T

73

Timothy DJ

39

Wearing S

66

Getz D

37

Scheyvens R

64

Peeters P

36

Eagles PFJ

61

Higham J

36

Dolnicar S

59

Choi HC

35

Mcgehee NG

54

Dickinson JE

35

Miller G

53

Ballantyne R

33

Moscardo G

49

Holden A

31

4.3 Institutions and Their Geographic Location Run CiteSpace5.0 to analyse the institutions and results 100 nodes and 174 links. Many institutions around the world have publications in JST. The productive institutions are Griffith University(41), University of Queensland(32), University of Waterloo(24), Hong Kong Polytechnic University(20), University of Otago(20), So Cross University(18), James Cook University(18), Monash University(17), University of Surrey(14) and Linnaeus University(14), etc. Table 5 lists the top 30 institution contributors and each of their geographic location. There are 7 universities located in Australia, 5 in USA, 3 in England and 3 in New Zealand, all of which hold the authorities of STP in specific perspectives. High productivity suggests excellent teamwork collabo-ration and knowledge delivery. Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPU) in Hong Kong Region of P. R. China in Asia ranks with a remarkable position of No. 4, in line with its No. 1 hospitality and tourism major ranking in Academic Ranking of World Universities of 2018 and also wins the highest half-life (HL) of 7. Half-life is the time taken for the radioactivity of a specified isotope to fall to half its original value. The topics raised by HKPU take 7 years to fade out its original discussion value.

10 Table 5 Top 30 institutions of JST (2008–2018)

W. Wei et al. University

Location

Freq.

Griffith Univ

Australia

41

Univ Queensland

Australia

32

Univ Waterloo

Cannada

24

H. K. Polytech Univ

P. R. China

20

Univ Otago

New Zealand

20

Brst

So Cross Univ

Australia

18

5.78

James Cook Univ

Australia

18

3.6

Monash Univ

Australia

17

3.78

Univ Surrey

England

14

Linnaeus Univ

Sweden

14

Univ Johannesburg

South Africa

13

W Norway Res Inst

Norway

13

NHTV Breda Univ Appl Sci

Netherlands

13

Univ Canterbury

New Zealand

12

Lund Univ

Sweden

11

Texas A&M Univ

USA

9

Wageningen Univ

Netherlands

9

3.2

Virginia Tech

USA

8

3.2

Leeds Metropolitan Univ

England

8

2.51

Arizona State Univ

USA

8

Univ Oulu

Finland

8

Bournemouth Univ

England

8

Univ Technol Sydney

Australia

7

Univ Georgia

USA

7

Univ New S Wales

Australia

7

Univ Waikato

New Zealand

7

Sun Yat Sen Univ

P. R. China

6

Univ Aweiro

Portuguese

6

Sejong Univ

South Korea

5

Penn State Univ

USA

5

Besides HKPU, the most productive Asia institutions are Sun Yet Sen University in mainland China and Sejong University in South Korea. The most productive European institutions are University Surrey(14), Leeds Metropolitan University(8) and Bournemouth University(7) in England, Linnaeus University(14) and Lund University in Sweden(11), Western Norway Research Institution(13) in Norway, NHTV Breda University of App & Science(15) and Wageningen University(9) in the Netherlands, University of Oulu(8) in Finland and University of Aweiro in Portuguese(6). Figure 4 shows the collaborations among the contributed Asian and European institu-

Bibliometric Analysis and Visualization …

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Fig. 4 Visualization of collaborative network of Asian and European Institutions (2008–2018)

tions. The red nodes mean the universities which raised considerable burst subjects. As numbers of university institutions contribute to sustainable tourism, there should be more collaboration between Asia intuitions and European institutions since each of them can offer different case of sustainable attributes.

4.4 Countries and Cited Countries Analysis Lu et al. [4] defined top 5 contributed countries to JST were USA, Canada, England, Australia and New Zealand during 1993—2007. This changes a lot in the past 11 years. As stated on the left side of Table 6, the contributed author and institutions are mainly come from Australia (195 articles), USA (159 articles), U.K. (En/Sc.115+11 articles), New Zealand (68 articles), P. R. China (68 articles), Canada (62 articles) and Spain (40 articles). The institutions and authors from Australia and China made an impressive progress. There are 34 nodes and 125 links output from CiteSpace5.0. The centralities of USA (0.66) and England (0.45) are higher than that of Australia (0.27), which suggests that the research leadership of USA and England to STP topic has not changed. The thickness of purple node ring in Fig. 5 tells the importance of England exactly. Table 6 shows the contributed countries or regions to STP topic from cited references, many Asian and European countries and regions are on the list. The contributed countries are classified into 5 groups. The first group is defined as powerful countries, like USA, England, and Canada. They possess economic

12 Table 6 Countries (left) and cited countries (right) in JST

W. Wei et al. Cntry/Rgn

Frq

Cited Cntry/Rgn

Frq

Australia(0.27)

195

USA

938

USA(0.66)

158

Australia

809

England(0.45)

114

P. R. China

584

New Zealand

68

England

536

P. R. China(0.11)

68

Spain

331

Canada

62

Canada

289

Spain

40

Taiwan

240

Netherlands

32

New Zealand

230

Norway

29

South Africa

194

Sweden

27

South Korea

193

Taiwan

20

Sweden

173

South Africa

18

Italy

165

Finland

16

Germany

146

Germany

15

Netherlands

146

South Korea

14

Norway

139

Scotland

9

Malaysia

132

Austria

8

Finland

118

Portugal

8

Portugal

92

Italy

7

Scotland

86

Turkey

6

Turkey

76

Malaysia

6

Switzerland

73

Poland

6

Austria

71

Slovenia

5

France

57

Wales

4

Indonesia

50

Japan

3

Poland

49

advantages and the best researchers and institutions, surely should responsibly contributed more to the sustainable development than the other countries. The second group is nature-resource-endowment countries, like Australia and New Zealand. The Oceania is always regarded as the heaven escape from the industrial revolution and the environment are their competitive advantages, as well as their best researchers and institutions. The third group is sustainable countries, which located in north Europe. They are the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Austria and Finland, showing the models of human race sustainable development. The competitive advantages of the second and the third group may suffer the most from climate change, that’s why they concern more about the STP debates. The fourth group is the developing countries and regions of emerging economies from East Asia, like P. R. China, Taiwan and South Korea. The STP research there may be driven by their inner institution or the outer normative from developed countries. The fifth group is the countries

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Fig. 5 Collaboration of Asian and European countries in JST (2008–2018)

with the absolute advantage in the hospitality and tourism industry, like Spain and Portugal. The 1st, 3rd and the 5th group locate in Europe and the 4th group locates in Asia. Top 6 productive Asian and European countries are UK, P. R. China, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, implied the hotspot countries which dedicated to sustainable development especially in the field of tourism, also suggested that more and more collaboration are completed or under conducted among those countries.

4.5 Funding Agencies Statistic The articles published in JST are mainly supported by funding agencies from England, Canada, China and Australia showed in Fig. 6. All the performances of funding agencies are under expected except China in Asia. In Fig. 7, there are even over 100 articles supported by the four funding agencies from China ranking in leading position which are National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Science Foundation of China, China Scholarship council and China Postdoctoral Foundation. High productive suggest that Chinese researchers who have access to the national funding agencies of China are becoming more and more capable of international academic dialogue. In the past two decades, China has produced countless piles of papers, which have been ridiculed by other countries. But it happens to be an applicable way for academic innovation, just as Steven & Burley’s New Product Development stages said: 3000 raw ideas equals 1 commercial success. The funding agencies got more returns in a heating up innovation atmosphere.

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Fig. 6 Funding agencies of the articles in JST (2008–2018)

Fig. 7 Funding agencies of cited references in JST (2008–2018)

4.6 Cited Journal Analysis Key research resources of certain discipline can be derived from data analysis of cited journals. The key resources of ST are JST, TM, ATR, JRT and CIT, as shown in Table 7. The cited times from JST itself is 706, and followed by TM (619), ATR (582), JTR (320). The research results suggest that JST keeps a good interaction with other key tourism journals and articles published in other key tourism journals well connect with JST. Cited journals can be divided into 7 research clusters. Orchid Island and Shark Reef are two hot tourist destination of STP. One key way to observe the consuming of STP is to track down and measures the tourists’ carbon footprint, while theory of planned behavior is most applied methodology in understand the

Bibliometric Analysis and Visualization … Table 7 Parts of cited Journal in JST (2008–2018)

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Journal

Freq.

Journal

Freq.

Journal of Sustainable Tourism

706

Journal of Marketing Res.

111

Tourism Management

619

Journal of Environ. Psychol.

106

Annals of Tourism Res.

582

Environ. Behav.

102

Journal of Travel Research

320

Soc. Nature Resource

100

Current Issues in Tourism

307

Journal of Clean Prod.

97

Int Journal of Tourism Res

247

Thesis

93

Tourism Geographies

205

Int. Journal of Hosp. Manag.

90

Journal of Environ management

184

Journal of Business Res.

75

Ecol. Econ.

140

Environ. Conserv.

71

Journal of Ecotourism

136

SCIENCE

67

Tour. Recreat. Res.

124

Journal of Consum. Res.

57

Global Environ Change

113

ANATOLIA

56

motives STP consuming. Following practitioners can choose top 5 or top 10 journals in Table 7 for future literature review or bibliometric analysis of sustainable tourism products.

4.7 Keywords Co-occurrence and Burst Subject (1) Keywords co-occurrence analysis Keywords snapshot the themes, samples, methodology, purpose and even contents of an article, so researcher can figure out the structure or map out the progress of the specific discipline through keywords co-occurrence analysis. Table 8 shows the summary of keywords co-occurrence analysis of JST. The high frequency may reveal a tough challenge or good solution to achieve sustainable tourism development, like climate change or protected area. Most researches focus on the topics like climate change, environment conservation and management, corporate social responsibilities and environmentally responsible practices.

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Table 8 Parts of keywords summary in JST (2008–2018) Keyword

Freq.

Keyword

Freq.

Sustainable tourism

255

Nature-based tourism

35

Management

124

Sustainable tourism development

35

Tourism

121

Satisfaction

34

Climate change

117

Performance

32

Protected area

89

Policy

28

ecotourism

86

Volunteer tourism

26

Impact

83

Identity

26

Sustainability

81

Framework

26

Tourism development

80

Tourism impact

26

Perception

77

Corporate social responsibility

25

Attitude

76

In-depth interview

25

Conservation

75

Local community

23

Sustainable development

69

Motivation

22

National park

68

Community participation

22

Governance

58

Rural tourism

21

Behavior

56

Stakeholder

21

Community

51

Perspective

21

Model

48

Tourism destination

21

Tourism industry

38

Tourism sector

19

Experience

37

Developing country

17

Koseoglu et al. [18] categorized bibliometric analysis as theme-focused, methodfocused, and sample-focus, as well as journal-focused and contributor-focused, which are presented as previews. Theme-focused studies include articles on discussing how one or more themes, such as climate change or performance, have evolved in the entire discipline. Methodology-focused review studies constituted articles directly focusing on how methodologies have evolved in the tourism literature. Sample-focused review studies focus on the samples which can be categorized into three groups: industry, people, and place. This paper categorizes the keywords in this framework as Table 9. 10 forms of STP is showed in first group of theme-focused in Table 9 covering Ecotourism(86), nature-based tourism(35), volunteer tourism(26), rural tourism(21), wildlife tourism(14), indigenous tourism(12), community-based tourism(8), propoor tourism(6), heritage tourism(6), and cultural tourism(3). The higher the frequency is, the closer the concept is in line with ST philosophy. What Lu et al. (2009) have discovered that urban tourism had high frequency is opposite to the result of this paper and mass tourism should march to sustainable way. In-depth interview(25), planned behaviour(15), semi-structured interview(13), structural equation modelling(10), paradigm(6), determinant(6), case study(6), literature review(6),

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Table 9 Categories of the output keywords in JST (2008–2018) Focus

Field

Keyword with its frequency

Themes

Form

Ecotourism(86), nature-based tourism(35), volunteer tourism(26), rural tourism(21), wildlife tourism(14), indigenous tourism(12), community-based tourism(8), pro-poor tourism(6), heritage tourism(6), cultural tourism(3)

Economic

Tourism(121), tourism development(80), impact(83), value(17), consumption(16), negative impact(12), economic development(10), positive effect(6), state(6), demand(6), political economy(5), economic sustainability(4)

Management

Management(124), governance(58), performance(32), policy(28), tourism sector(19), indicator(16), knowledge(15), quality(13), practical implication(12), tourism planning(9), power(8), interpretation(8), tourism policy(8), tourism management(8), partnership(7), politics(6), strategy(6), destination image(6), long term(5), planning process(5), certification(5), information(4), environmental management(4), market segmentation(4), adaptation strategy(3), policy maker(3)

Psychology

Perception(77), attitude(76), behaviour(56), experience(37), satisfaction(34), identity(26), motivation(22), intention(16), participation(15), travel(14), Challenge(13), pro-environmental behaviour(17), environmental attitude(10), involvement(7), tourist behaviour(6), tourism mobility(6), willingness to pay(6), loyalty(6), behaviour change(5), emotional solidarity(4), responsible behavior(3), attitude-behaviour gap(3), emotion(3), rural tourism experience(3)

Philosophy

Sustainability(81), sustainable development(35), sustainable tourism development(35), perspective(21), environmental sustainability(12), resilience(11), authenticity(10), responsible tourism(9), high level(8), future(8), vulnerability(7), green(7), trust(6), tourism sustainability(5), mitigation(5), corporate environmentalism(4), evolution(3)

Sociology

Community(51), tourism impact(26), corporate social responsibility(25), community participation(22), local community(23), environmental impact(16), issue(13), community development(12), environmental issue(11), host community(9), rural community(7), poverty reduction(6), poverty alleviation(6), transport(6), network(6), context(5), moderating role(5), social responsibility(5), collaboration(5), social impact(5), culture(4), residents perception(4), social media(4), equity(4), ethics(4), support(4), well-being(4)

Ecology

Climate change(117), conservation(75), biodiversity conservation(11), biodiversity(10), environment(9), emission(11), natural environment(8), science(4), greenhouse gas emission(4), space(3), CO2 emission(3)

Macro level

Tourism research (12), qualitative research (8), empirical research(3)

Method

(continued)

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Table 9 (continued) Focus

Sample

Field

Keyword with its frequency

Micro level

Model(48), framework(26), in-depth interview(25), planned behaviour(15), semi-structured interview(13), structural equation modeling(10), paradigm(6), determinant(6), case study(6), literature review(6), content analysis(6), contingent valuation(4)

Industry

Tourism industry(38), air travel(9), industry(6), hospitality(6), event(5), commendation(4), leisure(4), hotel(4), tourism product(3)

Place

Protected area(89), national park(68), tourism destination(21), developing countries(17), New Zealand(17), Australia(17), destination(13), China(12), world heritage site(8), world(8), tourist destination(7), place(7), natural resource(7), park(5), Africa(4), Turkey(4), Canada(4), cultural heritage(3)

Object

Stakeholder(21), indigenous(13), wildlife(8), tourist(7), local people(7), local government(5), visitor(5), indigenous stakeholder(3)

content analysis(6) and contingent valuation(4) are the most useful methodology for STP studies. The popular research samples are protected area(89), national park(68), developing countries(17), New Zealand(17), Australia(17), China(12), world heritage site(8), stakeholder(21), indigenous(13) and wildlife(8). Implementing keywords clusters with time-line can visualize the evolution of ST research and debate. This paper separated 11 years into 3 periods. There are 7 keywords clusters from 2008 to 2011. In these years, the information generated by tourists’ social media interested the researchers. Big data mining offers more complete material for STP consuming research. Meanwhile convention tourism and slow travel became hot way to consume STP at that time. The keywords cluster from 2012 to 2015 shows discussions focus on educational travel, another popular STP. The keywords clusters from 2016 to 2018 show researchers concerned more about pro-environmental behaviour and holiday footprint of food, rooms and recreations. Figure 8 overviews the research path advancing in ST from 2008 to 2018, finding extra hot topics of STP, ski resort, due to its extremely sport experience. (2) The burst of keywords co-occurrence The burst of certain keyword is a metric used to analyse the evolution of ST research and identify the emerging trends. The burst refers to a significant change of a variable’s values in a relatively short time. CiteSpace consider this type of change as a way to identify the front line of research. Figure 9 shows the burst time with red bar of 43 keywords in JST from 2008 to 2018. The length of red bar stands for the discussion value period of the keywords. Environ-mental impact, authenticity of ST, community participation and volunteer tourism keep hot for over five years. The keywords “interpretation, national park and environmental impact” burst in 2008, and last at least 2 year. The keywords “environment, network, authenticity, partnership and tourism management” burst in 2009 and last at least till 2011. The keywords “politics, pro-environmental behaviour, tourism impact, political economy, high level and participation” burst in 2010, and “tourism planning, perspective,

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Fig. 8 Keywords clusters with time line of JST (2008–2018)

paradigm, place, pro-poor tourism, transport, community participation, state and literature review” burst in 2011. The keywords “developing country, place attachment and world” burst in 2012, and “indicator, policy, involvement, tourist and demand” burst in 2013. The keywords “volunteer tourism, local people, and host community” burst in 2014 and “consumption” bursts in 2015. Finally comes the research front line of ST, the emerging trends of ST research are “economic development, motivation, wildlife, knowledge, New Zealand, tourist destination and future”, as well as “volunteer tourism” and “consumption” mentioned above. Following practitioners can search the burst keywords for more detailed information, find out hot issues such as sustainable tourism knowledge management, know-ledge delivery and knowledge innovation and impact the proceeding of ST practices.

4.8 Co-citation Analysis for References The frequency and cluster mix can figure out the knowledge of specific discipline. 10 most cited articles output from WOS in JST are listed in Table 10, the highest cited author, Bill Bramwell ranks No. 3, but his yearly average cited times ranks No. 1 the same as CiteSpace output result. There are three way to keywords cluster, by TFIDF, by LLR and by MI. Implemented co-citation cluster analysis and resulted 10 terms. They are #0 developing sustainable, #1 responsible behavior, #2 poverty reduction, #3 sustainability indicator, #4 slow travel, #5 adaptive co-management, #6 achieving voluntary reduction, #7 policy failure, #8 island residents identities and #9 Volunteer tourism. The most cited articles studied local food, and two of others focused on green hotel, which suggests that the eating and lodging plays the most important roles in STP.

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Fig. 9 Burt evolution of keywords in JST (2008–2018)

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Table 10 Top 10 cited articles in JST (2008–2018) R. Sims, Food, place and authenticity: local food and the sustainable tourism experience, 2009, Cited 278, Ave. Cited 25.27 J. Lee, LT. Hsu, H. Han, Y. Kim, Understanding how consumers view green hotels: how a hotel’s green image can influence behavioural intentions, 2010, Cited 243, Ave. Cited 24.3 Bill Bramwell, Governance, the state and sustainable tourism: a political economy approach, 2011, Cited 232, Ave. Cited 25.78 C.M. Hall, Policy learning and policy failure in sustainable tourism governance: from first- and second-order to third-order change? 2011, Cited 215, Ave. Cited 23.89 D. Scott, P. Peeters, S. Gossling, Can tourism deliver its “aspirational” greenhouse gas emission reduction targets? 2010, Cited 179, Ave. Cited 17.9 Okazaki, Etsuko, A Community-Based Tourism Model: Its Conception and Use. 2008, Cited 174, Ave. Cited 14.5 E.M. Raymond, C.M. Hall, The Development of Cross-Cultural (Mis)Understanding Through Volunteer Tourism. 2008, Cited 169, Ave. Cited 14.08 R.B. Powell, S.H. Ham, Can ecotourism interpretation really lead to pro-conservation knowledge, attitudes and behaviour? Evidence from the Galapagos islands, 2008, Cited 163, Ave. Cited 13.8 Palacios, Carlos M, Volunteer tourism, development and education in a postcolonial world: conceiving global connections beyond aid, 2010, Cited 147, Ave. Cited 14.7 Y. Kim, H. Han, Intention to pay conventional-hotel prices at a green hotel—a modification of the theory of planned behavior, 2010, Cited 145, Ave. Cited 14.5

5 Conclusions and Implication This is a journal-focused bibliometric analysis to JST, a leading academic publication that advances specifically critical understanding of the relationships between tourism and sustainable development. JST, publishers, organizations, institutions, or even authors may benefit from the result of this paper. 750 records and relevant materials are downloaded from Web of Science Core Collection and apply CiteSpace to visualize the most contributors and evolution of JST, the progress and framework of ST discipline, as well as the important emerging trends in ST research field by implementing co-occurrence and co-citation analysis. Forms of sustainable tourism products are defined so that to develop different products to meet the variety needs of sustainable tourism products. 10 different forms are addressed to satisfy the local and environment: ecotourism(86), naturebased tourism(35), volunteer tourism(26), rural tourism(21), wildlife tourism(14), indigenous tourism(12), community-based tourism(8), pro-poor tourism(6), heritage tourism(6), and cultural tourism(3), and 9 emerging trends are examined, which are the most sustainable way to develop tourism industry, while ST is regarded as a developing orientation instead of a form of tourism. This paper also presents the foundation and framework of ST research by analysis of top 10 cited journals and co-citation clusters. The popular research objects are protected area, national park, wild life and

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stakeholder. Most of ST researches are conducted through in-depth interview, theory of planned behaviour, semi-structured interview and structural equation modelling. Authors are clarified that the most contributed ones are from Europe and Asia. They are Gossling S(18) from Norway, Hall C.M.(16) from Sweden, Font X.(11), Dickinson J.E.(6), Filimonau V.(6) and Coles T. from England, Han H.(8) from South Korea, Peeters P.(7) from the Netherlands, Dredge D.(6) from Denmark, Zhang Chaozhi(6), McKercher B.(5), and XU Honggang(5) from P. R. China, with Lee T.H.(5) from Taiwan region as well. The most productive Asia institutions are Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Sun Yet Sen University of P. R. China and Sejong University in South Korea. The most productive European institutions are University Surrey(14), Leeds Metropolitan University(8) and Bournemouth University(7) in England, Linnaeus University(14) and Lund University in Sweden(11), Western Norway Research Institution(13) in Norway, NHTV Breda University of App & Science(15) and Wageningen University(9) in the Netherlands, University of Oulu(8) in Finland and University of Aweiro in Portuguese(6). Top 6 productive Asian and European countries are U.K., P. R. China, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. The European countries are developed and in good sustainable practice, but the Asian countries are facing the tough challenge in sustainable development. More collaboration shall be under considered and conducted between Asian and European countries so as to better the global STP designs and marketing. Tourism products are allocated in different sectors, including dining, lodging, transportation, entertaining and so on. Sustainable tourism products also need to fit different sectors. The most cited articles focused on the sustainable tourism topic of local food of tourist destination, se well as green hotel, which suggests that the eating and lodging plays the most significant roles in STP. Orchid Island, Shark Reef and those ski resorts can offer extreme tour experiences and became the most popular destinations. This paper also has limitations. Most of the contributed institutions located in the developed English-speaking countries so articles published in other language are excluded from the sample data. The interpretations to the results are subjective based on the authors’ experience and perspective. Further research can be conducted through exploratory analysis and deepen into specific sustainable tourism pattern. Note: This Paper is the Part of the Following Projects 1. Study on measurement of development level of beautiful China and the influence on quality and quantity change of inbound tourism flow, supported by the National Social Science Fund of China, No. 19BJY207 2. Study on the Mutual Benefit and Cooperation Mechanism of Cruise Tourism Promoting the Coordinated Development of Tourism in Guangdong-Hong KongMacao Greater Bay Area, supported by Guangzhou Philosophy and Social Science Project, China, 2018, No. 2018GZYB23 3. Graduate Education Innovation Program “Exploring Research on the Teaching Reform of International Education for Graduate Students Majoring in Tourism

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Management”, supported by Department of Education of Guangdong Province, China, 2017, No. 2017JGXM-ZD03 4. Graduate English Course “Study comparatively between Chinese and international hospitality industry”, supported by South China University of Technology, 2018 5. Philosophy and Social Science Federation Program of Zhaoqing, P. R. China (to Donghui Lu), No. 19ZC-42.

References 1. Ruhanen, L., Weiler, B., Moyle, B.D., McLennan, C.-L.J.: Trends and patterns in sustainable tourism research: a 25-year bibliometric analysis. J. Sustain. Tour. 23(4), 517–535 (2015) 2. UNWTO: United Nations declares 2017 Year of sustainable tourism for development (2015). Retrieved from http://media.unwto.org/press-release/2015-12-07, 5 July, 2016 3. Buckley, R.: Sustainable tourism: research and reality. Ann. Tour. Res. 39(2), 528–546 (2012) 4. Lu, J., Nepal, S.: Sustainable tourism research: an analysis of papers published in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism. J. Sustain. Tour. 17(1), 5–16 (2009) 5. Bramwell, B., Lane, B.: Sustainable tourism: an evolving global approach. J. Sustain. Tour. 1(1), 1–5 (1993) 6. Bramwell, B., Higham, J., Lane, B., Miller, G.: Twenty-five years of sustainable tourism and the Journal of Sustainable Tourism: looking back and moving forward. J. Sustain. Tour. 25, 1 (2017) 7. Berry, S.: Sustainable tourism: a regional perspective. Tour. Manag. 18(7), 433–440 (1997) 8. Ruhanen, L., Moyle, C.-L., Moyle, B.: New directions in sustainable tourism research. Tour. Rev. V74(2), 138–149 9. Diodato, V.: Dictionary of bibliometric. Haworth Press, Binghamton (1994) 10. McBurney, M.K., Novak, P.L.: What is bibliometric and why should you care? In: Proceedings of the Professional Communication Conference, pp. 108–114 (2002) 11. Chen, C.: Searching for intellectual turning points: progressive knowledge domain visualization. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 101(Suppl 1), 5303–5310 (2004) 12. Chen, C.: CiteSpace II: detecting and visualizing emerging trends and transient patterns in scientific literature. J. Am. Soc. Inform. Sci. Technol. 57(3), 359–377 (2006) 13. Ramos-Rodriguez, A.R., Ruiz-Navarro, J.: Changes in the intellectual structure of strategic management research: a bibliometric study of the Strategic Management Journal, 1980–2000. Strateg. Manag. J. 25(10), 981–1004 (2004) ˇ 14. Zupic, I., Cater, T.: Bibliometric methods in management and organization. Organ. Res. Methods 18(3), 429–472 (2015) 15. Benckendorff, P., Zehrer, A.: A network analysis of tourism research. Ann. Tour. Res. 43, 121–149 (2013) 16. Hall, C.M.: Publish and perish? Bibliometric analysis, journal ranking and the assessment of research quality in tourism. Tour. Manag. 32, 16–27 (2011) 17. Nicholls, P.T.: Price’s square root law: empirical validity and relation to Lotka’s law. Inf. Process. Manage. 24(4), 469–477 (1988) 18. Koseoglu, M.A., Rahimi, R., Okumus, F., Liu, J.Y.: Bibliometric studies in tourism. Ann. Tour. Res. 61, 180–198 (2016)

Discovering Tourists’ Perception About Food by AI and NI Kun Zhang, Hongyu Wang, Junjiao Zhang, and Mingmin Zhu

Abstract The paper describes a very interesting study on the food tourism product. Food tourism is an important product and attraction in tourism destinations. Obtaining tourists’ perception of food can effectively promote the development of this tourism product and the destinations. The massive amount of visual information on the topic makes the study very challenging. This paper combines AI (artificial intelligence) and NI (natural intelligence) for visual content analysis to obtain the traveller’s perception of food. The Flickr YFCC 100M dataset is chosen as the data source for study. Original photos uploaded by tourists in Beijing area are screened and the home information of the travellers is retrieved. With the help of a deep learning model in computer vision, visual contents about food were filtered. The visual contents are then reclassified into several categories. Integrated with the textual analysis results, the overall food image perceived by tourists in the area was obtained. Keywords Destination image · Food · User-generated content · Tourist perception · Deep learning model · Visual content analysis · Textual content analysis

1 Introduction The emergence and popularity of social media platforms have drastically changed the way of people’s socialization, sharing and interacting information in cyberspace has become a crucial thing in the modern society [1]. Economic development, cultural communication and advanced modern transit system make tourism an indispensable part of people’s life. Many texts, photos and video information are stimulated by tourists during their traveling. These contents have great value and potentials for tourism product development evaluation, tourism promotion and other extensive aspects. K. Zhang (B) · H. Wang · J. Zhang Nankai University, Tianjin, China e-mail: [email protected] M. Zhu Tianjin Modern Vocational Technology College, Tianjin, China © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 Y. Luo et al. (eds.), Tourism Product Development in China, Asian and European Countries, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4447-7_2

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An effective method and framework for multivariate data analysis are particularly important, as it would turn the original and scattered data into valid evidence and knowledge for marketing development [2]. And it is also the current focus of s and practitioners [3]. At present, the formats of UGC mainly include text, pictures and video. Analyzing for the textual data, many types of applicable software have been developed, such as text blob, which could effectively classify textual content and accurately count words’ frequency. For visual data, like photos, have already been employed in some tourism studies, but with a method of manually identifying. There is rarely a tourism study employing photos with large size of sample number, as it requires professional skill for data mining and AI (artificial intelligence) technology for analysing [4]. In recent years, with the development of computer vision technology, many robot computer deep learning models have been developed for visual content analysis, such as semantic segmentation, scene recognition, affective recognition and so on. However, high-level professional skills for computer modelling has restricted the application of such technology into the field of tourism. Additionally, it should be noticed that the combination of visual and textual content is very necessary. Users are consciously expressing their emotion, discovery, idea by uploading photos and writing texts together in most popular social media platforms, such as Flickr. Only by collaboratively understanding users’ photos and text at the same time, the complete users’ perceived information and unprecedented details could be obtained. As mentioned earlier, there is already a great breakthrough of visual content recognition in the field of computer vision, it is possible to recognize the main content of photos. It shows some urgencies and necessities to develop an integrated method for multi-format data (text, photo, even video) analysis in the tourism field, which is an inevitable tendency. In this paper, the main aim is to explore how to effectively apply computer vision technology and multi-format data into tourists’ perception and behaviour analysis in the field of tourism destination study. Specific objectives in our study are as follows: • Establish the tourists’ photo dataset of Beijing as a tourism destination by data processing. We limited our target area within the food in this destination. • Identify the visual contents related to the food in the dataset by a computer deep learning model. • Combine and compare the approaches of employing visual content and textual content analysis together for the food perception and behaviour preference. • Provide specific evidence and about food preference of tourists from three different continents for DMOs’ (destination management organizations) market promotion • Explore the feasibility of computer deep learning methods for the study of tourists’ perception and behaviour preference by identify visual content of photos. The remaining part of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents the related work to this paper by reviewing literature. Section 3 gives an illustration of the dataset, data mining and the introduction of the study city. Section 4 is the methodology applied in this paper. Section 5 shows the results of tourists’ perception and behaviour preference by visual content analysis and textual content analysis. Sections 6 makes a conclusion and research prospect for the whole research.

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2 Literature Review 2.1 Tourism Destination Image and the Food Dimension Why do scholars and practitioners pay so great attention to UGC data of tourist destinations? A fact needs to be clarified, we are now stepping onto a new stage, in which people no longer refer to official propaganda when they are making decisions on tourism destinations, but tend to browse and seek feedback and evaluation from other tourists in social media. This indicates the establishment of TDI (tourism destination image) is not determined by the PDI (projected destination image) launched by tourism marketers dominant [5] or DMOs, but shaped mostly by tourists’ perceived evaluation and dissemination through various social networks [6]. Qu et al. [7] pointed out that the holistic destination image is formed by the interaction with cognitive, affective, and unique images [7]. The attribute-holistic framework raised by Echtner and Ritchie [8] provided a good theoretical foundation, which advocated detecting TDI through different attributes or dimensions [8]. Referring to this conceptual idea, the domain of this specific study which concentrated on food could make sense, which is one of the most important dimension of tourism destination image [9]. Data show that 40% of tourists’ travel expenses are spent on food [10]. Since 2000, there was a substantially increasing number of papers about food tourism [11]. Scholars’ exploration of food tourism has gradually formed it into an independent research concept and domain [12]. The experiential value of local food has a great influence on the decision-making of tourism destinations, which make it as an important part of marketing strategies for tourism destination [13]. Previous research topics about food include the divergence between host food image and projected food image [14], experiential value of food for branding [10], tourists’ perception of local food [15]; and spatial distribution of food [16], and so on. Place/geographic environment, food and cuisine culture, food and people, food quality, dining places/restaurants and food activities are the study focus about food [17], details of food itself, like the food’s names, special testes and cooking materials are rarely considered. Most of these studies are carried out by means of questionnaires or small size of sample content analysis in a manual way, few studies were conducted by employing massive photos in social media as a type of pictorial big data.

2.2 Textual Content Analysis and Tourism Destination Image Presently, great attention has been paid to the textual data in social media which including review data, blogs data, and especially, photo attached textual data (title/ description/ tags), they are mainly used for tourist satisfaction and tourism recommendation and tourist sentiment [18]. Before that, keywords in the mainstream online engine website is a previous data source for sampling textual content and it usually

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served for specific topics about online destination image [19]. No matter the resource of the textual data, property, frequency and co-occurrence of words in text are the main aspects for analysing, and the software of NVivo, text blob, ThoughtView are applied as the tools for data statistics [4].

2.3 Visual Content Analysis and Tourism Destination Image Photos as the pictorial representatives and expression of the destination image have received a broad consensus by scholars [8, 10], as it could convey tourists’ perception, preference, choices, memories and even sentiment attitudes than other forms of messages, such as text, and so on [20]. Photos provide the means to convey or construct a destination’s touristic image [21]. In addition, photos are viewed as the represented semiotics for destinations [22, 23], logos serving for branding landmark [24] and indicators for diagnosing the TDI divergences between DMOs and tourists [25–27]. Photo-based destinations study has already existed. For example, the study of manually analysing visual contents of traveling photos obtained from famous tourism magazines [28]. Sample selection, well-planned category and trained assistant researchers are the three crucial parts for such manual content analysis of photos [29, 30]. The conducting process of this visual content analysis primarily concerns about the collection of images and the identification of frequencies, co-occurrence, clustering, and other related recorded issues [31].

2.4 Technology Breakthrough for Visual Content Analysis In computer science, computer vision based on deep learning is a field branch of computer artificial intelligence, which is a science about how to make artificial systems “observe” photos or multidimensional data, or to enable computers to “see the world like humans.” Deep learning has been widely used in the field of computer vision. The study of computer vision includes several research objects, such as image classification, target detection, semantic segmentation, behaviour recognition and so on. Two of them have been well applied in some cross-disciplinary researches, namely semantic segmentation and scene recognition. Semantic segmentation is to extract the main contents (such as people, sky, green plant, water, mountain, building, street, vehicle and so on) of a picture and calculates the area proportion of each content in the photo by establishing a computer deep learning model. Scene recognition is to distinguish the scene feature of the photo, and one dominated feature would be defined as the theme of each photograph. The range of the scene numbers is relatively abundant, which could be over 100 scenes, such as ancient buildings, modern buildings, food, shopping mall, panda, cloudy sky, meeting, snow, etc. Semantic segmentation technology is well used in the field of urban study, the issues including

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street greening [32], air quality, walking safety and amenity [33, 34]. Specifically, there is an extensive application of semantic segmentation technology in the field of automatic divining [35, 36]. In addition to semantic analysis, the result of scene recognition technology is more abundant and has been applied for city image study based on human perception and behavior. For example, one of the important topics is the perception of a city image which concerns both of tourists and residents’ perception [37–39], and referring to the Lynch’s theory [40].

2.5 Summary The emergence of social media has completely changed the process of people acquiring information and the way of making their tourism destination decision. Compared with conventional research methods of questionnaires and interviews, the information reflected by big data is more abundant and specific. Faced with such huge number of UGC, both scholars and practitioners need to constantly explore and update their competence of how to optimally use the multi-dimensional data. Especially, there is a gap for integrating and comparing the approaches of visual and textual analysis. Intending to bridge the gap, this empirical study was conducted to verify whether the information conveyed by users’ textual description and the content of photos are consistent or not, how should the textual and visual content complement and verify for each other. The theoretical innovations and the contribution of this paper are embodied in two aspects. The first is that both visual content and textual content are used as data sources for comprehensive analysis. The second is the combination of computer intelligent recognition and manual recognition for visual content analysis. Focused on the theme of food in tourism destination, this paper broke through the limitation of the sample size of conventional manual content analysis and explored a more comprehensive method for the application of multi-format UGC data.

3 Dataset and the Study City 3.1 Dataset-Flickr YFCC 100M The dataset adopted in this paper is the largest public and free multimedia collection released by Yahoo in 2015 which titled “Yahoo Flickr Creative Commons 100M” (YFCC 100M). It contains approximately 99.2 million photos and 0.8 million videos from the inception of Flickr between 2004 until early 2014. Each line of the data is composed by 23 pieces of metadata [41], they are (1) photo/video identifier and user NSID (PID-picture identification/UID-user identification), (2) date taken (day and time), (3) title/description/user tags (4) longitude and latitude (5) photo/video

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download URL. And BCL (Beijing city lab) has help to selected out all the 2,171,162 photos in China and freely provided it for scholars. The filtered BCL data was taken as the original data, 144,967 metadata of photos were selected in Beijing City by assigning geographical coordinate information of administrative boundary in Python. The original uploaded photos by users were automatically downloaded by allocating tasks of retrieving the download URL in Python. After all, 137,265 photos were found, as some photos have been deleted by users. Again, by retrieving the user’s birthplace, city and country by invoking API (Application Programming Interface) data in Flickr, 35,356 photos of tourists with home location information were distinguished and reclassified into 103 scenes by the deep learning model of scene recognition. Through the complex computer process, 1376 photos related to food are finally identified, which accounted for 3.8% of the total.

3.2 The Study City Beijing is the political, economic and cultural centre of China, and one of the most famous tourism destinations in the world. Great Wall, Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Olympic Park and so on, all these scenic spots attract lots of tourists every year. In 2018, the number of oversea tourists has over 4 million according to the Beijing Statistics Bureau. In Beijing, people could taste the different types of food from almost all over the country.

4 Methodology 4.1 Framework The overall research framework is divided into four parts, the first part is data acquisition and screening. The second part is food-related data identification through scene recognition model in computer. The third part includes two parallel analysing processes of visual content and textual content, which aim at detecting food perception and behaviour preference of tourists from three continents. The combination and comparison of the two results of content analysis were conducted in this part, too. This is followed by the conclusion as the last part. Data acquisition and screening, as part I, has been introduced in Sect. 3. In part II, the deep learning model of scene recognition is employed for recognizing the contents of tourists’ photos. The purpose of scene recognition is to identify the tourist photos which related to food and to effectively reduce the sample size for the following analysis. As the computer model only has around 90% correct rate, manually check was also made to ensure all the photos are related to food by three research assistants.

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In the part III, visual content analysis and textual analysis are parallels conducted as two independent and complementary approaches for analysing food perception and behaviour preference of tourists from three continents. Both of these two approaches need to accomplish two tasks, one is to detect food perceptual differences between tourists from different continents by recognizing what appeared in the photo or text, the other is to discover behaviour preference about eating place and eating time by photo-attached spatial and temporal information or words in the text. Part IV is the conclusion and responding to the research objectives.

4.2 Visual Content Analysis For the visual content analysis, there are two distinct phases. The first one is accomplished by deep learning model in the computer, the second is manually conducted by three research assistants. In the first phase, the function of computer deep learning model is to identify the scene of a huge number of photos and finally select out the food-related photos. For the computer deep learning model itself, it will not be explicitly elaborated in this article as it is a mature and competitive model in the professional field of computer science, and the article “Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition” [42] will satisfy the need of any reader interested in the specific model. The recall rate of this computer model is around 90% by machine testing, which means the proportion of the number of identified scenes to the total number of this scene reached 90%. This accuracy was also examined in a manual way in this paper. In the second phase, all the photos have been divided into three files according to the tourists’ home location, named photos of North American tourists, photos of European tourists and photos of Asian tourists. Three research assistants were recruited, and each was responsible for the visual content analysis of one file. The requirement and standards of their tasks were declared. Firstly, they need to verify whether all the photos are really related to food. Secondly, they need to finish the photos assortment in two rounds. In the first round, they reclassified all the photos from one continent’ tourists in the file according to the visual content separately. Then, they discussed together and reach a consensus about a unified typology. Referring to the agreed typology of food-related photos, the second round of assorting work would be accomplished. Thirdly, they needed to synthesizes the assorting process and result. In the textual analysis, photo-attached textual information including title, description and user tags were reclassified by semantic features and counted by frequency. With the help of Software Antconc, all the meaningful words were identified and divided into adjectives and nouns. Based on these words list, three research assistants were assigned to analyse these textual contents. The assignment contains: (1) distinguishing and statistically analysing the nouns related to food, (2) distinguishing and statistically analysing the adjectives expressing tourists’ food perception, (3)

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Fig. 1 Number of photos about food in each continent

ranking the words by frequency. After all, the research assistants also need to verify the textual content by checking the visual content together.

5 Result 5.1 Descriptive Analysis In all, 1776 photos of tourists from 6 continents were found after the processing of scene recognition by AI technology. Each photo supposed to have three types of text messages: title, description and user tags. As there are some vacancies left by users, 579 valid lines of textual information are found. As shown in Fig. 1, the photos’ number from Oceanian, South American and African are not abundant for a sample study, only the photos from North American, European and Asians were taken account in this paper. Examining by manual recognition, 1188 photos from 39 counties which really related to food are selected (Fig. 2). 144 photos were not found related to food, which confirmed the correct rate of the deep learning model of AI was around 90%.

5.2 Food Perception of Tourists from Three Continents As the result of the visual content interpretation, most photos were showing “many Chinese dishes in a table” and “eating environment”. The specific frequent contents

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Fig. 2 Number of photos about food in each country

in North American tourists’ photos are “western food, snack, roasted food, cold dishes, steamed stuffed bun and noodle”. European tourists have the most frequent contents of “Beijing duck, hotpot, roasted food, pot-stewed meat and super”. And “Beijing Duck, noodle, roasted food, hotpot and flapjack” are the most frequent photos’ content of Asian tourists (Fig. 3). There are two outcomes in the result of textual content analysis. One is about the food which tourists have eaten, and the other is their perception evaluation about the food. For the food which has been eaten by tourists from the three continents, the divergences indeed exist. For North American tourists, “porks, ducks, noodles and dumplings” are the four most frequent foods they wrote in text, in which the latter three are traditional Beijing cuisine. For European tourists, “Yu (fish), duck, tofu, roast” are the four most important foods they perceived. For Asian tourists, “duck, meat, roast and dumplings” are the four main foods appeared in the text, in which Beijing duck overwhelmingly ranked in the first place. The word “roast” which obtained from European and Asian tourists was partly related to Beijing Duck as roasting is the way of cooking and partly related to the food roasted on a stick. For the perception evaluation, most affective words are positive. North American tourists, European tourists and Asian tourists ranked “delicious, normal and hot” at top respectively. Hot and spicy are the same perceived evaluation of tourists from all three continents and sweet is a specific perception of tourists from North America. It will better illustrate the perception evaluation about the food in tourism destination by matching the textual food evaluation information with the graphic content. In Table 1, the affective words about food from tourists of the three continents have been linked to the photos’ visual content. The Beijing’s food image of tourist became more stereoscopic. For example, the food image in Beijing not only composed the affective word “spicy” but also the pictures conveying “spicy” (Fig. 4). By comparing the results of the visual and textual analysis, their advantage and disadvantage of content recognition are summarized as followed. (1) Contents in photos are more easily distinguished for Chinese and Western food than in text.

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Fig. 3 Examples of photos related to food

(2) There are more specific food materials in text than in the visual content. For example, in the text of Asian tourists, there are tomato, potato, cucumber, carrot, orange, lychee, peppercorns and other specific fruits and vegetables, which are difficult to identify all of them in the photos. (3) For the food perception, the frequency rank in photo and text are basically the same. For example, in the photos and text of North American tourists, dumplings appeared 10 times, noodles appeared 12 times, Beijing duck appeared 11 times, while in the text, dumplings appeared 41 times, noodles appeared 40 times, ducks appeared 38 times, but with the same ranks. (4) When tourists are sensitive to some specific food, it is earlier to capture in the text than photos. For example, the condiments appeared 31 times in North American tourists’ text, but only showed 3 times in photos; seafood (fishes. etc.) appeared around 66 times, but only showed 11 times in photos. The theme “beans” are found frequently in European tourists’ text, but it is difficult to identify in photos. (5) For some local popular food, visual content holds the advantages for details recognition. For example, in the text of Asian tourists, there are 6 times of steamed buns, 3 times of rice, 2 times of wonton, and 1 time of dumpling,

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Table 1 Food evaluation in text and its related visual content Continent

Adjectives-Nouns

North America

1. Hot-hotpot, hotpot restaurant, Hot and Sour Soup 2. Spicy-Chinese dishes of grilled eggplant, fish-flavored pork shredded, Mapo tofu, dried beans, spicy vegetables, spicy sausage, barbecue, spicy fish 3. Green-green vegetables, green snacks, green dumplings, cucumbers 4. Sweet-sweet and vinegar Ribs, baked wings, baked sweet potatoes 5. Homemade-home cooking, stir-frying process, raw materials 6. Exotic-sweet and sour ribs, coconut roast 7. Baked-beggar’s chicken, western roasted meat 8. Tasty-spicy crayfish, Chinese pastry, barbecued meat 9. Bitter-scrambled balsam pear Egg, hotpot Meat Slices, shallot mixed eggs 10. Salty-potato roast chicken, eggs and black fungus, fried vegetables, green snacks

Europe

1. Spicy-hotpot 2. Diverse-photos of more than one Chinese dishes 3. Crispy/crunchy-Chinese pastry and snacks 4. Baked-bread 5. Juicy-fruit 6. Special-snack

Asia

1. Hot-hotpot 2. Spicy-Tofu pudding 3. Crispy-Beijing duck 4. Sweet-sweet dish, Chinese pastry 5. Deliciousness-tofu 6. Smelly-stinky tofu

Fig. 4 Photos described as spicy

which are all belonging to staple foods in North China. In the photos, it could be found 30 times of staple foods with more diverse detail information. The reason is that the tourists usually use general words for the food description as they are not familiar with the specific local food. (6) It is impossible to obtain the emotional evaluation of tourists referring to photos and the text has the irreplaceable value of affection assessment about food.

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5.3 Temporal and Spatial Distribution of Tourists’ Eating Preferences Learning from the information of eating time attached to photos, the preferences of tourists from the three continents could be detected. All tourists pay more attention to lunch and dinner than to breakfast, Asians and Europeans are more emphasizing dinner. North Americans are accustomed to afternoon tea. Asian eat lunch an hour later than North American and European tourists (13:00/12:00) and prefer an earlier dinner than North American and European (19:00/20:00) (Fig. 5). In terms of visiting and eating months in a year, Asian tourists preferred August and October, while North Americans and Europeans preferred July and November (Fig. 6). By reading the textual content, 36 times of “summer” were perceived by North Americans, and Europeans perceived 19 times of “dinner”. However, It could be found that there are not so much evidence of Asians about eating time (Table 2). By analysing the geographic information attached to the photos through the software of ArcGIS, the distribution of eating places were visualized in Fig. 7. North America holds the widest spatial range of dining. Several hotspots were identified,

Fig. 5 Distribution of eating time

Fig. 6 Distribution of eating month

Discovering Tourists’ Perception About Food by AI and NI Table 2 Information of eating time

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Words

Frequency

Continent

Summer

36

North American

2

North American

Afternoon Diner

19

Night

9

European European

Evening

6

European

Lunch

4

European

Breakfast

3

European

Summer

4

Asian

July

3

Asian

Autumn

2

Asian

Spring

2

Asian

Night

1

Asian

November

1

Asian

one is around the forbidden city in the centre, one is around the summer palace and the other is the shopping and modern recreational area in Chaoyang district. Europeans hold the smallest spatial range of eating, which gathered in the city centre and Sanlitun area. Three outstanding hotspots of Asians’ eating places were pointed out, they are Houhai region, Wangfujing, Qianmen. The high-frequency words related to the eating place in texts can be divided into 3 categories. One is the names of places, such as Qianmen, Houhai; the second is the description about the spatial features, such as street, Hutong, courtyard, park, hill, KTV (Karaoke Television), Club, Hotel; the third is the specific restaurant name, such as Quanjude, Bianyifang, KFC and Mcdonalds. North American and European tourists tend to eat in Hutong, street, market, where the place is full of local social and cultural characteristics. While Asian tourists prefer to eat at the famous restaurant for Beijing duck-Quanjude. In terms of district selection, Dongzhimen, Chaoyang and Donghuamen are the preferred areas for North American tourists. Qianmen, Dongcheng and Donghuamen are the preferred areas for European tourists. And Asian tourists prefer to eat at Wangfujing, the famous shopping street. The number of descriptive words for eating places and eating time in texts is far less than the number of geographic information attached to photos, which leads a relative low validity of textual content in illustrating the distribution of eating places and time. For example, North American tourists really formed a gathering area around the Summer Palace and Yuanmingyuan, but there is no such evidence from the textual content. In contrast, for such spatial and temporal distribution of eating, the geographic coordinate information attached by the photos could completely reflect the choice of tourists’ eating places and eating time. Especially, the gathering hotspots of eating could be clearly mapped. However, more spatial features of tourists’ eating place could be found in texts, such as “street, market, Hutong, garden” and even the restaurants’ names such as Quanjude and Bianyifang.

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Fig. 7 Distribution of eating places (North American/European/Asian)

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Combining visual and textual information, the preference for eating behaviors are completed. For example, both of Dongzhimen and Chaoyang have been identified as the hotspots for eating by photo attached geo-information and textual content. And for North American and European tourists, the places around famous scenic spot are their favorite eating areas, such as Hutong, local snack streets in Chaoyang and Dongcheng districts. Asians more prefer eating at shopping streets, such as Wangfujing in Dongcheng District and the shopping street in Qianmen. In all, the visual and textual content could be complemented and validated for each other.

5.4 Integration Integrating all the analysis results from visual and textual contents, the primary conclusions about food perception and preference of different tourist groups are obtained. First of all, “hot and spicy” is the prominent perception of all tourists from North America, Europe and Asia about food in Beijing. Hotpot is very attractive for all the tourists from these three continents. Specifically, the preference for Beijing duck from North American tourists is not as strong as European and Asian tourists. Western fast food is still part of their eating decision. For European tourists, the preference of seafood, especially fish are obvious. And for Asian tourists, Beijing duck is dominantly important in their traveling. In addition, referring to the eating time, dinner is the most important meal for all the tourists. Asian tourists have later lunches and earlier dinners than European and American tourists. North American tourists are accustomed to having afternoon tea. At last, for the eating place, European and American tourists prefer the traditional area around the scenic spot, such as hutong. Asian tourists prefer to eat in the famous tourist shopping area, like Wangfujing shopping street. By the combination and comparison, the following three ideas could help for effectively employing the visual and textual content. Firstly, the visual content can completely reflect the food-related content, such as names of dishes, food materials, cooking methods, by contrast, the textual content can better highlight the focus of tourists ‘perception about food. Secondly, the geographic coordinate information and shooting time attached by the photos can objectively reflect the tourists’ eating place and eating time, which is the weakness of textual content. However, it can be read out more details of tourists’ behaviour preference in text, like the feature of the eating space (street, courtyard, etc.). Thirdly, in the tourists’ affective perspective, it is impossible to obtain tourists’ perceptual evaluation through visual content. In contrast, textual content has the irreplaceable value of interpreting tourist effective information. Most importantly, when it needs to identify which kind of food has stimulated tourists’ perceived affection, the best way is to combine the visual and textual content together.

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6 Conclusion and Future Work 6.1 Empirical Contribution for DMOs Food is an important medium of cultural exchange, the projected food image in tourism destinations should conform to the preferences of tourists from different cultural background, and make the food experience become an effective process for disseminating the local culture. This paper provides a lot of references for DMOs towards tourists’ food image promotion in tourism destinations. In addition, the study results also provide valuable evidence for the development of food products in destination, for example, the distribution of tourists’ eating place/ time and the different preference of eating environment would help the DMOs to formulate an environmental planning and developing policies for food tourism.

6.2 Theoretical Contribution In this paper, the theoretical contribution is embedded in the method comparison, which includes two aspects: visual content analysis and textual content analysis, and AI & NI. In the former aspect, both of the photos and texts were selected for analysing oversea tourists’ food perception and behaviour preferences. Proved by the descriptions in the part of the result, the diversity of data format will enhance the research reliability as the different types of data could supplement and verify each other. In the latter aspect, a deep learning model as an innovative AI approach was try out in this paper. The food-related photos were effectively screened out by the help of scene recognition model in the field of computer vision. However, the computer recognition model cannot deeply describe the content with more details. Currently, it is still necessary to combine AI and NI approaches together. In the future, as the technology will be continuously improved, the computer vision technique for recognizing visual content of pictorial big data will highly support the photo-based tourism destination research. Acknowledgements Thanks to National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51608278) for supporting this research.

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A Comparative Analysis of the Cruise Price in China and Spain Josep Mª Espinet Rius, Ariadna Gassiot Melian, and Ricard Rigall-I-Torrent

Abstract The aim of this paper is to compare the prices of a particular tourism product, cruise tourism in China and Spain by analyzing the cruises departing from the major ports of the two countries. It presents an empirical study based on brochure prices and actual prices paid by customers in 2019. Prices were obtained from a leading American Online Travel Agency (OTA). This research involved the collection of a large amount of information and the creation of different databases to present robust and reliable results. The methodology is based on the hedonic approach, which is widely used in other tourism studies but scarcely used in the cruise industry. Results reveal that although the prices in China are lower than in Spain, Spain still has all the possibility to lower minimum prices. Moreover, the paper observes that the cruise companies apply different pricing strategies highly depending on their own country’s situation. The outcome and recommendations from this study can benefit both academics and practitioners in the field. Keywords China · Cruise prices · Hedonic approach · Pricing · Spain

1 Introduction The cruise industry is quite different from other types of accomodation: the ship moves from one destination to the other so that passengers do not have to change their accommodation. This fact reduces the seasonality for cruise companies but not for destinations.

J. M. Espinet Rius (B) · A. Gassiot Melian Universitat de Girona and Mediterrani, Girona, Spain e-mail: [email protected] A. Gassiot Melian e-mail: [email protected] R. Rigall-I-Torrent Universitat de Girona, Girona, Spain e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 Y. Luo et al. (eds.), Tourism Product Development in China, Asian and European Countries, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4447-7_3

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The cruise industry has experienced high levels of growth in recent years (68.5% from 2009 to 2019, according to CLIA [1]). One of the destinations that has experienced greater expansion is China, which is the main driver of passengers’ growth in Asia [2], representing 60% of all Asian passenger volume in 2017. China represents 4.9% of the deployment in the world and is the second country of origin of passengers in the world (2.4 million passengers in 2018) after United States [1]. Spain, located in the Mediterranean, the second most important region in the world in the cruise industry—17.3% according to [1])—, has some of the most important ports in the world—Barcelona and Balearic Islands—, and is the eighth country of origin of passengers (0.51 million passengers in 2018 [1]). The aim of this research is to compare the prices of cruises departing from the main ports of China and Spain. This empirical research is based on the brochure prices and the actual prices paid by cruisers in 2019. The data was obtained from a leading American Online Travel Agency (OTA). Research on this subject is scarce, as it involves the collection of a large number of information and the creation of different databases to present robust and reliable results. Methodologically, this research calculates average prices and applies the hedonic approach, widely used in tourism but scarce in the cruise industry [3–5]. This methodology allows researchers to identify the net price of each destination after controlling different characteristics and services such as cruise company, number of nights, date of departure, type of cabin, size and capacity of the ship, and other characteristics and attributes. This study is organized as follows. First, we identify some relevant literature about cruising in China and Spain, and about Revenue Management and Pricing. Second, we detail the databases created and the methodology and model applied. Then, the results of the empirical research are presented and discussed. The study ends with the conclusions and recommendations.

2 Literature Review Literature about cruises has been growing in recent years. Some research has focused on reviewing the main issues in the literature. For example, Papathanassis and Beckman [6] review 145 articles; London et al. [7] analyze 103; and Wondirad [8] review 228. Other articles review the state of the art of the literature research, such as Wang et al. [9], Cusano et al. [10], and Papathanassis [11]. For the specific purposes of this research, it is of special interest the article by Hung et al. [12], who compare Chinese and foreign cruise studies in the last two decades. The authors highlight that North America—both in terms of authors and in terms of study locations—dominate papers written in English. They are surprised of the reduced number of articles focused on the Mediterranean, the second biggest source market. The number of articles written in Chinese is scarce, probably due to the short history of publications in that language. From our point of view, another

A Comparative Analysis of the Cruise Price in China and Spain

45

reason could be the difficulty of understanding Chinese language so that it is difficult that this research is read and, consequently, cited by non-Chinese readers. After reviewing around 400 cruise articles written in English, we found very few of them focused specifically on the Chinese and the Spanish market. Only Espinet [4] compares both destinations. We present the articles identified in Table 1. Finally, from a revenue and pricing perspective, Sun et al. [55] highlight the difficulties in publishing articles referring to this subject. Extensive literature about pricing and Revenue Management strategies within the cruising sector can be found in Coleman et al. [56], Ji and Mazzarella [57], Sun et al. [58], and Espinet et al. [3]. Table 1 Main articles published in English journals related to China and Spain Subject

China

Spain

Destination

Cai and Niu [13] Cai and Shi [14] Sun et al. [15] Sun and Ni [16] Shi et al. [17] Ye [18]

Sanz-Blas and Buzova [19] Sanz-Blas et al. [20]

Demand, customer experience

Qu and Ping [21] Josiam et al. [22] Fan and Hsu [23] Hsu and Li [24] Lyu et al. [25] Hung [26] Li and Fairley [27] Lyu et al. [28] Wu et al. [29] Tang et al. [30]

Forgas-Coll et al. [31] Sanz-Blas et al. [32] Pino and Tovar [33]

Impact of cruise tourism

Garay et al. [34] Castillo-Manzano et al. [35] Del Chiappa et al. [36] Vayá et al. [37]

Itineraries

Leong and Ladany [38]

Ports

Cai et al. [39] Lau et al. [40] Pang and Liu [41] Wang et al. [42] Ma et al. [43] Liu et al. [44] Song et al. [45] Sun et al. [46]

Prices/RM

Espinet [4]

Other

Wang et al. [54]

Gui and Russo [47] Castillo-Manzano et al. [48] Esteve-Pérez and García-Sánchez [49] Esteve-Pérez and García-Sánchez [50] Esteve-Pérez and García-Sánchez [51] Ros et al. [52] Fernández-Morales and Cisneros-Martínez [53]

46

J. M. Espinet Rius et al.

3 Database, Methodology and Model 3.1 Database In order to carry out the quantitative analysis, we created a database of all prices of cruises departing from China and Spain supplied by a leading American OTA. Two types of prices were collected. First, the brochure price, that is, a price of reference. Second and the actual prices paid by customers. In both cases, prices include port taxes but not airport taxes. Prices were gathered in December 2018 and correspond to all departures in 2019. 8,185 prices of cruises were collected (6,533 related to departures from Spain and 1,652 related to departures from China) that correspond to 930 departures (738 embarking in Spain and 192 in China). In order to enrich this research, apart from the information published by the OTA, we collected information about ships obtained from Ward [59]. Some of the information included was: the business group to which the cruise line belongs, tonnage, year of construction and renewal, passenger capacity, crew, passengers per crew, number of cabins and the main characteristics and attributes.

3.2 Methodology Methodologically, we initially carried out a descriptive analysis of the main characteristics of the ships that depart from each country and its itineraries and calculated the average price of each destination. Secondly, we used a hedonic pricing approach, which allows us to calculate the marginal effect of a change in each cruise attribute. Hedonic methods, commonly used in the tourism industry, are particularly suitable to analyze cruise prices, as the cruise product is the combination of several attributes such as ship, destination, cabin category or number of passengers [60]. However, in this sector, hedonic methods have not been used a lot yet—some examples are Espinet et al. [3], Espinet [4], and Niavis and Tsiotas [5]. Formally, the cruise product can be defined as a vector of characteristics or attributes, Ci = (ci1 , . . . , cim )

(1)

where i = 1, … , n represents the ship and cim the value of each of its m characteristics or attributes. Since all these characteristics have an impact on prices, the hedonic price function for each cruise can be represented as: Pi = f (ci1 , . . . , cim )

(2)

A Comparative Analysis of the Cruise Price in China and Spain

47

where the functional form of the hedonic price function f () is assumed to be constant in time and across ships, though the weight or contribution of each attribute may change [61]. The functional form of (2) is assumed to be semi-logarithmic, that is: ln Pi = β0 + β1 ci1 + . . . . + βm cim + εi

(3)

where P is the price, cm are each of the m attributes of the cruise, β n are the parameters to be estimated and εi is the standard error of the regression. It is important to notice that, although several alternative specifications are possible [61–65], since most of the variables are dichotomic, the number of alternative and easily interpretable specifications is limited. Therefore, we adopt the parsimonious semi-logarithmic regression specification used in the vast majority of existing hedonic studies. The random error term is independent and identically (normally) distributed (i.i.d.), with zero mean and constant variance. Estimation is performed by OLS. It is important to keep in mind that using robust standard errors clustered by different variables [64, 66, 67] does not change the results.

3.3 Model In this research, the variables included in the model are those identified in previous studies and those coming from the experience of the authors (see Table 2). Four specifications were developed: the first includes the country of departure but not the port of embarkation, the second includes the ports of embarkation but not the country, the third refers to the departures only from China and the last refers to the departures only from Spain. Table 2 Variables included in the estimated regressions

Type of variable

Variable

Dependent

Price (in Ln)

Independent

Cruise Line Month of departure Number of nights Type of cabin Capacity of the ship (in trams of number of passengers) Antiquity of the ship (in trams of number of years) Country/Port of embarkation, depending on the model Type of price (brochure or final price)

48

J. M. Espinet Rius et al.

4 Results and Discussion From the specific analysis of the website www.cruisetimetables.com, that identifies all departures of cruise lines, the number of cruises that will depart from ports of China—Hong Kong, Shanghai, Qingdao and Tianjin—in 2020 is 265 (33 ships) and from ports of Spain—Barcelona, Bilbao, Gran Canaria, Málaga, Palma de Mallorca, Sevilla, Tarragona, Tenerife, Valencia and Vigo—is 1,263 (76 ships). From the data collected, we observe that 17 cruise companies depart from China and 21 from Spain. These cruise companies have 95 ships, 27 departing from China and 74 from Spain. Only 6 ships depart from China and Spain (Celebrity Constellation of Celebrity Cruises, Nautica of Oceania Cruises, Seabourn Ovation of Seabourn, Silver Shadow and Silver Spirit of SilverSea, and Spectrum of the Seas of Royal Caribbean). From the 930 itineraries analysed, 71.3% finish in the same country (66.7% the itineraries that depart from China and 72.5% those departing from Spain). The average length of stay of an itinerary is 11.1 for China and 9.4 for Spain. The average ship rating—according to the OTA from which prices were obtained, which classifies cruises from 1 to 6 stars—is 5.2 in China and 4.8 in Spain. From China depart smaller ships—the average passenger capacity in China is 1,720 and in Spain is 2,095—due to the impact of Hong Kong. Finally, from China depart some newer or refurbished ships—the average year is 2011.8 versus 2010.6 in Spain. The average prices per night are displayed in Table 3. The average minimum price per night in China is $206.4 and in Spain $189.1, that is a 9.2% difference. With the exception of the third quarter, where Spain is clearly more expensive probably due to the weather conditions, China is more expensive for all quarters—mainly for the first one—. From the point of view of the ports, Málaga ($286.8) and Hong Kong ($272.8) are the most expensive and Las Palmas ($46.0) and Tenerife ($71.5) are the cheapest. However, when comparing the average price per night, Spain is a bit more expensive than China (2.2%), mainly in the third quarter (23.9%). From the point of view of the ports, there are no changes: Málaga ($383.7) and Hong Kong ($316.1) are the most expensive ports and Las Palmas ($66.1) and Tenerife ($92.0) are the cheapest. The hedonic approach allows us to compare differences in prices between destinations—country and ports of departure—(Table 4) and to compare individual cruise pricing strategies for each country (Table 5). All models fit very well: adjusted R2 is 0.863 for the specification considering the country, 0.867 when including the ports of embarkation, 0.906 when analyzing only the Chinese ports, and 0.874 when analyzing only the Spanish ports. Moreover, multicollinearity is under control (the average VIF is 3.352, 3.568, 3.037 and 3.530 respectively). Consequently, our results can be considered robust and reliable. On average, China is 23.9% cheaper than Spain (Table 4). Related to the ports of embarkation, Tarragona and Palma de Mallorca are the most expensive, while Shenzen, Beijing and Shanghai are the cheapest. Summing up, the results from the hedonic approach are clearly different from those obtained from the simple average prices. This reveals the importance of using

8.3

Shanghai, China

Barcelona

10.1

16.3

Hong Kong

Spain

6.8

Beijing (Tianjin), China

China

4.9

5.2

5.2

5.2

Average ship rating

930

738

192

155

87

68

552

89

72

28

TOTAL 2019

277

248

29

Q2

298

240

58

Q3

Q1

60

30

37

1

181

18

5

6

Q2

200

163

37

Q4

192.6

189.0

206.4

Year

171

22

15

18

140

19

15

3

Q4

206.4

160.2

272.8

185.9

152.1

159.1

308.2

190.8

Q1

5.2%

216.0

214.8

226.1

Q2

YEAR

110.3%

169.9

114.5

240.7

Q1

228.5

185.3

461.3

152.2

Q2

−14.4%

193.4

199.1

169.6

Q3

Average minimum price per night (USD)

Q3

4.9

Average nights per departure

9.8

Average

4.8

5.2

Q1

Port of embarkation

9.4

Spain

Total 2019

Departures

9.2%

11.1

China

Average ship rating

% Spain versus China

Average nights per departure

Country

Table 3 Average price per night

221.4

167.6

157.9

180.8

Q3

6.4%

176.5

174.5

185.6

Q4

182.7

129.3

237.7

282.0

Q4

42.2%

245.3

246.4

241.1

Year

265.2

188.6

316.1

218.8

YEAR

84.6%

205.4

149.8

276.5

Q1

194.5

197.7

342.1

218.1

Q1

296.7

208.6

483.3

182.9

Q2

411.1%

278.7

282.0

250.6

Q2

Average price per night (USD)

286.4

185.1

207.9

205.9

Q3

423.9%

248.8

260.9

198.6

Q3

(continued)

228.9

159.4

304.7

368.3

Q4

5.7%

224.9

222.5

235.2

Q4

A Comparative Analysis of the Cruise Price in China and Spain 49

7.4

10.5

7.0

7.3

6.9

6.8

Las Palmas, Grand Canary Island, Canary Islands

Malaga, Spain

Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Tarragona, Spain

Tenerife, Canary Islands

Valencia, Spain

4.0

4.5

4.0

4.3

4.4

3.3

Average ship rating

Not included ports with less than 10 departures

Average nights per departure

Port of embarkation

Table 3 (continued)

31

16

22

77

20

16

TOTAL 2019

13

1

13

Q1

13

2

9

27

12

1

Q2

13

13

42

Q3

5

1

8

7

2

Q4

128.4

71.5

137.3

134.5

286.8

46.0

YEAR

29.4

71.3

29.4

Q1

148.1

303.8

122.1

121.8

368.1

59.8

Q2

124.3

147.8

150.8

Q3

87.7

154.1

91.6

178.3

146.7

Q4

184.3

92.0

184.5

189.8

383.7

66.1

YEAR

50.5

102.7

46.4

Q1

195.0

314.5

171.0

178.6

486.4

84.8

Q2

185.6

193.9

205.3

Q3

153.2

185.9

146.1

247.8

185.0

Q4

50 J. M. Espinet Rius et al.

CruiseLine

Month

0.024 0.023 0.020 0.018 0.016 0.017

0.507 −0.527 −0.309 −0.269 −0.195 −0.183 −0.079

Suite

January

February

March

April

May

June

0.019 0.026

−0.387 −0.189

November

December

0.074

0.016

−0.262

October

0.800

0.016

Azamara Club Cruises

0.016

0.027 −0.155

September

August

July (reference)

0.012

0.214

Balcony

0.012

0.013

−0.185

Inside

Ocean view (reference)

0.012

−0.122

Cheapest

Type of Cabin

0.001

0.040

0.022

7.013

Sig.

Model: Country B

Nights

Dummy variables

Constant

Variables

Table 4 Results of the hedonic model by country and by port of departure

4.1%

122.6%

−17.2%

−32.1%

−23.1%

−14.4%

2.7%

−7.6%

−16.7%

−17.7%

−23.6%

−26.6%

−41.0%

66.0%

23.8%

−16.9%

−11.5%

% Var.

4.567

1.282

1.571

1.915

1.871

1.785

1.766

1.800

1.669

1.816

1.488

1.497

1.692

1.709

1.612

1.738

1.380

VIF 7.083

0.536

−0.227

−0.390

−0.257

−0.164

0.020

−0.084

−0.191

−0.186

−0.265

−0.280

−0.499

0.508

0.213

−0.185

−0.123

0.040

0.078

0.027

0.019

0.016

0.016

0.016

0.017

0.016

0.019

0.020

0.024

0.025

0.012

0.012

0.012

0.012

0.001

0.022

Sig. 4.1%

71.0%

−20.3%

−32.3%

−22.7%

−15.1%

2.1%

−8.1%

−17.4%

−16.9%

−23.3%

−24.4%

−39.3%

66.1%

23.7%

−16.9%

−11.5%

% Var.

Model: Ports of embarkation B

(continued)

5.297

1.376

1.626

2.032

1.916

1.815

1.808

1.835

1.783

1.956

1.610

1.604

1.694

1.711

1.612

1.739

1.396

VIF

A Comparative Analysis of the Cruise Price in China and Spain 51

Variables

Table 4 (continued)

0.038 0.017 0.023

0.840 0.710 0.120 −0.242 −0.096

Cunard

Disney

Holland America

MSC Cruises

Norwegian

0.799 1.157 1.594

SeaDream Yacht Club

Seabourn

Silversea

Royal Caribbean (reference)

Regent

1.821

0.024

−0.926

Princess

Pullmantur

0.025

0.970 0.098

Ponant

0.077

0.072

0.090

0.075

0.116

0.094

0.629

P&O Cruises

0.056

1.187

Oceania Cruises

0.070

0.043

0.085

1.034

0.104

0.555

Crystal

0.026 0.017

0.610 −0.214

Sig.

Model: Country B

Cruise & Maritime Voyages

Costa Cruises

Celebrity

Dummy variables

392.1%

218.1%

122.3%

517.9%

−60.4%

10.3%

163.8%

87.6%

227.8%

−9.1%

– 21.5%

12.7%

103.3%

131.8%

181.4%

74.3%

−19.3%

84.0%

% Var.

5.108

7.328

4.496

3.960

3.357

1.521

1.824

1.055

4.409

1.744

3.711

2.242

1.068

1.222

2.464

1.105

3.472

1.309

VIF 0.564

0.026

1.306

0.889

0.581

1.583

−0.940

0.052

0.625

0.464

0.925

−0.202

−0.319

0.082

0.077

0.092

0.079

0.024

0.026

0.129

0.094

0.062

0.025

0.020

0.069 0.048

0.646

0.043

0.088

0.108

0.020

−0.156

0.748

0.795

0.190

−0.328

Sig.

269.2%

143.2%

78.9%

386.9%

−60.9%

5.3%

86.9%

152.2%

−18.3%

– 27.3%

−14.5%

90.7%

111.3%

121.5%

−28.0%

75.8%

% Var.

Model: Ports of embarkation B

(continued)

5.962

8.654

4.902

4.581

3.452

1.579

2.324

1.091

5.603

1.999

5.153

3.557

1.079

1.277

2.710

1.217

4.528

1.357

VIF

52 J. M. Espinet Rius et al.

Port of embarkation

Country

Type of Price

Antiquity of the ship

Capacity

Variables

Table 4 (continued)

0.041

Price paid by the customer

0.020

0.007

0.017

0.016

0.015

0.037

0.068

0.080

0.087

0.118

0.028

2.772

0.562

−0.204

−0.073

0.046

0.241

0.319

0.465

0.482

0.288

0.076

0.097

−0.175

−23.9%

0.532 0.891

Sig.

−16.0%

−37.0%

75.4%

−18.5%

−7.0%

4.7%

27.2%

37.6%

59.1%

61.9%

33.4%

143.8%

70.3%

% Var.

Model: Ports of embarkation B

−0.462

0.016

1.003

2.916

1.666

2.271

3.211

19.593

20.392

7.829

2.978

6.365

4.004

VIF

Hong Kong

−0.274

75.4%

−15.1%

−4.8%

0.1%

4.2%

15.1%

26.7%

114.0%

63.1%

213.5%

94.1%

% Var.

Beijing (Tianjin), China

China

Spain (reference)

China

0.008

0.015

−0.164

M ore than 15 years 0.562

0.016

−0.049

From 11 to 15 years

Price ofbrochure

0.013

0.001

0.025

0.063

0.076

0.082

0.096

0.071

0.092

From 6 to 10 years

Up to 5 years (reference)

More than 2,000 passengers

0.141

From 1,001 to 2,000 passengers

0.761

Windstar

From 501 to 1,000 passengers

0.489

Voyages to Antiquity 0.237

1.143

Up to 500 passengers

0.663

Viking Cruises

Sig.

Model: Country B

Star Clippers

Dummy variables

(continued)

1.743

1.681

1.003

3.705

1.836

3.301

7.283

23.692

23.657

9.022

4.612

7.526

4.539

VIF

A Comparative Analysis of the Cruise Price in China and Spain 53

Variables

Table 4 (continued)

0.083

−0.338

Vigo

0.0000 3.352

Average VTF

1096.790

p-Value

F

Adjusted R2 0.863

0.027

−0.050

Valencia

3.568

0.0000

888.932

0.867

8185

0.047

n

0.028

0.198 −0.316

Tenerife

0.121

Tarragona

Seville

−0.137

0.048 0.016

0.044

−0.142

Malaga

Palma de Mallorca

0.048

−0.337

Las Palmas, Grand Canary

Barcelona (reference)

8185

0.065

Spain

0.020

Sig.

−28.7%

−4.9%

−27.1%

21.9%

−12.8%

4.5%

−13.2%

−28.6%

−48.6%

−30.6%

% Var.

Model: Ports of embarkation B −0.666

VIF −0.365

% Var.

Shenzhen, China

Sig.

Model: Country B

Shanghai, China

Dummy variables

1.213

1.583

2.481

1.438

2.560

1.449

2.924

2.214

1.091

2.538

VIF

54 J. M. Espinet Rius et al.

CruiseLine

Month

0.046 0.038 0.038 0.041 0.052 0.039

0.356 −0.211 −0.199 −0.289 −0.095 −0.239 −0.110

Suite

January

February

March

April

May

June

0.040

−0.188

December

0.076

0.043

−0.234

November 1.179

0.040

−0.065

October

Azamara Club Cruises

0.032 0.035

0.064 −0.081

September

August

July (reference)

0.025

0.101

Balcony

0.025

0.026

−0.126

Inside

Oceanview (reference)

0.024

−0.069

Cheapest

Type of Cabin

0.002

0.044

0.033

6.589

225.2%

−17.1%

−20.8%

−6.3%

−7.8%

6.6%

−10.4%

−21.3%

−9.0%

−25.1%

−18.1%

−19.0%

42.7%

10.6%

−11.8%

−6.6%

4.5%

1.227

1.839

1.628

2.064

1.833

1.824

1.539

1.454

1.670

3.532

2.306

1.613

1.804

1.859

1.667

1.869

2.930

0.452

−0.184

−0.441

−0.325

−0.193

0.011

−0.106

−0.224

−0.262

−0.417

−0.488

−0.669

0.539

0.239

−0.204

−0.140

0.039

7.379

B

VIF

Spain % Var.

B

Sig.

China

Nights

Dummy variables

Constant

Variables

Table 5 Results of the hedonic model individualized by country of departure

0.074

0.033

0.020

0.017

0.016

0.017

0.017

0.017

0.019

0.023

0.028

0.027

0.013

0.013

0.013

0.012

0.001

0.026

Sig.

57.2%

−16.8%

−35.7%

−27.7%

−17.5%

1.1%

−10.0%

−20.1%

−23.0%

−34.1%

−38.6%

−48.8%

71.3%

27.0%

−18.5%

−13.0%

4.0%

% Var.

(continued)

4.240

1.183

1.624

2.019

1.962

1.810

1.847

1.936

1.743

1.563

1.344

1.607

1.673

1.682

1.601

1.711

1.302

VIF

A Comparative Analysis of the Cruise Price in China and Spain 55

Variables

Table 5 (continued)

0.067

−0.151

Princess

2.455

Regent

2.277

1.118

0.677 770.1%

2.163

0.072

1.826

1.519

0.084

0.073

0.093

0.075

0.025

Silversea

2.132

1.338

1.303

0.027 −1.142

0.131

0.055 −0.060

0.429

Seabourn

520.7%

1064.3%

94.2%

1.692

1.365

0.441 0.064

0.084

0.094

−14.0%

356.5%

0.801

SeaDream Yacht Club

Royal Caribbean (reference)

0.664

P&O Cruises

Pullmantur

0.147

1.518

Ponant

1.309

3.454

0.025

573.2%

75.2%

−0.360

Oceania Cruises

0.072

0.560 1.907

Norwegian

0.181

0.020

−0.508

MSC Cruises

0.085

0.020

0.682

0.030

0.241 −0.451

0.067

21.013

2.250

1.137

3.055

1.623

0.059

13.2%

160.3%

713.6%

89.8%

196.6%

0.376

Holland America

0.126

0.053

0.164

0.155

0.055

Sig.

−0.169

0.957

Cunard 0.124

2.096

Disney

0.641

Crystal

1.087

B

VIF

Spain % Var.

B

Sig.

China

Cruise & Maritime Voyages

Costa Cruises

Celebrity

Dummy variables

206.0%

96.7%

55.5%

356.7%

−68.1%

−5.9%

53.5%

122.8%

−30.2%

−39.8%

−15.5%

45.6%

97.8%

−36.3%

27.2%

% Var.

(continued)

4.028

6.215

5.493

3.593

3.834

1.737

1.669

4.179

2.276

5.326

1.543

1.120

2.501

4.749

1.573

VIF

56 J. M. Espinet Rius et al.

Type of Price

Antiquity of the ship

Capacity

Variables

Table 5 (continued)

0.030

0.0000 3.037

Average VIF

422.002

0.906

1652

p-Value

F

Adjusted R2

n

Price paid by the customer

0.015

More than 15 years 0.637

−.281

From 11 to 15 years

Price of brochure

0.024 0.147

0.004 −0.211

From 6 to 10 years

Up to 5 years (reference)

More than 2,000 passengers

89.1%

−24.5%

−19.0%

0.4%

0.7%

1.000

2.319

3.612

2.240

21.612

3.733

0.293

3.530

0.0000

1057.270

0.874

6533

0.543

−0.258

−0.173

−0.041

0.102 0.119

11.8% 0.120

0.007

0.068

From 1,001 to 2,000 passengers

0.111

From 501 to 1,000 passengers

Up to 500 passengers

2.908

0.181 211.4%

0.413

0.096

Windstar

1.136

Voyages to Antiquity

1.375

0.337 294.6%

0.852

0.055

Viking Cruises

1.373

B

VIF

Spain % Var.

B

Sig.

China

Star Clippers

Dummy variables

0.008

0.018

0.017

0.015

0.025

0.061

0.079

0.087

0.098

0.072

0.095

Sig.

72.1%

−22.8%

−15.9%

−4.0%

12.7%

10.7%

34.1%

51.1%

19.8%

134.4%

40.1%

% Var.

1.004

4.081

2.011

2.952

2.684

15.943

20.880

7.832

3.519

5.327

4.866

VIF

A Comparative Analysis of the Cruise Price in China and Spain 57

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a methodology, such as hedonic pricing, that allows us to compare the effects of the different variables ceteris paribus. Regarding Spain, our results show that nearby ports have small differences in prices. For example, the ports in the Canary Islands have similar prices—Las Palmas is 28.6% cheaper than Barcelona and Tenerife 27.1%—; Palma de Mallorca is 4.5% more expensive than Barcelona and Valencia is 4.9% cheaper. However, Tarragona, the nearest port with respect to Barcelona is 21.9% more expensive, probably because it is a small port. The analysis by cruise companies reveals some differences when comparing the different models that can be explained because of the effects of the ports. The analysis for each country of departure reveals some differences in pricing strategies (Table 5). An additional night is more expensive in China (4.5% vs. 4.0% in Spain). When comparing the strategies depending on the type of cabin, the results show that differences are lower when departing from China. The range of prices between the most expensive cabins—suites—and interior ones is 54.5% in China and 89.8% in Spain. The temporal analysis exhibits higher differences between months in Spain—the range between the cheapest and the most expensive price is 49.9% in Spain and 31.7% in China. Moreover, the two most expensive months are the same— August and July—but differ for the two cheapest months: for China are March and May, and for Spain are January and February. Finally, differences between brochure prices of and actual prices paid by customers are higher in China (+89.1%) than in Spain (+72.1%). In sum, cruise companies apply different strategies depending on the country of departure. This could be the result of the customer characteristics of cruises and their willingness to pay, or due to differences in costs and port taxes. The results obtained in this study have remarkable similarities with those obtained by Espinet [4], who used the same methodology, although the geographical scope is slightly different (it compares some ports in Asia—Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo—with Barcelona). Both studies obtain high and similar adjusted R2 (around 0.87). An additional night is slightly more expensive in Asia than in Barcelona. The differences in prices depending on the type of cabin and the month of departure are lower in Asia. Moreover, cruise companies show clearly different strategies. Shanghai presents similar results in both studies (it is around 31–35% cheaper than Barcelona), Hong Kong exhibits some differences (is 16% cheaper than Barcelona in the previous study and 23% in the present) and Beijing shows higher differences, since in the previous study it was 15% cheaper than Barcelona and in the present study it is 37% cheaper.

5 Conclusions The aim of this research is to compare the prices of the cruises departing from the main ports of China and Spain. China, the main cruise market in Asia, has expanded its importance in the cruise industry (4.9% of the deployment and the second country of origin of cruise passengers) and it is expected to grow in the future. Spain, located in the Mediterranean, the second most important cruise region, has some of the most

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59

important ports—Barcelona and Balearic Islands—in the world and is the eighth country of origin of passengers. The number of departures expected from China in 2020 is 265, corresponding to 33 ships and from Spain is 1.263 corresponding to 76 ships. However, cruise research focused on China and Spain is scarce. Our empirical analysis is based on an extensive and updated database built for the purpose of this research. Concretely, the authors collected around 8,000 prices from departures in China and in Spain in 2019, which were obtained from a leading American OTA. The methodology used is the hedonic approach, which allows us to identify the impact of each relevant variable on price. In the present study the models developed obtained high adjusted R2 (around 0.87) and, consequently, results can be considered robust and reliable. Cruise companies provide longer itineraries and have better, newer and smaller ships in China than in Spain. From the point of view of prices, the analysis carried out reveals opposite results: when analyzing the minimum average price per night, China is more expensive than Spain (+9.2%), but when analyzing the average price per night, China is a bit cheaper (2.2%). These results allow us to conclude that in Spain it is possible to get better minimum prices but the average price is higher in Spain. Hedonic models provide more accurate estimates than the simple consideration of average price, since they identify the characteristics and attributes of cruises. Wang et al. [54] indicate that cruise operations in China are very different from those in other important markets such as the USA and the Mediterranean: in the last ones, often some port provide incentives to be homeport. In China, the number of ports with capacity to handle the cruise activity is reduced and in most of them, their terminals are multipurpose, so that the ports select the cruise lines that can deploy from there. In this case, it could be expected an increase in prices as the number of ports available in China is limited. Further research is needed. Other results show that cruise companies apply, in general, different strategies depending on the country: there are relevant differences in prices regarding additional nights, type of cabin and month. The main limitation of this study is the use of only one source of information: a leading American OTA (it is worth nothing that in China customers cannot book directly and they need the intermediation of a travel agent—Wang et al. [54]). Prices could vary if they were also obtained from other countries’ websites (such as China or Spain), and not only from American ones. However, from some interviews with experts that we performed, we can state that cruise companies actually set final prices and travel agencies have reduced margin to modify these prices. Future research should be addressed using other sources of information and including other variables in the models. Arguably, our research should be continued in the years to come due to the importance of both countries, China and Spain, and to the fact that these markets have important differences, mainly cultural [12]. It could also be interesting to develop other studies comparing both destinations from the point of view of demand, customer experience, destination and ports.

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Analysis of Factors Influencing the Growing Motivation of Asian Youths for Adventure Tourism Dilip Kumar Bhadra

Abstract As the adventure tourism is growing exponentially worldwide, this paper tries to find out the factors that affect the travel motivation of Asian travellers, especially the youths’ adventure travelling inspiration. The types of factors that affect their travel motivation include economic ability, budget, age, marital status, travel duration, education, colonial impacts, global cultural interactions and communication etc. Quantitative study surveys are undertaken based on the information of Asian tourist arrivals in Bangladesh from 15 countries and regions. Keywords Adventure tourism · Asian youths · Ethnicity · Socio-cultural · Traditions · Environmental impacts · Emotion · Motivation · Homogeneity · Mindset · Decision-making · Destination choice

1 Introduction In the recent years, adventure tourism is one of the most rapidly growing sectors in the World Tourism [1] due to travellers’ increased attention for its type of exciting tourism experiences and thrills. Worldwide the youth travellers are mostly thrilled seekers and willing to attain the trips through often-inspiring cultural exchange with different people and gaining everlasting experiences with deep impressions for the fragility of places. Bangladesh has some limited opportunities of adventure tourism with some sorts of both soft and hard tourism scopes. Presently, this fastest growing segment of international tourism is representing more than 23% of the over one billion tourists travelling internationally each year [2]. The tourism market was valued at $444,850 million in 2016, and is projected to reach $1,335,738 million in 2023, registering a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 17.4% from 2017 to 2023.

D. K. Bhadra (B) Ministry of Planning, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Dhaka, Bangladesh e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 Y. Luo et al. (eds.), Tourism Product Development in China, Asian and European Countries, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4447-7_4

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2 Objectives Main objectives of the research paper are to examine the Asian travellers’ social, cultural, personal and psychological factors responsible for creating demands for adventure tourism. The paper includes some other attributes like attractions by types, available amenities, accessibility, impression and other human resources that are involved to adventure tourism. Asian tourists, especially youths are inspiring gradually to take challenges in travels and trying to cope with difficult circumstances, which involves danger and risk. This type of intention or motivation may come out with their long inherited social and cultural traditions, values, ethnicity and emotions acquainted with their regional environment. The Asian inherent qualities and characteristics are closely associated with their intellectual, moral, spiritual, emotion or present physical nature, which may have some positive impacts on their decision-making process. The paper explores all these various types of factors including tourists’ gaining economic ability, budget, age, marital status, travel duration, education, colonial impacts, global cultural interactions and other facilities. To identify the predominant factors responsible for creating demands for youths’ exciting travels, a quantitative study survey has undertaken using two sets of questionnaires.

3 Methodology In the study, a survey frame (revised) was designed based on information of foreign tourists arrival in Bangladesh in 2016 (Source: Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation) considering the year as normal in tourism. Two stage stratified sampling procedures are followed. At the first step, a very small fraction (n/N = 0.0005, 192) of the total number of Asian foreign tourists (population, N = 383329) is estimated. Then sample number of population is distributed according to the country ratios of arrival visitors following PPS method. In the second stage, the number of tourists selected following PPS and countries from Asia continent are India, China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Laos PDR, Viet Nam, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and a very few tourists from Middle-East counties. Two different sets of questionnaires were designed including a total number of 34 basic questions. Out of total (34), 23 questions were selected for Asian foreign tourists (Part-1) and 11 questions were (Part-II) asked to local adventure tourists. For the first questionnaire, sample persons of Asian foreign travellers were interviewed irrespective male or female at ages 15 years and over at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Dhaka. The total number of 68 local adventure tourists is randomly selected from the destination areas of Coxes Bazar and Saint Martin Island and interviewed them only about Bangladesh adventure tourism status (Survey-2).

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4 Adventure Tourism, Perception and Acceptability (i) Adventure tourism perception and acceptability Adventure tourism is a type of travel, which requires some physical activities and the travel type varies from soft to hard in nature. According to the Oxford Dictionary an adventure is ‘an unusual, exciting or daring experience, where the excitement is associated with danger or risk taking’ (Oxford University Press, 2017). Actually, it is ‘an unusual, exotic, remote or wilderness destination [22]. It is all about action [23]. The adventure tourism is also known for its six major dimensions namely activity, experience, environment, motivation, risk and performance [24]. It consists of air, sea and land-based activities. People desire to get away from stress and boredom of daily routine and are willing to enjoy their holidays gaining exciting experiences and recreation through meeting new people and environment. Some young people tend to travel new places to fulfil their needs for emotional highs, taking risks of physical activities, challenges, mental excitement and novelty. All these desires of persons create demand for undertaking special type of tours. Adventure tourism opens a new horizon for travellers and helps them get away from the usual vagaries of life. (ii) Adventure types and conceptual area Adventure tourism is split into two categories namely, ‘hard’ and ‘soft’. Both categories of adventurous activities considered in this study are:

Adventure Tourism: Types and Items Hard: Rock climbing, mountaineering, snorkelling, scuba diving, water skiing, trekking, bungee jumping, kite surfing, rafting, undersea walking, zip lining, shark diving, dolphin diving, paragliding, caving, and kite surfing. Soft: Bird watching, wildlife observation (safari), snowboarding, snowshoeing, rafting, kayaking, hiking, biking, camping, boat tours, horseback riding, canoeing, walking, camping, fishing, cycling and sailing.

Soft Adventure is an outdoor or recreational type of travel undertaken to remote or non-traditional destinations for the purpose of new experiences, exploration of cultures and natural wonders or engaging in a variety of rugged activities [3]. On the other hand, in hard adventure tourism, tourists require some pre-experiences and skills in the activity before undertaking the risk tourism experience, in contrast to soft adventures that not necessarily require previous experience (Swarbrooke et al., 2003, p. 33). Both qualities of adventure tourists require passionate and risk-taking motivation whether high or low (Allied Market Research).

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5 Asian Adventure Tourism Participation and Gender Impacts (i) Travellers’ age-sex influence on adventure tourism Travellers’ mind sometimes may act on changing of decision depending on the tourist destinations, attraction types, amenities, demographic characteristics, information, budget and deserving satisfaction. However, this section reveals the role of gender and age in determining travel motivations. Table 1 presents that out of total respondents, male and female travellers are 59.37% and 40.63% respectively. According to the survey results, adolescent young travellers of aged 15 to 24 years are 15.63% of which male and female visitors are respectively 9.90% and 5.73%. Youths ages from 25 to 34, male and female visitors are 22.39% and 17.71% while visitors of middle-aged 35 to 44 years, males and females are 14.58% and 8.86 respectively. Generally, ages 15 to 44 years are considered energetic tourism group, which is seen 79.17% of the total travellers and remaining above the ages (45+) are older, 20.83%. Majority of adventure tourists belong to this energetic age group. As against total energetic ages, male and female tourists are respectively 46.87% and 32.30%. At this age group, the proportions of adventurer energetic males and females are 78.95% and 79.48% respectively. It implies that female attitude to adventure tourism participation is slightly higher than their counterpart male in spite of around one and half times larger the number of males than the female adventurers. (ii) Travellers’ gender and relationship status Table 2 shows that 27.60% travelers of all ages have traveled with their families including kids, 24.48% with friends and colleagues, 26.04% traveled with a spouse or with travel partner and 21.28% travelers have traveled as solo travelers (single). This might be attributed to the fact that the highest solo adventure travelers (11.98%) are youths with the ages 25 to 34 years. Table 1 Travellers adventure tourism participation by types, age group and sex Age group

Adventure travellers by gender (%)

Participation to adventure tourism by gender (%)

Total

Male

Female

Total

Male

Female

15–24

15.63

9.90

5.73

15.63

16.67

14.10

25–34

40.10

22.39

17.71

40.10

37.72

43.59

35–44

23.44

14.58

8.86

23.44

24.56

21.79

45–54

11.46

6.77

4.69

11.46

11.40

11.54

55+

9.37

5.73

3.65

9.37

9.65

8.98

Percent

100.0

59.37

40.63

100.0

100.0

100.0

Number

192

114

78

192

114

78

Analysis of Factors Influencing the Growing Motivation …

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Table 2 Travellers’ gender and relationship status Age group

Total (%)

Family including kids

Friends/Colleagues/Groups

Spouse or travel partners

Solo (single) travellers

15–24

15.63

0.0

9.38

2.60

3.65

25–34

40.10

9.37

7.81

10.94

11.98

35–44

23.44

9.90

4.69

5.73

3.13

45–54

11.46

5.21

1.56

3.12

1.56

55–64

9.37

3.12

1.04

3.65

1.56

Total

100.0

27.60

24.48

26.04

21.88

192

192

53

47

50

42

More than half (9.38%) of total adolescent young visitors (15.63%) ages 15 to 24 years have travelled with their friends/colleagues or in groups. Among all travellers, the highest proportion (40.10%) of travellers is seen ages in between 25 to 34 years, of which 10.94% have travelled with spouse/travel partners, 9.37% with family including kids and 7.81% with friends/colleagues/group. The second highest proportion is 23.44% middle-aged travellers (35 to 44 yrs). (iii) Gender affects adventure travelling by types and travellers motivations Tourists have a less fascination to hard tourism activities in comparison with soft tourism. Among Asian tourists, 35.96% male visitors prefer hard activities as against 21.79%% females. By comparison to hard, 64.04% males and 78.21% females participate in the soft tourism. It indicates that female tourists show more courage to undertake soft tourism compared to male tourists (Table 3). (iv) Travellers’ level of education The study exhibits the tourists’ level of education in explaining their adventure travel motives. Tourists’ level of education plays a significant role in major decision making with regard to adventure tourism as education improves decision-making ability. Educated tourists are more likely to have autonomous decision-making, risk-taking and challenge accepting motives for perusing their own achievements in respect Table 3 Adventure travellers by gender and types of tourism activities Gender

Travellers’ adventure tourism participation by type (%)

Travellers’ single item participation to hard activities

Total

Hard tourism

Soft tourism

Total (Number)

(%)

Male

100.0

35.96

64.04

15

65.22

Female

100.0

21.79

78.21

8

34.78

Percent

100.0

30.21

69.79

23

100.0

Total

192

58

134

–

–

59.38

40.62

100

Female

Total

Total

10.94

6.25

4.69

Schooling/Secondary

Level of education

Male

Travellers’ gender identity

Table 4 Travellers’ level of education

16.67

5.21

11.46

College level

34.89

14.58

20.31

Graduate or equivalent

23.43

8.85

14.58

Post graduation

9.38

4.17

5.21

Professional/Vocational

4.69

1.56

3.13

Not specified/no formal education

68 D. K. Bhadra

Analysis of Factors Influencing the Growing Motivation …

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of adventure. Table 4 reveals that the highest 34.89% travelers have a graduation or equivalent degree while 23.43% tourists hold the degree of post graduation. On the other hand, a notable proportion (16.67%) of travelers having the college level education and 9.38% tourists have professional and vocational level of education. Remaining 4.69% travelers do not have any formal education or the level is not specified. Data exhibit that 95.31% tourists are formally educated of which 56.25% male and 39.06% female. The table shows that graduated and post-graduated together male travelers are higher with 34.89% compared to 23.43% females. Similarly, school and college level educated male travelers are respectively 4.69% and 11.46% as against 6.25% and 5.21% female travelers. Among all tourists, a significant proportion of travelers are professional/vocational (9.38%) of which males are 5.21% and females are 4.17%. Only 4.69% travelers do not have any formal education. (v) Travellers’ education and family background affect on the adventure travelling intention Some significant differences may see in adventure activity choices by tourists due to their level of education and age. Education acts as a key factor to social mobility and creating economic opportunity. It inspires individual expectation for more knowledge and it influences on individual’s belief, feeling and behavioural intention as educated potential tourists seek more information prior to visit a specific destination selection. Besides, educated tourists enjoy more sovereign in decision-making process. The survey results exhibit that Asian young tourists show more risk-taking attitude and their level of education acts on behavioural intention for destination choice. Table 5 displays that 53.11% travelers are youth educated including both adolescent and young age ranges from 15 to 34 years. Middle-aged (35–54) educated tourists are 33.86% while older aged (55–64) educated adventure tourists are 8.33% only. Age and level of education are important factors for adventure tourism. Overall 4.69% of all groups are not educated or having formal education. (vi) Influences of parental education and family background factors (environment) in the adventure trip Family influence or higher level of parental education also creates transition or transformation of knowledge within family or ethnicities. Sometimes it may encourage family members’ travelling attitudes. Moreover, interactions between different cultural backgrounds and developing awareness of the normative cultural values may act on persons to create travelling intention. These issues are considered and survey results are exhibited in the Table 6. Family background of travellers may affect much in their decision-making relate to adventure trips because parental higher education influences children’s learning both directly and indirectly through their parental activities, which help their kids to be grown up properly. Parenting in the family creates a positive physical and mental atmosphere in the home, which helps learning the child’s skills and thinking self and they have a powerful effect on the child’s motivation to learn since childhood.

55.73

34.90

9.37

100.0

192

35–54

55–64

Percent

Total

Total (%)

21

10.94

0

7.82

3.12

Schooling/Secondary

Level of education

15–34

Age group

Table 5 Adventure travellers’ level of education

32

16.67

1.56

1.56

13.54

College level

67

34.89

2.08

13.02

19.79

Graduate or equivalent

45

23.44

4.69

9.38

9.37

Post graduation

18

9.37

0.00

2.08

7.29

Vocational/professional

9

4.69

1.04

1.04

2.60

Not specified/no formal education

70 D. K. Bhadra

Analysis of Factors Influencing the Growing Motivation …

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It carries an image for the rest of his/her life. Family ties, education, values, norms and traditions are the basic tone for the family foundation in Asia. Thus, family environment plays a significant role in shaping the identity of children, their selfesteem, socialisation and cultural identity, which help them taking a proper decisionmaking at right time. Table 6 shows that the highest 27.08% travellers identify their parental higher education responsible for their courage to undertake adventure tourism. Next important family factor is the rise of family income. Among visitors, 26.56% travellers are encouraged and motivated to outbound adventure travel due to their higher family income while 14.06% tourists refer themselves as habituated travelling family and attitudes grow from their family traits and new experience learning beliefs. A significant percent (11.98%) of travellers consider themselves the members of social and cultural interaction families, and the quality inspires them for undertaking adventure tours. Indeed, social interaction is a widely social behavioural exchange between persons with social group of cultural environment. Culture refers to characteristic patterns of attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviours shared by members of a society or population. It plays an important part in shaping a person’s behaviour, thought patterns and relationships with others and widens the outlooks. Some tourists refer the family development attitudes as their most important travelling incentive factor for adventure tourism choice, which is seen 7.81% in Table 6. According to Family Development Theory [25], family development promotes the growth of thinking of family members for culture and environment all around and outer societies and makes them more conscious for family communication, realisation and transmission of culture. A significant proportion of travellers refer that child’s influence on them was the vital family factor for adventure tourism decision, which is seen 4.69%. Only 3.65% tourists do not comply with the family background factor involved to their decision about adventure trip. Lastly, 1.56% tourists mention that the rise of young Table 6 Family factors influence the adventure-travelling attitudes Travellers

Family factors influence the adventure tourism attitudes Total

Parental higher education

Family style and belief

Family development attitude

Family income

Rise of child’s skills and motivation

Percent

100

27.08

14.06

7.81

26.56

1.56

Number

192

52

27

15

51

3

Family social and cultural interactions

Family positive physical and mental atmosphere

Child’s influence on parents

Nothing

11.98

2.61

4.69

3.65

23

5

9

7

72

D. K. Bhadra

children’s adventurous activities, skills and motivation act as their main family factor for outgoing tours.

6 Asian Ethnicity, Traditions and Travelling Mindset Asian Ethnic Characteristics, Customs and Traditions (i) Asian inner and outer commonalities Asia is the largest and populous continent of the world and home of the collective diverse customs, ethics and traditions that have been emanated by the numerous ethnic groups of the oldest river valley civilisations [4]. The continent is commonly divided into six geographic sub-regions, namely East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Western Asia, Central Asia and North Asia. Above all, the continent is characterised by perceivable commonalities, like religion, language and relative ethnic homogeneity [5]. Despite varieties of Asian societies, some unity and common history for many countries and cultures, closely bound to their traditions and values are the basic roots of these countries. Some “behavioural attitudes and cultural values are found harmony with each other (Marcia C. Carteret, 2011: 1)”. Am J. Phys Anthropol refers this anthropological closeness in another research article (Am J. Phys Anthropol. 2002: 2), “Asian mtDNA sequences reveal high variability within populations, but extremely low differentiations among Asian populations”. Another important unity among Asians is that almost Asian countries are agro-based economy as demographic expansion associated with the spread of agriculture in Asia, which is responsible for extreme genetic homogeneity in Asia. Although there are numerous of differences in the religion, experience of colonisation and ethnicity; the similarities are much more significant. Asians, especially Southeast, East and South Asian countries share similar climate and cultural traits and these make Asian peoples tie in one thread since ancient period. (ii) Asian sub-regional roots, closeness of ethnicity and ritual ethics The East Asian peoples (China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam and Mongolia) are very closely connected ethnically and linguistically as they are the descendants of the same riverine civilisations and influenced by Chinese cultural characteristics (Japanese/Nihongo Omniglot, 2018) and shared religious and ethic ideas represented by three teachings of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism (The three Teachings, 2018). West and Central Asia has their cultural roots in the pioneering civilisations of the Crescent and Mesopotamia basins. The Southeast Asia has been influenced by the culture of India and China [6], and having deep impacts on families, societal institutions, religion, morale, literature of the great Vedic texts. Before the 14th century, the Hinduism and Buddhism were the dominant religions of Southeast Asia and the regional ethics have been spread over through diffusion of ancient worship, rituals, ceremonies, sacrifices, meditation, philosophy and spiritual knowledge. Henceforth,

Analysis of Factors Influencing the Growing Motivation …

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Islam became dominant in Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Southeast Asia has also had a lot of Western influence due to a long period legacy of colonialism of America, Spain and Portuguese Christianity as the dominant religion. Despite the colonial and multi-religious dominancy over a long period, ‘the Southeast Asian peoples and the culture have been very distinctively influenced by Hindu, Chinese, Buddhists and Islamic literature [7] as their societal values and ethics have been deeply formed into a traditional practice or customs for societies since early. Asian religions have some basic similarities in some beliefs, behavioural patterns and practices in religious culture. Asian cultures play an important influential role in families. Culturally Asians are highly group-oriented people who give strong emphasis on family connection, which is the major source of their identity and protection against the hardships of life (Marcia C. Carteret, 2011:1) and develop awareness of the normative cultural values where loyalty to the family and respect to elders are expected. Although distinct, Asian culture actually has its own set of values. They all share a common core, which is seen in the Japanese and Chinese traditions and in philosophers such as Confucians, whose writings had considerable influence throughout East, Southeast and South Asia. Asian philosophical traditions originated in India and China (Eastern Philosophy) and spread widely in these sub-regions. It has made them some closer in thinking and values, which are very much inter-related. All these factors and alongside, prenatal environment have brought them thinking to uniform and influence them to act on intelligence interact in their behavioural manners. It is the basic intensity of Asian societies, which reflects in mind of youths even in decision-making process and mindset for tourism undertakings. (iii) Asian family practices, beliefs and religious impacts on family environment and decision-making Human attitude is a psychological tendency of mind, which is expressed through his/her behavioural intention. The foundation of the sense building begins from childhood in family where the development happens physically, emotionally, socially, and intellectually during their grown up time. Another important issue is religious beliefs. Religious beliefs and practices on family life, parent-child interaction, good parenting and education have the potential influence on many aspects of life. All these influences on man’s mind create images for long and act as powerful weapons to influence over human behaviour and acts on person’s decision-making process. Considering these factors data are collected on types of family loyalty and family structures of tourists and provided in the Table 7. From the table it is seen that among respondents of all ages, 56.77% tourists are from traditional families, 32.29% travellers from modern families, 8.86% tourists belong to religious families and only 2.08% tourists do not have the idea about the type of family. Youth tourists ages 15 to 34 years are 29.17% come from traditional families, 18.75% from modern families and only 6.26% from religious families. The proportions for the middle-aged (34–54) travellers are 21.35%, 10.94% and 2.08% respectively from traditional, modern and religious families.

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Table 7 Travelers belong to type of family Travellers’ gender identity

Loyalty to family

Age group

Total

Male

Female

Total

Traditional family

Modern family

Religious family

Having no idea

15–24

55.73

32.30

23.44

55.73

29.17

18.75

6.26

1.56

35–54

34.90

21.35

13.54

34.90

21.35

10.94

2.08

0.52

55–64

9.37

5.73

3.64

9.37

6.25

2.60

0.52

0.00

Percent

100.0

59.38

40.62

100.0

56.77

32.29

8.86

2.08

Total

192

114

78

192

109

62

17

4

(iv) Asian socio-economic development affects on the youths and brings about their mental changes In most of the Asian countries rapid urbanisation, women’s increasing educational attainment and employment in the formal economy, as well as mass-scale migration (internal or transnational), the family itself is undergoing considerable change (Prof. Wei-Jun Jean Yeung and Dr. Gu Xiaorong). Asian fast economic development, demographic transition, shifting public policies and historical legacies of family norms and practices jointly shape the perceived way for their development and is bringing about the youths’ mental changes. The process of modernisation in Asia has enabled more and more Asians to be economically independent and socially mobile. Individual economic independence and socio- economic development preludes Asian young generations’ mobility to travel for recreation, gathering more knowledge and practical experiences all around them consistent with their economic capacity [8]. A large part of Asian population is adolescents and youths (around 60%). According to World Statistics, the world’s young population is 42% under the age of 25 in 2015. In Asia, there were 1.2 billion youth aged 15–24 years globally in 2015, accounting for one out of every six people worldwide. By 2030, the number of youth to have grown by 7%, to nearly 1.3 billion (projected) [14]. This bulge of Asian population is now socially advanced, better educated and have greater economic prospects than their previous generations in this region. Majority of this young generation is not interested in the traditional types of tourism. According to the Boston Consulting Group reports (USA), the millennial generation at ages between 16 and 34 is more interested than older generations in travelling abroad as much as possible. The UN attributes that growth to both rising incomes in emerging markets and a commitment by youth in advanced economies to “continue travelling despite economic uncertainty” [13]. Table 8 illustrates major travelling mode of Asian youths and types of their tourism choices are shown. The survey results reveal that 16.67% (altogether adolescents and young) youth generation ages 15 to 34 seeks only adventure thrills, 36.45% looks for variety of educational experiences and 2.60% travel only for mental recreation. Travellers with middle ages between 35–54 years, 13.02% tourists’ mode of tourism is mental recreation, 16.67% travellers seek for the variety of educational experiences and

Analysis of Factors Influencing the Growing Motivation …

75

Table 8 Types of tourism choice and mode of tourism Age group

Major tourism mode

Types of tourism choice

Just for mental recreation

Variety of educational experiences

Adventure and thrill only

Traditi-onal

Only hard adventure tourism

Both hard and soft types tourism

No particular choice

15-34

2.60

36.45

16.67

2.60

8.33

33.85

10.94

35-54

13.02

16.67

5.21

21.35

3.65

2.60

7.29

55+

5.21

4.17

0

9.38

0

0

0

Percent

20.83

57.29

21.88

33.33

11.98

36.46

18.23

Number

40

110

42

64

23

70

35

5.21% willing to undertake the adventure tourism. Contrariwise, 5.21% tourists of ages 55 and over have travelled for mental recreation and 4.17% travellers express their intention to share the variety of educational experiences. Generally, adolescence (10–19) is the period of transition from childhood to adulthood during which young people go through many physical, intellectual and social changes. During this stage in the life cycle, a young person’s social, economic, legal and political status is transformed [9]. It is the period of capacity development period of teenager young people who go through many biological, cognitive, social and psychological transitions. Psychologically, adolescents develop a sense of identity and self-awareness (Asian Family in Transition, Prof James Heckman, Chicago). This age prepares them curious mentally and their interest is tremendous to discover new experiences and acquire practical knowledge outside their family environment or even to know outer societies. The survey results reveal that 8.33% youths ages 15–34 have shown their interests to undertake hard adventure tourism and 33.85% both types hard and soft. Only 10.94% youths do not have any particular choice. Middle-aged (35–54) and old aged travellers like the traditional tourism are respectively 21.35% and 9.38%.

7 Asian Colonial Impacts, Individualism and Technology Development (i) Asian colonial impacts, struggling spirit and cultural influences Long-term Asian colonial dominated rules around 400 years at different periods by foreigners had demoralised individual freedom and freethinking attitudes over long years. The four major elements of Asians namely culture, trade, religion, and struggle have played an important role gradually in the restoration of state formation of present Southeast, South and East Asian countries to set up their past glorious prospects. Modern Asian countries emerge from their rich history, diverse cultures

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as well as their social transformation that have been affluently come of their long suppression and struggle against western colonial dominancy. The oldest civilisation and longest history of humankind have transformed Asian people to be more realistic towards the future, prepare and build them culturally in manner with an attitude of liberal mindset towards their coloniser world, and broaden their outlooks in different ways. Asian peoples have to pay many sacrifices in times for their welcoming attitudes to strangers through their long colonial domination. Despite the colonial suppression, Asian peoples have gained many positive lessons in association with the western world about to self-esteem, self-reliance and individualistic freethinking attitudes out of their traditional family ethics. On the other hand, long colonial domination compelled them to be motivated for struggling with patience and building up their challenge-accepting mindset for independence and keep up their past glory as their cultural values always strongly influence on their beliefs. In fact, the major colonisers of Southeast Asia were Europeans, Japanese and the U.S during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The suppressions and erasure of the deep-seated colonial rules are being overlooked now a day by the peoples of the growth-seeking Asia; rather mostly tourists are curious about their coloniser countries. The survey results show (Table 9) that 52.08% travellers do not bother or keep in mind the past negativity and 11.98% express their fascination and willing to visit the desired countries if the opportunity permits them, while 9.90% travellers reject the idea of liking to coloniser world. Still 21.35% travellers have partially fascination to coloniser countries. The survey also investigates the main reason of the tourists’ travelling interest to coloniser countries. The highest 34.10% respondents express their intention to enjoy fun and adventure experiences from the root coloniser countries. The second highest group of travellers (24.86%) is interested to visit desired attractive destinations of the coloniser countries while 15.61% tourists have attraction to seeing the colonial civilisation at the roots. Only 12.14% travellers like to meet relatives/colleagues and join festivals. On the other hand, 13.29% tourists do not mention any specific reason of their travelling to coloniser country. Table 9 Tourists’ fascination and travel attractions to colonizer countries of tourists’ liking the coloniser countries Total

Feeling about coloniser country

Main reason…

Some

Much

None

No bother

Total

Attractive destination

100

21.35

11.98

9.90

52.08

100

24.86

192

41

32

19

100

173

43

Attractive destination

Seeing the colonial roots

Enjoy fun and adventure

Meet friends and relatives

Others

24.86

15.61

34.10

12.14

13.29

43

27

59

21

23

Analysis of Factors Influencing the Growing Motivation …

77

(ii) Asian individualism, values and decision-making sovereignty in tourism perspective Asian long colonisation has left behind a peripheral space for the world about the region’s own political or social distinctiveness, cultural history, or position of cultural centrality of the peoples. This potential invisible spirit of Asian generations has been developed gradually from dominance and promotion of colonial suppressions in this region over years. The political philosophers of this region promoted the ideals of individual freedom and the dignity of persons and triggered the local people to be more united to stand against the colonisers for own independence. The sense makes Asian youths gradually to be more particular with the perceived foreseen development and challenge-accepting mentality. On the other hand, freethinking, individualism and self-reliance confidence or ideology of the present Asian youths are built-in gradually by their time-patience dedication, grown up personality, educational advancement, modern ICT development, global interactions and merits by inheritance. It is being exposed through their sovereign decision-making efforts. Individualism is a person’s own ideology and moral strength of mind. Psychologically a mental identity of person’s unique and independent self-reliant attitude is exposed by individual outer behavioural expression, attitude and manner. This quality is inborn philosophical values in mind and belief of individuals that attain in them by deep influences of family environment, inheritance, education, culture, societal structure, personal interest and the economy. However, to inquiry about the Asian travellers’ inspiration sources of individual mental challenge-accepting spirit, questions are included accordingly. Among all respondents Table 10, 29.17% travellers inform about their mental backup strength of undertaking adventure tourism and sovereign decision-making have been encouraged by their own self-reliance and confidence, 23.44% refer that the spirit they gain from inheritance, 24.48% respondents have been inspired by their family culture and 22.91% travellers mention that their moral courage is induced by educational institutions. It implies that self-confidence and family cultural environment play a major role and the inheritance encouragement comes next to it. Asian youths (15–34) are more particulars in individualism and challenge accepting mentality grown up with influences of self-reliance confidence, inheritance, cultural environment and education. Data presents (Table 10) that among all travellers, only adolescents and youths (15–34) altogether with 55.73% are the majority of travellers who have been influenced mentally by all these factors. Similarly, the freedom of decision-making is absolutely an individual’s psychological higher-order intention of preference to a commodity, which comes through following a decision-making process of person’s inspiration and subsequently actions taken in a specific situation, which is expressed as person’s self-reflection. This paper examines such inner and outer psychological elements of tourists’ insight positive self-reflection ability, which acts as sources of their mental encouragement. Table 10 shows that 36.46% respondents think that their individual freedom of decisionmaking inspiration comes from their independent ideology since early. Significant

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D. K. Bhadra

Table 10 Influential factors of individual mental challenge taking and decision-making sprit gains Age group

Total

15–34

Individual mental challenging spirit gain from Family cultural environment

Educational institutions

Inheritance

Self-reliance and confidence

55.73

15.63

12.50

14.58

13.02

35–54

34.90

6.25

8.85

7.82

11.98

55–64

9.37

2.60

1.56

1.04

4.17

(%)

100.0

24.48

22.91

23.44

29.17

Total

192

47

44

45

56

Age Group

Individual freedom of decision spirit gain from

Own ICT status

Independent ideology

Struggling and obstinacy family

Edu-connection and capability

Self-net connection

Outer ICT facility

15-34

18.23

17.71

19.79

50.01

5.73

35-54

15.11

13.54

6.25

29.16

5.73

55-64

3.12

4.69

1.56

6.25

3.12

(%)

36.46

35.94

27.60

85.42

14.58

Total

70

69

53

164

28

portion of tourists (35.94%) refer that they get the freethinking attitudes and decisionmaking freedom from their struggling mentality and family obstinacy while 27.60% respondents mention that their wide social and educational connection and capability lead the spirit mentally. The dependence of a potential tourist on ICT technology acts as a primary source of information. All sorts of electronic service provider for the tourism customers enhance buyers’ operational efficiency, experience gathering and behavioural techniques in purchasing and quick decision-making process. These make the potential tourists to act as the sovereign and managerial decision-makers. From the table it is seen that 85.42% tourists use net facility in homes and remaining 14.58% use the ICT facility outside of their residence.

8 Asian Youths’ Intention, Behaviour and Factors of Motivation (i) Recent Asian economies and youth tourism growth In recent years, almost Asian societies are on the transition to be the fast growing region. The forces driving Asia’s rapid growth are mainly new technology development, globalisation, and market-oriented reform (Haruhiko Kuroda, President, ADB, OECD Yearbook, 2013). It has created enormous economic opportunities and

Analysis of Factors Influencing the Growing Motivation …

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increases the personal mobility of Asian people. In Asia, ‘travel’ emerges as a crossborder migration with a view to short-time work or for educational opportunities in more advanced economies or settlement migration from less-developed to developed countries. Perhaps it is the most dynamic universal feature of the present young adults in Asia. The global youth travel industry estimates that almost 190 million international trips takes place a year. The UNWTO forecasts that by 2020, there will be almost 300 million international youth trips per year (The power of youth travel, UNWTO). (ii) Youths’ travelling intention and motivation factors The basic reasons of youths’ outbound travel identified by UNWTO are learning, meeting other people, getting in touch with other cultures, as a source of career development and travel as a part of their identity. In fact, travel is important to youths because they give more value to destination more than their older generations and they are less likely to be deterred from travelling by terrorism, political and civil unrest, disease or natural calamities. Youths are fascinated to using new technology and always willing to gain benefits from visiting other culture and societies. Asian youth travellers are genetically experience seekers, and are willing to gain ‘unique’ experiences that serve them to build their self-identity narratives. Adventure and risk has a special role to play in the behaviour and attitudes of young travellers, as Elsrud have shown [10]. The growth of the adventure travel market destinations are popular with young people as they underline the link and accelerate the facilities according to youths’ tourism needs. As Moaz (2004) shows, young people are increasingly taking a moratorium from adulthood, delaying major life decisions in order to extend the freedom of ‘youth’. One of the key ideas underlying adventure tourism, however, is that it involves some form of physical exertion (P. A. Beedie 2003) and it provides some especial type of mental satisfaction to youths. Ewert and Hollenhorst [11] suggested that a sense of adventure was derived from a search for competence combined with a sense of risk and danger. A sense of adventure can, therefore, be obtained either from physical activities that develop competence, or from adventurous locations offering a sense of risk, or a combination of the two. The study explores the reasons of tourists’ participation in adventure trip, which reflects the tourists’ individual belief, feeling and behavioural intention and reasons of attraction for adventure tours. The survey results show (Table 11) that total 55.73% youths (15–34) and 34.90% middle-aged (35–54) tourists have participated both hard and soft types tourism. But overall youths show their motivation to enjoy more risk and challenge-taking adventure tourism than middle-aged tourists. On the other hand, data show that middle-aged (35–44 years) Asian travellers prefer less challenging and risk-taking adventure tourism, which allow stressors to roll off more easily from boredom life and mental anxiety. Mostly the old aged (45+) travellers have undertaken outbound travel to meet new people and cultures, sightseeing and wildlife recreation, health fitness and refresh like tourism, which are likely included into the soft tourism.

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Table 11 Major reasons of growing increasingly popularity for adventure tourism Age group

Total

Adventure motivation for risk experiences

Physical and mental challenges

Health, fitness and refresh

Avoid stress and boredom life

15–34

55.73

15.11

13.02

0

4.68

35–54

34.90

9.89

4.17

4.17

4.16

55–64

9.37

0

0

3.65

1.04

Total

192

48

33

15

19

Percent

100.0

25.00

17.19

7.81

9.89

Meet new people and culture

Adventure holiday recreation

Enjoy, gain wilderness experiences

Adventure in sports interest

Sightseeing and wildlife recreation

12.50

3.13

0

3.65

3.64

3.64

2.08

3.13

0

3.65

2.60

0

1.56

0

0.52

36

10

9

7

15

18.75

5.21

4.69

3.65

7.81

(iii) Some social prime factors inspire the adventure tourism motivation (indirect) The study survey finds some primary factors those strongly act as predominant intention of tourists for their tourism initiatives and marketing. Travel needs motivation and it begins with an expectation for mind recreation. The primitive reason for wanting of travel is an inner motive and some other social elements like social influences, cultural conceptions, religious views, family values or even colonial emotions influence simultaneously to create this motive. As a social being, families always try to share their outbound wonderful pleasant memories, experiences or memorable incidents of holiday recreation with their colleagues, friends, relatives and neighbours. These experiences inspire others to motivate for the same. Similarly, religious destination visits, comfort family economy or financial flow or energy gain intention for recreation may act as the primary social factor of adventure trip. Table 12 shows that 6.25% youths age ranges from 15– 34 are inspired primarily by social factors. These factors encourage 4.69% tourists ages 35 to 44 and the proportion is only 1.56% for the elderly people ages 45 to 64. Due to social or family bonding sometimes persons or family members have to think for outbound travel to attend festival events or to maintain the links with others or for relationship building or even to keep up perceived value, satisfaction and loyalty. Keeping up these family values or traditional sentiments as prime motive, people has to go out outbound travelling and participate in other tourism destinations. Total 8.33% tourists inform that their prime intention was to value the conventional family sentiments and travelling decision comes upon from older generations/parents to keep up the traditions (referred as family values & traditions). The same intention is carried by only 3.65% travellers ages

Analysis of Factors Influencing the Growing Motivation …

81

Table 12 Prime inspiration factors for adventure travellers Age group

Total

Social factors*

Family values and traditions

Ethnicity

Personal emotion

Culture and heritage site

15–34

55.73

6.25

3.65

6.77

11.46

5.21

35–44

34.90

4.69

3.12

3.12

6.77

4.17

45–64

9.37

1.56

1.56

2.08

0.52

2.08

Percent

100.0

12.50

8.33

11.98

18.75

11.46

Total

192

24

16

23

36

22

Colonial impacts

Destination attraction

Challenging and risk attitudes

Overall Hard

Soft

4.69

10.94

6.77

35

72

3.12

4.69

5.21

17

50

0.52

1.04

0

6

12

8.33

16.67

11.98

30.21

69.79

16

32

23

58

134

*Social factors include age, sex, demographic characteristics, religious, family history, race and ethnicity, education, economic status, social/ethnic customs, society, culture, environment, etc

15 to 34, followed by 3.12% tourists ages 35 to 44 and only 1.56% by older aged (45+) tourists. Cultural identity or ethnicity nature of the food habit encourage some people and become willing to visit racial or ethnic origin. The ethical values and responsibility share may inspire persons to choose and involve in performances, presentations, responsibilities and attractions of different communities outside their country. The ethnicity attractions stir up persons to motivate travelling, which is mentioned by total 11.98% tourists. The corresponding breakup for the youths ages 15 to 34 is 6.77%, middle-aged travellers are 5.21% and older aged respondents are 2.08%. Human feeling subjectively represents emotion and often it goes together with motives. Emotions are inner states of feelings in mind, which become more powerful and can affect persons’ decision-making abilities as it has strong physiological responses. Educated youths’ have positive personal emotion, which helps developing skills, knowledge and intention to enrich experiences through participation in travelling. It is inherently emotional. This quality affects persons and guides to proper decision-making affairs. Table 12 shows that the total proportion of personal emotion is 18.75% of which youths ages 15 to 34 is 11.46%. They inform that at the pre-travel stage, personal emotion plays a fundamental role in activating their tourist motivations and 6.77% travellers ages 35 to 44 confirm that their personal emotion act on input support of the destination choice processes. Only 0.52% older aged (45–64 plus) person refers that their personal emotions help conceptualise their destinations’

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branding and judge the effectiveness of destination attachment for purchasing with passion. Actually, personal emotion acts as stimulus exposure for the first step of perception building and interest to tourism. Culture and heritage is considered a powerful tool to attract tourists worldwide. It includes historic attractions, traditions, heritage centres, museums, monuments, arts and culture, architecture, cultural events, religion’s festivals, gastronomy and other elements that help to shape the way of lifestyle of the people in geographical areas. It is a major factor in the attractiveness of most destinations for its growing attractiveness and competitiveness. From Table 12 it is seen that the segment total is 11.46% respondents of which 5.21% travellers ages 15 to 34 become interested and motivated travelling at the outset for their interest to culture and heritage attractions. Compared to 5.21% youths, the proportions for middle-aged travellers ages 35–44 is 4.17% and only 2.08% is for the old aged persons. It implies that the culture and heritage attraction is more in youths compared to old age tourists may due to their knowledge updated intention of the past history. A significant portion of Asian tourists (8.33%) has informed that the colonial sentiment acts as the initial motive for outbound travelling (Table 12). More interest is seen among youths ages 15 to 34 with 4.69%, followed by middle-aged tourists with 3.12% and older aged persons with 0.52%. They all have been encouraged by the attractions of the colonists’ world and pursuit of experiences about their long dominant ethical values. As the number of Asian travellers is interested to understand better the treasures of colonists’ culture and architecture, it prepares their mindset for visiting their kingdom because travelling is an effective way for persons to gain firsthand knowledge about their own history of dominancy. Young travellers are the pioneers in discovering new destinations and their fast changing attitudes and interests motivate them much to look for their own range of preferences and expectations. The survey reveals (Table 12) that total 16.67% tourists feel the highest destination attraction, youths of aged 15 to 34 display their highest attraction with 10.94% due to their unique expectation. On the other hand, 4.69% middle-aged travellers (35–45) are fascinated to it while only 1.04% older aged respondents show their interest to this type. Some adventure travellers love to enjoy vacations to natural environments or remote locations for physical activities or exploring new experiences. In adventure tourism world, sometimes it brings opportunity to tell travellers about an unfamiliar territory where a lot of excitements and thrills exist. It raises the travellers’ tolerance for uncertainty and promotes mental skills placing travellers themselves to in situations where things do not always go as planned and the trip helps them learn to cope with the uncertainties in life. It feeds their dreams, builds confidence and brings back travellers’ mental wellness with some impressive moments. As this type of travel involves with a certain degree of risk and challenges, youths are more fascinated and motivated to face this unknown challenges and think it differently. The survey results reveal that total 11.98% Asian adolescents and youths (15–34) display their challenge and risk-taking attitudes, which are their main motives for adventure travelling owing to its excitements and thrilling experiences. Among them 6.77%, are energetic

Analysis of Factors Influencing the Growing Motivation … Table 13 Adventure travellers by type

Age group

83

Adventure travelers participation Hard

Soft

15–34

Total 55.73

18.23

37.50

35–54

34.90

8.85

26.05

9.37

3.12

6.25

30.20

69.80

55+ Total (%)

100.0

ages 15 to 34 and remaining 5.21% are middle-aged (35–44) travellers (Table 12). This intention acts as the primary factor for their outbound travelling. (iv) Hard and soft adventure tourism motivation Adventure tourism combines physical activity with nature and/or cultural learning. Young or young-at-heart tourists travel for the thrill and emotional charge of doing things and accept challenges and risks personally while some middle aged tourists want to do something new that is once-in-a-lifetime or to be completely filled with immerse travel experiences. Old aged travellers are mostly interested in soft adventure activities, such as walking, hiking, safaris and cycling. On long-haul holidays, sometimes adventure travellers seek a variety of experiences with meeting local people by staying in accommodation run by local people. The survey results in Table 13 shows that 18.23% Asian adolescents and young travellers of aged 15 to 34 enjoy hard adventure tourism and 37.50% soft tourism. The soft adventure tourism interest of middle-aged travellers ages 35 to 54 is 26.05%, which is about three times larger compared to 8.85% hard type participation of tourists. A very small portion (3.12%) of travellers ages 55 plus join in the risk/challenge adventure tourism compared to 6.25% soft tourism. (v) Asian social factors, beliefs and family behavioural influence Since long past Asians’ ethnical characteristics and culture build the Asian generation behaviour and prepare social, personal and psychological mindset norms, which make them different from the westerns. It primarily helps them promoting to progress with their indigenous racial characteristics. Asian inherited root-culture has the deepest influence on peoples’ behaviour, because it is the most basic cause of one’s wants and behaviour. Each culture has smaller subcultures, which include nationalities, religions, geographic regions and racial groups, and each of them has shared value systems (Vaasan Ammattikorkeakoulu, 2014). Subcultures are important factors that influence the person’s behaviour, attitudes and lifestyles. Almost Asian generations had to pass away numerous challenges in an evolutionary way in the mantle of mythologised revolution where independence was sealed in blood and it serves as a powerful, unifying nationalist sense, which is now closely associated with their present intellectual, moral, spiritual, emotion or present physical nature. All the significant social factors, beliefs and practices have influenced strongly the Asian generations over years and developed the challenge/risk taking attitudes. These topical qualities might affect the person’s choices, interest and decision-making.

84

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Table 14 Family factors influence the adventure-travelling attitudes Travellers

Family factors influence the adventure tourism attitudes (%) Total

Parental higher education

Family style and beliefs

Family status and personal attitudes

Family affordable income

Percent

100

27.08

14.06

7.81

26.56

Number

192

52

27

15

51

Rise of child’s skills and motivation

Family social and cultural interactions

Family positive physical and mental atmosphere

Child’s influence on parents

Nothing identified

1.56

11.98

2.61

4.69

3.65

3

23

5

9

7

Travelling is culturally enriching and parental higher education convinces children to go out outbound travel for pursuing education and gaining practical experiences. In family, parental education can inspire children much to capture the spirit and desire, which makes them want to go out and explore tourism world. The study shows (Table 14) that 27.08% respondents gain first time the tourism motivation inducement from their families owing to parental higher education. Culture has a key role in Asian families and beliefs. The ancient cultural traditions are deep rooted primarily in religion beliefs and family ethics. Asian families believe that outer knowledge, education and experiences are valued qualities for family members’ individual identity and their development. Therefore, each family wants its potential members need effective travel for experiences and higher education. It has brought a rapid change in the Asian cultural reality. The survey results indicate that a significant portion (14.06%) of respondents who confirm that ‘family styles and family beliefs’ are their fundamental spirit of their outbound travel. Tourist motivation is the combination of needs and desires that acts as a guiding principle to influence persons’ attitudes for travelling. Many families encourage the adoption of sustainable travel practices for their young children or some families realise that their young children have specific travel needs and they arrange accordingly. All these issues largely depend on the concern family status and parental or personal attitudes of the family heads. According to the study survey, 7.81% respondents indicate that they are primarily encouraged by family status and personal attitudes of the family heads. Financial affordability is the key challenge for family travel. The survey report reveals that the highest 26.56% respondents have been inspired to travelling for their higher affordability of family income (Table 14). Children always receive some kind of encouragement to travel from their schools/colleges/institutions because it offers a variety of educational experiences and gives them even greater idea of what is really going on in the world they live in. The survey results show that 1.56% tourists are encouraged by educational institutions in the learning process to enhance their skill gaining motivation (Table 14).

Analysis of Factors Influencing the Growing Motivation …

85

The social contacts between tourists and local residents from different cultural backgrounds raise positive attitudes and mutual understanding toward each other (Amir and Ben-Ari 1985; Nyaupane, Teye, and Paris 2008; Pizam, Uricly, and Reichel 2000; Tucker and Lynch 2004). Family’s social interaction creates bonding to connect with friends, partners and relatives and it strengthens family ties facilitating their level of close social connection. Primarily, 11.98% tourists (Table 14) inform that they have crossed the country boundary due to the family social and cultural connections and henceforth they participate in the adventure tourism. The positive and sound family atmosphere (e.g., open communication, low conflict, emotional bonding, affective involvement in particular matter, etc.) may help taking such challenges as it boost the positive effects on their own feelings and thoughts of wandering the travel motivation. At the same time strong positive psychological characteristics that enable people to pay more attention to an optimal level of undertaking challenges and participants feel safe and confident in the group while they intend to participate in adventure trips. A significant portion (2.61%) of travellers inform that their family positive physical and mental sound atmosphere inspire them to participate outdoor adventure travelling. The parents almost never ignore children’s desires. Children have a major influence on their parents’ travel purchasing decisions because young children are more likely to want to venture farther from home owing to their fast technological development. The survey reveals that 4.69% travellers agree that their children influence on them making final decision of family’s vacation destination. On the other hand, only 3.65% travellers do not mention their family factor choices of outbound travel encouragement (Table 16).

9 Travelling Decision-Making Participation and Degree of Freedom (i) Family and youths’ decision-making role relate to travelling plan A family is a fundamental social unit based on a joint life of close relatives, usually parents and their children (Baleti´c 1995). Families are specific consumers due to the fact that roles in the decision making process are divided among family members [12]. Asian cultural norms, societal standards and family structures have some significant impacts on family and youths in decision-making matters about travelling plan. In Asia, the most purchasing decision of families are affected by some form of family influences depending on husband-dominated, wife-dominated or jointly or even on the person who have the formal/informal right to make the final purchase decision following the family culture. Currently the Asian youths enjoying more degree of freedom compared to older generations. This improvement in the youths’ mentality is caused by the increase of their higher educational qualities, growing of self-reliance, technological development and interactions and chat with friends, mass media or with wider western connections.

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Table 15 Sharing of travel plan with family and degree of freedom in decision-making Age group

Total

Share traveling plan with family

Degree of freedom in decision-making

Yes

Partial

No

Total

Sovereign

Partial

None

15–34

55.73

42.18

7.81

5.73

55.73

24.48

16.15

15.10

35–54

34.90

25.52

5.21

4.17

34.90

20.31

10.41

4.17

55–64

9.37

9.37

0

0

9.37

8.33

1.04

0

Percent

100.0

77.08

13.02

9.90

100.0

53.13

27.60

19.27

Total

192

148

25

19

192

102

53

37

To examine the decision-making cultural traits of families and youths in Asia, some questions were put to identify the status of personal involvement and share the travel plan with family and their loyalty to families. The survey results show (Table 15) that overall 77.08% Asian travellers share their travelling plan with families and respondents partially share 13.02% while only 9.90% respondents do not share the plan at all. The proportions of sharing the travel plan with families are reported by respondents ages 15 to 34 are youths 42.18%, middle aged (35–54) 25.52% and remaining old ages (55+) 9.37%. On the other hand, the proportions of respondents partially share the travel plan with family reported by youths 7.81% and middle-aged 5.21% respondents. None of individual shares the travel plan with family reported by travellers are 5.73% and 4.17% of the same age groups 15–34 and 35–54 respectively. (ii) Youths’ degree of freedom in decision-making and destination choice Consumers’ degree of freedom is one of the core factors in decision-making process. To understand more clearly about the individual’s participatory role in decision making and destination choice, questions were asked. Table 15 shows that among all ages 53.13% respondents answer positive (sovereign) while 19.27% travellers reply absolutely negative (no sovereign). That is, the later segment of respondents implies completely dependent on their families for travel planning and decision-making. The adolescents and young travellers together ages (15–34) are seen (Table 15) completely sovereign with 24.48%, middle aged (35–54) 20.31% and remaining old ages (55+) are 8.33%. The large number of youths’ sovereignty implies that Asians faster socioeconomic development indirectly encourages youths pushing up gradually to be decision-makers alike the westerns for their notable social and mental changes. In fact, the present individual freedom is much higher in Asia compared to earlier years. Compared to Asians, the western young adults enjoy a life of freedom in many areas with no societal restrictions aside from individual choices (Euroculturer, 2014:34). Asians’ increased individualistic thinking acts positively upon youths due to changing of their outlooks and attitudes (D.K. Bhadra, Changing of Asians’ Outlooks). The reason is that more emphasis has given on educational priority and widely use of more social and mass communication network by youths in Asia. ‘The majority of youth travellers is presently or has previously been students (Hilary du

Analysis of Factors Influencing the Growing Motivation …

87

Cros, ARI, Paper 217, 2014)’ and are well-known to ICT usages. More specifically, the economic solvency, education, self-reliance, internet uses, role of social media to blog and chat with friends across the continents and global interactions inspire youths to be more progressive alike westerns. (iii) Some other social factors and ICT technology impacts on youths regarding decision-making Generally, the first time or new outbound travellers have very limited knowledge about the tourism products and hence the available information in internet needs to be accurate for travellers to make their planning, destination choice and decisionmaking. The social network and ICT are widely used by the Asians, especially the youths. Information search and its impact on decision-making is a frequently examined topic in tourism research (Fodness and Murray, 1999; Chen and Gursoy, 2000; Jacobsen and Munar, 2012). According to the survey results (Table 16), 17.19% youths ages from 15 to 34 use the social network for their decision-making and destination choice. Remaining all other users ages 35–64 plus are 13.02%. It implies that youths are predominant users of ICT. It helps them act as ‘quick decision-makers’. On the other hand, the total respondents ages (15–65) are 15.62% who depend on sharing experiences through chat with friends/colleagues before their destination selection, of which 9.37% are youths below 35 years. They are the majority by 1.67 times of the total chatter segment (Table 16). The social media is the effective platform for the company’s brand image publicity of products and destinations for the consumers’ attraction, travel motivation, preference and behaviour. It empowers travellers in preparing accurate travel plan and decision-making through searching for accommodation, food, expenses, transportation and safety while they will be on holidays. The survey reveals that about six percent (5.73%) of respondents below 35 years takes the opportunity of social media before set to travel and remaining of the segment is 4.17% ages 35 to 64 years. In this section, the total respondents using the social media for the product identification, travel planning and destination choice are 9.90% users. Usually the youths are seen also predominant in this section. Major tourists are interested to get benefits more from the cheap flights and better destination services. Among all ages (15–64 plus), 15.62% respondents get mental courage for outbound travel and prioritise their destination attractions and purchasing due to cheap flight opportunity. Among this segment of travellers, 7.29% young tourists age below 35 years avail the opportunity and participate in the planning and decision making process. Rest of the respondents ages 35 to 64 years of this segment are 8.33% who are higher than youths. The present youths have stimulated the strong will-force that come of their long colonial dominance and growing of current societal values, which resulted from the impacts of Asian increased educational advancement, economy, culture and ICT usages (discuss detail earlier). At the same time, from socio-cultural perspective of Asia, the youths have an innovative and self-reliance forces that lead them prepare mental courage for intending their self decision-making practices. Table 16 shows that 5.73% young respondents ages (15–34) below 35 years display their courage

Total

55.73

34.90

9.37

100.0

192

Age group

15–34

35–54

55–64

Percent

Total

58

30.21

2.60

10.42

17.19

Using the social network facility

30

15.62

0

6.25

9.37

Destination chat with friends/collegues

19

9.90

0.52

3.64

5.73

Social media Product information advertisement

30

15.62

2.60

5.73

7.29

Cheap flight Opportunity inspiration

19

9.90

1.04

3.13

5.73

Self-reliance and freedom practice for destination choice

18

9.36

1.56

3.12

4.68

Depend on self-education and pre-experiences

Factors influence on respondents’ destination choice and sovereign decision-making attitudes

Table 16 Factors influence on respondents’ destination choice and sovereign decision-making attitudes

14

7.29

1.04

1.56

4.69

Wide Western connection influence

4

2.08

0

1.04

1.04

Others

88 D. K. Bhadra

Analysis of Factors Influencing the Growing Motivation …

89

keeping up mentally their ‘self-reliance and freedom practices in selecting the tourism destination choice’ compared to 4.17% older respondents ages 35–64 plus. Total 9.36% travellers inform that they completely ‘depend on their self-education and pre-experiences’ in destination choice and travelling decision of which equally half (4.68%) of them are youths age below 35 years. On the other hand, next segment of 4.69% youths below 35 years refer about their ‘western connection’, which inspires them for outbound travel and destination choice and remaining 2.60% are older travellers above 35 years mention the same western connection. Only 2.08% respondents do not mention any reason.

10 Youth Travellers’ Travelling Status and Gaining the Economic Capability (i) Worldwide youth travel status, fascination and adventure tourism attitudes Youth travellers stimulate energy and experiences from travelling. The benefits of travelling bring changes mentally and physically and having a tremendous impacts on creating mental well-being. In adventure tourism, travellers run into challenging situation where they can think differently and even it enhances their more understanding, attention and tolerance about the other cultures. Mostly travellers become more familiar with or bring a new perspective, which is always good way to shine in a social situation, such as eating of local food in a new country provides a new experience with different flavours, which may attract them travelling again and again. The UNWTO estimates that worldwide international tourist arrivals increased 6% to 1.4 billion in 2018. The total 1.3 billion people travelled the world in 2017. In the United States, the Boston Consulting Group reports, the millennial generation, defined as those between the ages 16 and 34, is more interested in traveling abroad as much as possible than that of older ages. The United Nations estimates that 20% of all international tourists, or nearly 200 million travellers, are young people. Presently, with the rise of technology, the worldwide travelers’ traveling habits are going to change along with the change of traveling attitudes. The World Youth Student and Educational (WYSE) Travel Confederation conducted a survey and found that young travelers are not interested in “the traditional sun, sea and sand holidays” as previous generations are. The main reason is that mostly the youths intend to take social and shareable innovative experiences. They are interested to take time-spent holidays exploring the new experiences sometimes taking a short break from their present job or desist from job searching like the westerns. They are more interested in travelling abroad as much as possible working temporary in the trip country for earning money for further travel. This leads to an increase the number of youth tourists worldwide. In Table 17 among all ages of travelers, 16.15% tourists travel for the first time outside the country of which youths ages below 35 are 10.94%, middle ages 35 to 54 years are 5.21%. Travelling in life for the first time may bring unexpected experiences with fear, excitement or conflicting emotions or even tourists may make

90

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Table 17 Travelling frequency of adventure tourists in life Age group

Total

Frequency of travelers’ outbound traveling First time

1–3 times

4–6 times

7 times +

15–34

55.73

10.94

14.58

22.92

7.29

35–54

34.90

5.21

14.07

9.38

6.25

55–64

9.37

0

4.69

2.60

2.08

Percent

100.00

16.15

33.33

34.90

15.62

Total

192

31

64

67

30

silly travel mistakes due to mental unpreparedness or inexperience. This revaluation of travelers may stimulate them mentally for further outbound travelling. Travelling experience in abroad gives long-life personal benefits as well as a leg up of youths in the professional world. Asian youths ages 15 to 34 years are seen together 44.79%, who have gained more than once (1 to 7+) travelling experiences and middle aged (35–54) are 29.70%. Similarly, old-aged travelers (55+) gained multiple travelling experiences are 9.37%. It implies the Asian youths ages 15 to 34 years show their highest travelling attitudes followed by middle-aged travellers. (ii) Travellers’ gaining economic capability and adventure tourism attitudes Asian faster economic growth and the rise of real incomes especially in the middleclasses are favourable for out-burst the number of Asian travellers worldwide. Presently, this growth is more than 16% as obtained from this study survey 2017. The results show that total 16.15% new travellers of all ages is added for the first time to join in the outbound travel. According to the survey results (Table 18), out of total travellers, 30.21% respondents become economically capable for outbound tours during last 1 year while 36.46% tourists have gained the capability 2–4 years ago, 21.35% travellers gain the capacity in between 5–9 years and 11.98% tourists become economically solvent more than 10 years ago. Actually, Asian youths increasingly burst into with the tourism-phobia as they are mostly from some growth-oriented countries of East, South and Southeast Asia and are rushing towards gaining the new experiences with adventures, showing their Table 18 Year of economic capability gained by traveller family for outbound travel Age group

Total

0–1 year

2–4 years

5–9 years

10+ years

15–34

55.73

14.06

20.31

13.54

7.81

35–54

34.90

12.50

13.54

6.73

3.12

55–64

9.37

3.65

2.60

2.08

1.04

Percent

100.0

30.21

36.46

21.35

11.98

Total

192

58

70

41

23

Analysis of Factors Influencing the Growing Motivation …

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intentional interests to nature destinations and fascination to cultures of others worldwide rather than traditional sentiments. The reason is mainly the educated tourists in the number of the middle-income population of Asia are growing with the grown expenditures that has risen remarkably over the last two decades (The rise of Asian Middle-class, ADB forecasts). The surge in the numbers of Asian travelers has to face challenges of travel processing to join in the flow of tourism and even to go beyond overcoming the long racial prejudices. The outbound tourism in Asia is becoming popular among new experience seekers, single destination visitors, experienced tourists and repeat travellers who require a unique experiences of the local cultures. That is why the number of Asian travellers is increasing day by day.

11 Concluding Remarks The present Asian youth’s’ individualism behaviour and practices are revising towards the universal with combination of the past and present social values. This new form of individualism and self concept of Asian youths stimulates them mentally with often outgoing intention to know more and realise the world and the people. Secondly, Due to long influences of Asian cultural traits and traditions, most of Asian travellers commonly move out of home for outbound travel with group or collectively, consist of family or friends/colleagues/mates, or even with partners. This may be a factor of increasing the number of Asian travellers. Many nontravelling form persons are inspired to travel while encouraging conversation takes place between persons of the same social groups or classes. Thirdly, the fundamental differences between the East and Westerns in terms of culture and education have some influences on Asian youths in creating travelling motivations. The basic social difference makes the Asian youths more inquisitive towards the westerns to seeing their culture, social traits, civilisation, built-in society and beauties. Similarly, the westerners are thirst for the East to understand the Asian spirit of life and living, which may be the important factor of rising the number of youth travellers globally. Fourthly, for tourism development and succession of receiving more tourists in country, worldwide many governments make business deals or enhance regional cooperation among them for providing supports to make easy cross-border and visaprocess for attracting international tourists. The international cross-border opportunities are creating more incentive to Asian youths to move out of homes to explore the world amazing beauties, socities and cultures. Lastly, high ambitions of Asian youths and dreaming for higher education from developing to developed countries, employment and settlement opportunities abroad also act as migratory tourist intention, which may lead to increase the number of Asian youth tourists.

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References 1. UNWTO.: Global report on adventure tourism. ATTrade Association, UNWTO, Madrid, Spain. www.Adventuretravel.biz (2014) 2. The global report on the power of youth travel, vol. 13. UNWTO & WYSE Travel Confederation, Spain (2016) 3. Swarbrooke, J., Beard, C., Leckie, S., Pomfret, G.: The adventure tourism. The New Frontier Group, New York, USA (2011) 4. Asia: Human Geography.: Natl. Geogr. Soc. 99 (2018) 5. United Nations.: Geographic regions and LANGUP, Endangered languages of Asia (2018) 6. Chihara, D.:Hindu-Buddhist architecture in Southeast Asia (2018) 7. Acharya, A.: Southeast Asia: Imagining the region (2018) 8. Jing, H.: The rise of Asia: implications and challenges (2016) 9. United Nations Children’s Fund.: Adolescent development in East Asia and the pacific: realizing their potential. UNICEF, New York (2006) 10. Elsrud, T.: Risk creation in traveling: backpacker adventure narration. Ann. Tour. Res. 28(3) (2001) 11. Ewert, A.W., Hollenhorst, S.J.: Adventure recreation & its implications for wilderness. J. Res. 21(2) (1989) 12. Srnec, T., Lonˇcari´c, D., Periši´c Prodan, M.: Family vacation decision making process: 2016, Congress Proceedings. pp. 432–445 (2016) 13. UNWTO.: Asian tourism trend, global tourism economic research centre. Madrid, Spain (2017) 14. IMF World Economic Outlook.: World Economic Forum (2016) 15. Samuelsen, R.: Adventure tourism, a place undiscovered (2017) 16. TTRA: Advancing tourism research globally 2013 marketing outlook forum—outlook for 2014. University of Massachusetts, USA (2014) 17. Sanz de Acedo Lizarraga: Factors that affect decision-making: gender & age differences. J. Psychol. Ther. 7(3), 381–39 (2007) 18. Richards, G.: Youth and adventure tourism, tourism business frontiers, pp. 40–47. Tilburg University, Spain (2006) 19. Baumeister, R.F., Masicampo, E.J.: Conscious thought is for facilitating social and cultural interactions. Psychol. Rev. 117, 945–971 (2010) 20. The global report on the power of youth travel, vol. 13. UNWTO & World Youth Student and Educational (WYSE) Travel Confederation, Spain (2016) 21. Adolescent development in East Asia and the pacific: Realizing their potential, United Nations Children’s fund. UNCEF, New York (2006) 22. Beard, C., Swarbrooke, J., Leckie, S.: Adventure and adventure tourism, p. 28, Canadian Tourism Commission (cited in Loverseed, 1997), (2012) 23. Kane, M.J.: (2004) Adventure tourism: The freedom to play with reality. Tour. Stud. 4(3), 217–234 (2004) 24. Naidoon, P et al.: Investigating the motivation of the baby boomers for adventure tourism, International Conference, 2014, Madrid, Spain (2014) 25. Gavazzi, S.M.: Family Development Theory, citation 427, Human Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA (2016)

The Characteristics and Trends of Tourism Development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Doudou Bi and Wanrong Tian

Abstract This paper studies the tourism products development advantages and trends in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The tourism economic development of the area is described. The characteristics and advantages of this specific areas in tourism development are summarized. They include the policy advantages, efficient multi-dimensional transportation system, rich tourism resource, fast passenger entry and exit, etc. Typical tourism products are identified in the area such as urban sightseeing products, coastal and rural leisure tourism products etc. The paper reports the acceleration the emergence of high-end tourism products and so called “intelligent tourism product” in this area along the “smart tourism bell” supported by high-tech and other scientific technological resources in this area. Keywords Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area · Tourism products · Opportunities and trends of tourism development

1 Introduction The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is a new concept of “the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road” for regional cooperation in China between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, and is also an essential component and driving force of the national development strategy. The bay area is composed of two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao and nine cities in Guangdong Province, including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Zhaoqing, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan and Jiangmen, which seems as one of the most economically dynamic and highest degree of opening up areas in China. As a national development strategy, the bay area undertakes both the leading role of China’s economic development, and the pioneer of the open economic system. Due to the rapid economic growth, the bay area has become one of the four major Bay Areas in the world (side by side with New York Bay Area, San Francisco Bay Area and Tokyo Bay Area). At the deliberations of the Guangdong Delegation at the D. Bi (B) · W. Tian South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 Y. Luo et al. (eds.), Tourism Product Development in China, Asian and European Countries, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4447-7_5

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First Session of the 13th National People’s Congress, Chairman Xi Jinping proposed that “we should firmly seize the important opportunity for the development, and establish the bay area into an international first-class bay area”, which pointed out the direction for the economic development of the bay area. The construction of the bay area is the implementation of China’s advocacy of the Belt and Road Initiative, and the practical exploration of one country, two systems. In the past, literature in East Asia frequently regarded countries as the most important driving force for regional economic development, but later the scholars found that, in fact the support of the country is solely a sufficient condition for regional economic development [1]. After the research on the relationship between industrial cluster and regional economic development, the scholars hold the view that the rise and fall of an industry in a certain region largely depend on the development of the local industry cluster [2]. In accordance with the cluster theory and case study, it proves that there is a positive correlation between the industrial development and industrial cluster [3]. Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao are close in location and share a common origin of language and culture and have a good basis for cooperation. The key to the economic growth of coastal areas is to enhance the competitiveness of tourism [4]. Simultaneously, tourism, as a national industry which shows a high degree of inclusive and opening up, plays an important role in the cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao as well as the establishment of a new system of an open economy in China. Furthermore, the sustainable development of tourism has a significant positive impact on transportation and regional development [5]. Scholars in China call the cooperation among tourist destinations as “regional tourism” [6], and research the regional tourism of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and other regional tourism destination in the integration mode [7], the driving mechanism of cooperation and innovative development [8, 9], the role of tourist destination image and a communication strategy [10, 11]. The domestic researches on the bay area can be divided into two aspects: the coordinated development of different industries in the bay area, such as infrastructure, scientific innovation and cultural integration; and the integrated and coordinated development mechanism, resource integration and allocation of the bay area [12]. At present, the study of the bay area in China mainly gives priority to the vital areas and development paths of the bay area by using the theory of economics and management. There is not much research in the area of development advantages, tourism products or development trends of the bay area, tourism which is based on the development achievements recently of the bay area. In fact, singly by dynamically exploring and customizing its work plan and development policies according to the specific situation of development currently and situation of the bay area, can we strengthen complementary advantages and promote a new pattern of coordinated development of tourism in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao to develop suitable tourism products for the customers.

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2 Tourism Economic Development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area The cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area have complementary advantages, and each city has its own unique industrial characteristics. Hong Kong is China’s international financial center, shipping center and important trade center. Shenzhen has outstanding advantages of technological innovation and is also one of the shipping centers in China. Dongguan, Foshan, Zhongshan and Jiangmen are centered on the manufacturing industry, of which Dongguan is mainly foreign trade, and Foshan is mainly domestic trade, forming a good combination of trade flows. Jiangmen mainly focuses on traditional manufacturing, and Zhongshan’s manufacturing has great advantages in electrical machinery, textiles and clothing. Zhuhai and Zhaoqing are below the expanse, and are expected to make breakthroughs in manufacturing under the circumstances of the Zhuhai-Hong Kong-Macao Bridge and form a coordinated development of economy and environment. Huizhou is based on electronics manufacturing and petrochemical industries. Macau’s gambling and its entertainment industry have been the backbone of investment development. As a long-standing trade center in China, Guangzhou is also the cultural, medical and logistics center of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. In 2018, the GDP of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area exceeded 10.8 trillion RMB, exceeding the total economic volume of South Korea and Russia during the same period. In the bay area, Shenzhen’s GDP is the highest, reaching 2422.19 billion RMB, accounting for 22.9% of the total economic volume of the bay area. In the future, Shenzhen will be a national innovative center, and strive to become a creative and technological capital with worldwide influence. Hong Kong’s GDP accounts for 22.1% of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, ranking second. As an important link of China’s opening to the outside world, Hong Kong plays an important role as a bridge for outward development and inward integration. At the same time, Hong Kong will also play its important role as an international financial center, a trade center and shipping center to promote the trade development of the bay area. In 2018, Guangzhou’s GDP was 2,258.935 billion RMB, and the actual annual GDP growth rate reached 6.2%, accounting for 21.03% of the total GDP of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. As one of China’s central cities, Guangzhou plays an indispensable role in comprehensively enhancing international trade, giving play to comprehensive transportation hubs and scientific and cultural centers. With the continuously deepening of tourism cooperation among cities in the bay area, Guangdong’s tourism industry has become one of the areas with the highest degree of cooperation with Hong Kong and Macau and the most dynamic service trade area. In 2017, the tourism revenue of the nine mainland cities in the bay area reached 8.2192 trillion RMB, more than 80% of the total revenue of Guangdong Province. From the perspective of the tourism market, tourism activities within the bay area are frequent, and tourism revenue in first-tier cities accounts for half of the overall tourism revenue of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. In

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2017, the tourism revenue of the bay area urban agglomeration reached 1.1 trillion RMB, accounting for 21% of China’s total tourism revenue. Among the 11 cities in the bay area, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shenzhen have the most prominent tourism revenues. The combined tourism revenue of them accounts for 67% of the total tourism revenue of the bay area, and 14.07% of the total national tourism revenue. Judging from the growth rate of tourism revenue, the tourism revenue of secondand third-tier cities in the bay area is growing faster. Among them, Macau, Zhongshan and Zhuhai’s tourism revenue growth rate exceeded 16%, Huizhou and Jiangmen’s tourism revenue growth rate reached as high as 21% and 20%, far exceeding the national tourism revenue growth rate of 15% in 2017. In contrast, Hong Kong, Guangdong, and Shenzhen have shown weaker tourism revenue growth. In terms of tourist receptions, the total number of tourist receptions in the bay area in 2017 accounted for 14% of the total number of tourist receptions in China Among the nine cities and the two special administrative regions, Guangzhou and Shenzhen had the highest number of tourists, with 204 million and 130 million, respectively. The number of overnight visitors to Hong Kong and Macao in Guangdong Province has increased from 20.32 million in 2014 to 25.01 million in 2017, which has been increasing year by year. Guangdong has become an important city for connecting tourists with Hong Kong and Macau. In general, tourism revenue and number of tourists indicate the imbalance of tourism among the cities in the bay area. First of all, the tourism development in Guangdong is not balanced. The tourism economy in the northwest of Guangdong is far behind that in the Pearl River Delta, which is mainly reflected in the resources, environment, location and other basic conditions of tourism development and public services. Secondly, the tourism economy in Guangdong is obviously far behind that in Hong Kong and Macao, which mainly reflected in the stage of tourism development and the level of internationalization (Fig. 1 and Table 1). Fig. 1 The proportion of tourism revenue of each city in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to the total tourism revenue (2017)

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Table 1 Tourism receipts and tourist arrivals of all cities in the bay area (2017–2018) City

Tourism revenue (100 million yuan)

Growth rate of tourism revenue (%)

Tourist reception (100 million)

2017

2018

Guangzhou

3614.21

Foshan Zhaoqing Shenzhen Dongguan Huizhou

Growth rate of tourist reception (%)

2017

2018

4008.19

10.90

2.04

2.23

9.32

709.66

809.14

14.00

0.49

0.54

10

308

/

/

0.13

/

/

488.9

1069.01

8.32

1.3

1.39

5.97

5293

5293

8.28

0.41

0.44

7.05

439.28

501.63

14.20

0.54

0.59

9.30

Zhuhai

367.7

466.16

26.80

0.4

0.43

8.30

Zhongshan

287

294.01

2.33

0.13

0.14

5.90

Jiangmen

492.53

587.48

19.30

0.57

0.65

13.43

Hong Kong

2562

2942.02

14.00

0.58

0.65

11.40

Macao

613.2

/

/

0.33

/

/

3 Characteristics of Tourism Development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area 3.1 Policy Advantages Contribute to a Good Development Background With the continuous deepening of reform and opening up, in order to meet the needs of the China’s current stage of economic transformation and sustainable development, the concept of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has been introduced to the national strategic status, and the bay area has also benefited from national and regional government policies and has received a lot of support in the development of tourism. Since 2003, the importance of cooperation and development between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao has been increasing. So far, China has issued a number of policies to promote the integrated development of the bay area. The 13th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China (2016) and 13th five year plan of Guangzhou both mentioned that the focus on building a world-class city cluster in the Greater Pearl River Delta, promoting the construction of major platforms in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and inter-provincial regions to create a livable and workable environment and develop the economy of the bay area with global influence and competitiveness is indispensable for going through the decisive stage in finishing building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. In 2017, the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and Framework Agreement on

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Deepening Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Cooperation to Promote the Construction of the bay area clearly stated that with the support of relevant central authorities, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau will build a world-class bay area and a worldclass city group, and integrate Hong Kong and Macau into the situation of overall national development. The agreement clearly puts forward the requirement of scientific planning for the construction of the bay area, which means that building the bay area has risen to the level of national strategy. Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (2019) officially confirmed the positioning of the four major cities of Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen in the bay area, and put forward new requirements for the collaborative innovation development of the bay area in promoting innovation and technology corridor construction, transportation construction, urban cooperation, important time nodes and the construction of financial services in the bay area. Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau have been developed from a region that can be highly coordinated and coordinated, to the level of national strategic; the proposed policies provide valuable direction guidance and development standards for the bay area. From the metropolitan area of the city to the world-class urban agglomerations, then the improvement of cross-border infrastructure and the creation of a world-class bay area that is livable and travelable, the bay area is being guided by policies and is developing in the direction of synergy, integration and co-construction of the three places.

3.2 Suitable Climate Makes the Bay Area One of the Top Livable and Accessible Bay Areas Climate is an important resource for tourism. The subtropical monsoon climate makes the bay area an attractive tourist destination with long summers and short winters. The bay area has an excellent climate, humid air, lush vegetation, and suitable environments, which is one of the most livable areas that people often choose. In 2018, the average temperature of the bay area was 22.9°, 0.4° higher than usual, and the average precipitation was 2072.8 mm. The average haze day in the Pearl River Delta was 38.1 days, a decrease of 1.5 days compared to 2017, of which Guangzhou averaged 32.4 days, a decrease of 1.8 days compared to 2017, which was far below the national average of haze days. Under such climatic conditions, the bay area is one of the most climate-friendly, most livable, and livable bay areas in the world. The bay area has a good climate service guarantee work system, which has laid a good foundation for people’s well-being, harmonious and stable social relations, major strategies and sustainable and healthy economic development.

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3.3 Multi-dimensional Transportation of Land, Sea and Air Is an Important Link for Communication Between the Bay Area and the Outside World In terms of air transportation, as an international trade center and a global production organization, the bay area has a global network of international hub airports and international shipping companies, forming Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong airports as three major international aviation hubs. The airport group with Lianxi Airport, Huizhou Airport, and Macau-Zhuhai Combined Airport as the auxiliary network is responsible for various functions of regional radiation [13], with a total tourist throughput of 2016.76 million passengers. The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the Second Humen Bridge and the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Tunnel connect the sea-crossing paths of Hong Kong-ZhuhaiMacau, Nansha to Dongguan, and Shenzhen to Zhongshan. The construction of multiple trans-sea transportation lines has effectively promoted the exchanges between the east and west sides of the Pearl River. In terms of land traffic accessibility, the bay area moved from a single node closed development of transportation to a transportation corridor development, increasing the convenience of regional transportation [14]. The existing high-speed rail lines from Guangzhou South Station to Zhuhai Station and Guangzhou South Station to Shenzhen North Station have truly realized the one-hour economic circle of the Pearl River Delta. In terms of water transportation, the bay area is exploring new modes of cruise economy development, enriching international cruise tourism routes, simplifying tourist entry procedures, developing fast direct routes from Shenzhen Qianhai to Zhuhai, Zhongshan, Hong Kong, and Macau, and exploring opening up Hong Kong-Shenzhen-Huizhou-Shanwei marine tourism routes and other common sense, and strive to build the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area marine transportation system to meet the diverse needs of tourists and foreign trade.

3.4 Diversified Combination of Tourism Industry Resources The advantages of various tourism resource combinations in the bay area, the development of a complete tourism reception system, leading tourism companies and the convention and exhibition industry have laid a solid foundation for the tourism industry system in the bay area. Take Guangdong Province as an example, by the end of 2015, Guangdong Province ranked 12th in China’s tourism destination brand competitiveness list, with 1 World Cultural Heritage, 1 World Natural Heritage, 1 World Cultural Heritage, 11 5A-scenic-spots, 152 4A-scenic-spots, and 8 national geology parks [15]. Lingnan culture and Lingnan cuisine have added attractiveness to the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as a tourist destination. In terms of the scale of travel agencies, Shenzhen ranked first

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in the number of travel agencies in the bay area with a total of 692 hostels. Travel agencies in Guangzhou and Shenzhen showed strong strength in group travel [16]. Leading companies in the tourism industry are also playing an increasingly prominent role. China Tourism Group already has a good business layout in the bay area, and has used the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong High Speed Rail to actively promote the coordinated development of the region: cross-border direct bus routes to Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, splendid theme parks such as Splendid China, Window of the World, 6 hotels and tourism projects such as Zhuhai Haiquan Bay Resort. At the same time, it also relies on the advantages of the bay area as a financial center to carry out value-added businesses around tourism, such as tourism real estate, tourism insurance, and tourism industry funds. Guangzhou Lingnan Int’ Enterprise Group Co. Ltd is focusing on the integration of resources in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, promoting the integration of conventions and exhibitions, increasing investment and construction of important meetings in the bay area, and providing related facilities and services.

3.5 Active Exit and Entry Markets Have Led to Rapid Growth of the Industry In 2016, nine cities in the Pearl River Delta received 33 million overnight visitors, accounting for 55.7% of the national entry market. As a pioneer in China’s reform and opening up, the Pearl River Delta played a pivotal role in China’s tourism market. And the tourism organization and distribution functions of Hong Kong and Macao far exceed the nine cities of the Pearl River Delta. And the tourism organization and distribution functions of Hong Kong and Macao far exceed the nine cities of the Pearl River Delta. Hong Kong received 26.653 million overnight tourists, accounting for 80% of the number of overnight visitors to the Pearl River Delta during the same period. Macau, with an average annual market share of 21%, far exceeded the nine cities in the Pearl River Delta. Driven by the developed tourism industries of Hong Kong and Macau, the total tourism revenue of 11 cities in the bay area exceeded 1.1 trillion RMB in 2017, and the tourism industry in Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Foshan and Macau was the most prominent. The industrial scale of second- and thirdtier cities such as Jiangmen and Huizhou is also growing rapidly. A strong tourism market is an important economic basis for the upgrading of tourism products and industrial optimization in the bay area.

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4 Typical Tourism Products in in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area 4.1 Urban Sightseeing Products Influenced by History and Culture Due to historical reasons, the urban landscapes of Hong Kong and Macao are deeply influenced by foreign cultures, and the buildings of various styles have both historical charm and exotic customs. The famous landmarks of Hong Kong, such as the Government House which has a 200-year architectural history, the highest building complex Nina Tower, attracts a large number of tourists from both inside and outside Hong Kong for sightseeing. Macau has the famous sightseeing tower Macau Sightseeing Tower, full of affluent religious atmosphere of the Ruins of the Cathedral of Saint Paul and Fortaleza do Monte built in 1616 AD Fort as its tourist attractions and symbols of the image. Under the influence of Lingnan culture, cities in Guangdong have many unique groups of historical architecture. The bay area is rich in sightseeing tourism resources which give birth to a series of urban tourism products. The City Sightseeing Bus in Guangzhou is designed into Xiguan-Style line, the Ancient City line, the City Axis line, leading the tourists to visit the distinctive areas of the city, introducing its culture and landscapes, covering the main areas of Guangzhou tour. Meanwhile, the travel agencies and OTA platform are also willing to develop tourism routes based on the scenery of the cities to be the their tourism products.

4.2 Seaside Leisure Products Relying on Natural Resource Advantages The bay area has plentiful coastal leisure tourism resources with a natural bay, the total length of its coastline is 3201 km. The Advanced tourism equipment manufacturing provides sufficient infrastructure and tourism products for local seashore leisure tourism. The development of cruise tourism in Hong Kong and Macau is relatively early and with mature experience, which has served as a model for other cities in the bay area. Under the leadership of Hong Kong and Macau, Nansha Cruise Home Port, which is under the construction in Guangzhou, is an important attempt to explore the international cruise tourism products in the bay area. In order to build Zhuhai Wanshan Coastal Tourism Demonstration Zone, Zhuhai Wanshan Marine Development Pilot Zone will build Marine Industrial Tourism Areas, Marine Ecological Protection Areas and Marine Integrated Service Guarantee Bases. At the same time, Zhuhai Wanshan is actively developing coastal weddings, coastal sightseeing and international marine fishing brands to promote the development of high-end marine coastal tourism and leisure destinations. Under the guidance of national policies, coastal tourism will be an important development direction of the bay area in

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the future, and more seashore leisure tourism towns and maritime tourism routes will also be developed to meet the needs of the tourists.

4.3 Rural Tourism Products with Leisure Experience Value The villages in the bay area have their own characteristics due to the influence of Hakka culture and Minnan culture. With the rapid development of urbanization, the development of rural tourism under synthetic consideration of resource combination, line combination, industrial integration and industrial agglomeration is the research focus of tourism planners. As a model of rural tourism, Jiangmen has extended the leisure service value chain based on the value of traditional agricultural products. For the target customers in the three-hour economic circle of the bay area, Jiangmen has constructed rural tourism products that integrate ecological wellness products, rural pastoral tourism products, experiential agriculture products, and rural cultural experience products into an agricultural Ecology-Production-Life Industrial development model to create a characteristic tourism brand in the bay area.

4.4 Recreation Tourism Products Based on Hot Spring Leisure Hot spring leisure is characterized by health preservation, which integrates conference services, tourism and leisure, and has become a hot spot of tourism and vacation in the 21st century. With the improvement of living standards and economic level in the bay area, sightseeing tourism is gradually transforming into leisure tourism, and various effects such as medical care make hot spring tourism an important part of leisure tourism. The bay area is rich in geothermal resources and has great potential for development and utilization. Except for Dongguan, hot spring resources have been found in all other regions, and the hot springs are mainly in medium and high temperature, which are more suitable for health care projects. The development of hot spring resorts has improved the service level of hot spring tourism, mainly meeting the needs of three types of tourists: conferences, leisure and self-driving tours. At the same time, real estate development has brought hot spring leisure to a new stage. Due to the scarcity of hot spring resources in the cities and the good local natural environment, hot spring villas have become typical representatives of holiday products in the bay area.

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5 Tourism Development Trend in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area 5.1 New Tourism Formats Accelerate the Emergence of High-End Tourism Products The continuous innovation of tourism in the bay area and the continuous emergence of new business formats have spawned a number of high-quality tourism products. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Department issued the development plan for Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, pointing out that the bay area will focus on key areas and development shortcomings of service industry, so as to extend the producer services to the high-end of the value chain, and transform health services and family services to high-quality and meticulous. Relying on the abundant marine resources and marine industry chain, the bay area has promoted the construction of international cruise home ports in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou in an orderly manner, and has promoted the development of the cruise industry and coastal tourism resort towns. In the context of integrated development, the bay area relies on the unique historical and cultural advantages of the district to organically integrate resources into a Cultural Tourism IP to create a world-class leisure and a recreation center. As one of the regions with the highest level of domestic consumption, the bay area is integrating local characteristic tourism resources, exploring tourism products on the theme of leisure, retirement and wellbeing, actively promoting the upgrade of leisure tourism, and building large-scale leisure and well-being vacation projects with ecological leisure which is transforming from a single wellness project to a composite tourism resort area. With the implementation of the development plan by local governments, the bay area will enrich the layout of high-end products in cultural tourism, leisure vacations, health care, cruise yachts, and build world-class tourism destinations.

5.2 A Unified Tourism Image Will Be Created While continuously innovating and exploring new tourism formats and high-end products, cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area are also jointly establishing tourism destinations and tourism brand marketing to establish a unified tourism image in the bay area, also the brand effect is gradually beginning to emerge. In 2017, the comprehensive tourism cooperation and innovation organization Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Cities Federation was established, which means that the tourism synergy between the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has expanded from the cooperation between the three tourism authorities to 11 cities [17]. The relevant person in charge of the Macau Tourism

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Administration stated that in the World Tourism Economic Forum, Guangzhou will be the main guest province to promote tourism and investment cooperation in the bay area. The Zhuhai Tourism Bureau will continue to integrate tourism resources, promote Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao multi-stop tourism products and routes, enhance the image of tourist destinations, and promote the mutual delivery of tourists and the joint construction of markets in the bay area.

5.3 Coastal Tourism Development Under the Influence of Hong Kong and Macau Based on the advantages of Hong Kong’s international transportation hub, rich marine resources and suitable climate conditions, combined with the affluent product portfolio of cruise tourism, yacht tourism, leisure clothing and vacation, the bay area will develop the coastal tourism area and tourism routes under the guidance of policies. As the birthplace of Asian yachting culture, Hong Kong has a mature yachting industry whit perfect organization and management capabilities, which is also at the forefront of the world in the yacht service industry and club operations, leading the development of coastal tourism in the bay area. Macau attracted 26 countries and more than 50 outstanding brands to participate in the exhibition in 2018 Macau International Boat Show, and held an industry forum to discuss coastal tourism management and the development of featured yacht tourism. Accelerating the comprehensive three-dimensional tourism development of Ocean-Island-Coast, exploring the overall development of non-resident islands with tourism services as the main function, and operating a Hong Kong-ShenzhenHuizhou-Shanwei maritime tourism route, are all positive attempts of the bay area to develop high-quality coastal tourism.

5.4 Intelligent Tourism Will Be Widely Applied According to the development plan for Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, it is necessary to promote the construction of the bay area, especially the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Macau Science and Technology Innovation Corridor. Exploring the cross-regional flow of new factors and jointly establishing the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Big Data Center and international innovation platforms are central to build the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Smart Tourism Belt. With the development of communication technology, 5G technology has injected new vitality into the evolution of tourism in the bay area. In addition to the categories of tourism products such as VR and AI, 5G technology will also cultivate high-level and high-quality tourism service personnel and enhance the travel experience of tourists.

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The establishment of intelligence tourism information service systems, intelligence travel agencies, intelligence tourism e-commerce and other systems, and the implementation of intelligence hotels, intelligence tourism villages and other projects, will enable tourism in the bay area more ‘smart’, thereby promoting the innovation and development of tourism consumption and the strengthening of regional cooperation.

5.5 Resources Will Be Integrated from a Global Perspective The concept of all-for-one tourism and the Belt and Road Initiative provide new ideas for the evaluating of the bay area. In terms of public infrastructure, the GuangzhouShenzhen-Hong Kong high-speed Railway was guided to develop a Multi-stop product which take Hong Kong as a tourism hub and core demonstration area. At the same time, the effective integration of tourism resources has also brought domestic and foreign tourists a more efficient and colorful travel experience. In terms of format integration, the emergence of new formats in the bay area has also added vitality to the development of the tourism industry. ‘Tourism + Sports’ project, such as the Guangzhou Marathon, was selected as the National Sports Tourism Quality Tournament. Zhuhai is focusing on low-altitude tourism, opening up helicopter island tourism, and injecting new elements into traditional island tourism. In the future, the resources of the bay area will break administrative boundaries, be optimized and integrated, and have a completely new layout. Regional economic and social resources, especially tourism resources, tourism industry and related industries, ecological environment, public services, policies and regulations, civilization and other aspects will be comprehensively improved. The comprehensive and systematic optimization and promotion of Bay Area resources, the development concepts and models of organic integration of regional resources, integrated industrial development and social co-construction and sharing will be realized.

6 Conclusions With the successful implementation of one country, two systems and the strategic support of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, the bay area has received increasing attention from the Chinese government and has now been elevated to the level of national policy. Due to its superior geographical location and strong economic activity, the bay area is an important link for China’s opening up to the outside world and a fertile ground for the development of its tourism industry. Under the influence of superior policies, suitable climate, multi-dimensional transportation, abundant tourism resources and the active tourism market, the tourism industry in the bay area has developed rapidly. Together with these advantages, different tourism products have been produced based on local tourism resources, such

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as city tourism products affected by history and culture, coastal tourism products relying on natural good bays, leisure tourism products represented by hot spring tourism, and rural tourism products with leisure experience value which have injected into the tourism industry of the bay area with fresh vitality. With the guidance of policies and the continuous development of technology and changes in consumer demand, the following trends in tourism development may emerge in the bay area: the coming out of new tourism formats leading to the appearance of high-end tourism products, the emergence of the combined tourism image of the bay area, the upgrade of coastal tourism, the widely application of smart tourism and the optimization and integration of regional resources. Of course, with the rapid development of tourism in the bay area, its tourism products are also undergoing rapid changes. Keeping an eye on new tourism formats and developing tourism products that attract customers’ attention, is the focus that tourism practitioners should pay attention to.

References 1. Yeung, H.W.-C.: Regional development and the competitive dynamics of global production networks: an East Asian perspective. Reg. Stud. 43, 325–351 (2009) 2. Neffke, F., Henning, M., Boschma, R.: How do regions diversify over time? Industry relatedness and the development of new growth paths in regions. Econ. Geogr. 87, 237–265 (2011) 3. Julie, J., Peter, M.: Clusters in regional tourism—an Australian case. Ann. Tour. Res. 33, 1018–1035 (2006) 4. Klein, Y.L., Osleeb, J.P., Viola, M.R.: Tourism-generated earnings in the coastal zone: a regional analysis. J. Coastal Res. 20, 1080–1088 (2004) 5. Klein, Y.L., Osleeb, J.P., Viola, M.R.: Tourism governance and sustainable national development in China: a macro-level synthesis. J. Sustain. Tour. 20, 1080–1088 (2004) 6. Wu, B.: Principles of regional tourism planning, pp. 345,348–353. China Tourism Press, Beijing (2001) 7. Liu, X.: Integration mechanism and degree of tourism industry. Yunnan University (2016) 8. Xiaolong, L., Jianfa, S.: Models of inter-city cooperation and its theoretical implications: an empirical study on the Yangtze River Delta. Acta Geogr. Sin. 02, 115–126 (2007) 9. Jiang, J., Li, H., Jiang, T.: Innovation in regional tourism cooperation in Pan-Pearl River Delta area based on a relational model of ability structure. Tour. Trib. 32(10), 67–77 (2017) 10. Pang, X.: Coordinated development of regional tourism economy based on tourism brand sharing. Northeast Normal University (2014) 11. Liu, D.: Brand promotion strategy of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cultural tourism from the perspective of well-off culture. New Media Res. 5(17), 109–110 (2019) 12. Zhang, J., Ning, L.: Tourism development strategy of the Guangdong-Hong Kong- Macao Greater Bay Area based on SWOT analysis. Contemp. Econ. (04), 126–131 (2019) 13. Cao, X., Yan, X.: Analysis of the characteristics of intercity transport links in the Pearl River Delta. Hum. Geogr. (1), 87–89 (2013) 14. Cao, X.: Study on the spatial evolution of the corridor in the mega-city of Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Commercial Press, Beijing (2006) 15. Kaijun, W.: Research on brand competitiveness of provincial tourism destinations in mainland China—a visual perspective of world-class and national scenic spot brands. Econ. Manag. J. 38(06), 154–165 (2016)

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16. Kaijun, W.: Development of tourism in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the way to improve its competitive advantage. Soc. Sci. Guangxi 04, 74–80 (2019) 17. Liang, J., Liu, S.: The elements and paths for tourism brand co-construction of GuangdongHong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. J. South China Univ. Technol. (Social Science Edition) 21(05), 12–19 (2019)

Open Chinese Tourism Market for Coastal Destinations in Spain—Taking Majorca Island as an Example Yijing Tan and Shangqi Huang

Abstract The 3S (Sea Sand Sun) tourism in Spain is well-known all over the world, with its abundant coastal tourist resources, early and well-developed system and facilities. However, for Chinese and Asian tourism market, the attraction of Spain and most of its tourist products are limited in historical attractions, city sightseeing and shopping, while its coastal tourism is still to be developed. This paper takes Majorca Island of Spain as an example and is based on the experience of a Chinese tourist mediator in Majorca. It will analyze from the perspective of destination, about attractive characteristics of coastal tourism in Spain, and from the perspective of original market about the needs and preferences of Chinese tourists for coastal tourism. By combining the two aspects, relevant suggestions will be made on how to open the Chinese market for Spanish coastal tourist destinations. This paper tries to provide certain references for the development of tourist sources in Spain and European coastal tourist destinations. Keywords Coastal tourism · Tourism marketing · Chinese tourists market · Majorca island · Spain tourism

1 Introduction Spain is a country with the most tourist competitiveness in the world. The abundant tourist resources, mature tourist industry, hospitable people and so on attract tourists from all over the world. Meanwhile, China is the biggest tourist exporting country. Chinese tourists have the highest consumption level and purchase power in the world [1]. According to the big data report of Chinese tourists travel to Europe 2018, the most popular European tourist attractions among Chinese tourists according to the attractions tickets income of Ctrip [2] are as the Table 1. Y. Tan (B) Jing Pin Mallorca, Mallorca, Spain e-mail: [email protected] S. Huang University of Balearic Islands, Palma de Mallorca, Spain e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 Y. Luo et al. (eds.), Tourism Product Development in China, Asian and European Countries, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4447-7_6

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Table 1 The most popular European tourist attractions among Chinese tourists in 2018 No.

Tourist attractions

Nation

No.

Tourist attractions

Nation

1

La Sagrada Familia

Spain

6

Casa Mila

Spain

2

Musée du Louvre

France

7

Parque Güell

Spain

3

Paris Disneyland

France

8

Versailles Palace

France

4

Casa Batlló

Spain

9

Madrid Palace

Spain

5

The London Eye

England

Vatican Museum & Colosseum

Italy

10

We can see how attractive Spain is to Chinese tourists with half of the list occupied by Spanish attractions. The tourist sites above are mainly historical attractions, which shows that to Chinese and even Asian tourist market, currently the main attraction and the mayor tourist products are still limited to historical sites, city sightseeing and shopping. In fact, in addition to the abundant cultural tourist resources, the 3S tourism (Sun, Sea, Sand) in Spain is also well-known all over the world. Its coastal tourist resources are rich, early-started and mature. Spain has a coastal length of 4,964 km, 21 coastal zones with each one has its own characteristics. For example, the Costa del Sol in the South is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Mediterranean; the Costa de Vasca in the North has many famous beaches which makes it one of the most popular tourist spots in the North of Spain; The La Muralla Roja in Calpe, which is in Costa de Blanca, has gradually become a favourite choice for Chinese young tourists in recent years; and Balearic Island and Canarian Island, located in Mediterranean and Atlantic respectively, are the two major Spanish islands of holiday paradise. However, those abundant coastal tourist destinations are unfamiliar to Chinese tourists. Therefore, studying how to open the Chinese tourist market with Spanish coastal destinations is meaningful to enrich Spanish tourist products and promote remote sources development in coastal tourism destinations in Spain and Europe.

2 Research Overview There are not specific researches about Chinese tourists travelling to the coastline destinations of Spain. How-ever, there are some relevant researches. Theses relevant researches investigate Chinese travelers to long distance oversea counties. Mostly researches are about the behavior, motivations or characteristics of Chinese travelers to visit these destinations. For example, Jessica, M. P. and Giacomo, D. C. analyze Chinese travelers’ motivations to visit Europe: Push factors (desire to find novelty, to relax, to express social status and prestige, and to satisfy what is defined as a “life-long dream”) and pull factors (experiencing different cultures and landscapes, learning about local history and typical food, attending events) [3]. Prayag,

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G., Cohen, S. A. and Yan, H. also analyze segmenting motivations and service expectations of potential Chinese travelers to Western Europe. They find that backpackers as a discrete group as the outbound Chinese market [4]. Li, X., Meng, F., Uysal, M. and Mihalik, B. find that g China’s long-haul outbound travelers can be classified into three segment members: Entertainment/Adventure Seekers, Life-seeing Experience/Culture Explorers, and Relaxation/Knowledge Seekers [5]. Chang, R. C. Y., Kivela, J. and Mak, A. H. N. point out that food reference is Chinese tourists’ characteristic [6]. Wei, X., Meng, F. and Zhang, P. find out Europe/the USA are more attractive to young, better-educated Chinese people with higher income and more leisure (vacation) time [7]. In conclusion, although there is not specific investigation on “Chinese tourists travel to the Spain coastal destination”, the relevant researches give some useful information of the behavior, motivations and characteristics of Chinese people travelling long-distance overseas destinations. And most information also coincides with the this paper finds, which will mentioned below. From the researches overview, we can see that the theme “Open the Chinese tourists market to the Spain coastal destination” is significant for discovering Chinese travelers’ motivation and characteristics to long-distance coastal destinations on one hand, for enriching the tourist products of coastal destination to long-distance markets on the other hand.

3 Case Study: Majorca Island 3.1 Introduction of the Case Majorca is the biggest island in Spain, located in the west of Mediterranean, between Iberian Peninsula, South of France and North of Africa. It forms the Balearic Islands together with Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. Majorca is the biggest island in Balearic Islands with an area of 3640.11 km2 , and it’s the island with the most complete tourist services in Balearic Islands (Fig. 1). Majorca has typical Mediterranean climate, with warm temperature and rich sunshine. Each year it has around 300 sunny days, which is very attractive to people who live in countries lacking of sunshine, like the British, German, Nordic. The tourist resources are also very abundant: it has 550 km long coast, more than 345 different types of beaches, World Natural Heritage Sites such as the Serra de Tramuntana Mountains. Besides, it has a variety of rich tourism resources like the old town, wetlands, Golf course, wineries, festivals and food make it an important and famous tourist destination in West Mediterranean. The tourism in Majorca started very early, in the 50s of 20th century, which makes it have a mature tourism industry (Figs. 2 and 3).

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Fig. 1 The location of Majorca Island

Fig. 2 The Beaches in Majorca Island

3.2 Research Questions and Research Method The author works as a tourist mediator in Majorca, offering service mainly to Chinese tourists. Working directly with the customers, she notices that even though Majorca is an unfamiliar destination to Chinese tourists, recent years gradually there are more and more Chinese or even other Asian tourists like Japanese or Korean travelling to

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Fig. 3 The hotels in Majorca Island

this island. According to this phenomenon, the authors would like to put up some questions to study. Through solve these questions, this paper aims to figure out the solutions for costal destinations in Spain to open the Chinese tourism market. The research questions are as below: 1. What are the feature of the Chinese tourists travelling to Majorca island? 2. Why does Majorca attract Chinese tourists travelling to this long-distance costal destination? 3. What do Chinese tourists need to achieve when travelling to this long-distance costal destination? To solve the first research question, the author uses the observation method. As the author work as a tourist mediator in Majorca, she can take the advantage of her job to complete this research question. Concluding from her experience to observe at least 50 different groups of Chinese tourists, the main characteristics of Chinese tourists are like: independent tourists, age from 25 to 45, speaking English, occupied with good job or high income in China, with rich experience travelling overseas, etc. They often stay around 2–4 days on the island, mainly purpose to Majorca not just for leisure but also for sightseeing. To solve the second and the third research question, as there are limited number Chinese tourists travelling to Majorca nowadays, it is unrealistic and difficult to carry out questionnaire survey to get the answer of the research questions. The research method the author use is interview, when the author works as tourist mediator and can touch Chinese tourists in Majorca, she takes a free talk with them to listen the real voice of them. Through their feedback each time, she summarizes the opinion of at least 50 different groups of tourists, and refines the attractiveness characteristic of

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Majorca as a destination and demand characteristic of Chinese tourists. The analysis of these two research questions are shown in the next two parts. A special notice is that, the Chinese tourists in this paper refer to those who live in China and depart from China to travel to Majorca (maybe include other destinations), which exclude those Chinese who are working, living or studying abroad.

4 Analysis of Attractiveness of Majorca to Chinese Tourists 4.1 Special Mediterranean Environment This is the main attractiveness of Majorca to Chinese tourists. In fact, Mediterranean is the origin of 3S tourist products [8]. The unique coastal characteristic and its coastal culture are attractive to people from all over the world, including Chinese tourists. There are various types of beaches in Majorca, including 29 Blue Flag beaches with guaranteed water condition, environment, security and service. What´s more, there are numerous coves in different sizes, with crystal clear water and marvelous landscape. Comparing to beaches in China or those in other short-ranged resorts like South-western Asia, the protection of coasts in Majorca is mature and remarkable, the quality of beaches and water is outstanding. Also, Spain is a nautical country, the marine culture has a long history and is abundant. For example, there are seaside small towns, yachts, beach clubs. These elements have a strong exotic seaside style for Chinese tourists. The Mediterranean itself is a distant and beautiful image for the Chinese tourists, plus the ocean and its culture, it has accomplished the imagination of Chinese tourists to Mediterranean.

4.2 Niche Tourist Atmosphere The Mediterranean characteristic alone is not enough to form the core attraction of Majorca to Chinese tourists. A niche Mediterranean atmosphere makes Majorca more attractive to Chinese tourists. According to The big data report of Chinese tourists outbound tourism 2018, the 10 most popular islands among Chinese tourists are as the Table 2. It shows that the majority is Asian island destinations, which belong to shortranged destinations for Chines people. Spain is a long-ranged destination to Chinese tourists, let along Spanish islands. However, among this big amount of Chinese tourists, there are portion of them are experienced tourists who have already travelled to various places, therefore, they would like to discover some special and little-known destinations. The majority of Chinese tourists who have traveled to Majorca have this feature. The quietness tourist atmosphere and the outstanding Mediterranean landscape cater to their pursuit of the niche.

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Table 2 The 10 most popular islands among Chinese tourists in 2018 No.

Destination

Nation

Destination

Nation

1

Phuket

Thailand

No. 6

Boracay

Philippines

2

Nha Trang

Vietnam

7

Krabi

Thailand

3

Bali

Indonesia

8

Sumei Island

Thailand

4

Okinawa

Japan

9

Saipan

The United States

5

Maldives

Maldives

Cebu

Philippines

10

4.3 Complete Tourist Facilities and Service An accessible and mature tourist system provides guarantees for attracting Chinese tourists. Tourism started early in Majorca, therefore the tourist facilities and service are complete. From the perspective of external traffic, there are direct flights from big European cities to Majorca, and flights from Majorca are very frequent as well, which makes it convenient for Chinese tourists to visit Majorca while traveling around Europe. Furthermore, there are perfect waterway traffic such as ferries and cruise. The cruise economy has developed to a very mature stage [8], and the Port of Palma is one of the most important destinations in Mediterranean cruise. From the perspective of internal traffic, the public traffic system in Majorca is complete, with mature coach and car rental industry and good-conditioned roads. As for accommodation, according to the official data, there are 1777 accommodations available to tourists [9], varying from hotels, apartments, hostels. Besides, Spanish people are friendly with strong sense of service, which is also an advantage according to the feedback from Chinese tourists.

5 Analysis on the Demand Characteristic of Chinese Tourists to Long-Distance Coastal Destinations Such as Majorca 5.1 Chinese Tourists Prefer Taking Photos While Travelling Taking photos, especially photos of combing people and scenery, is a big feature of Chinese tourists. The 2017 outbound Chinese tourism and consumption trends [10] conducted by ACNielsen shows that Chinese tourists have more preference on natural scenery than non-Chinese tourists do, and less on historical and cultural attractions than non-Chinese tourists do. This is because enjoying natural scenery does not require knowing historical background like enjoying historical and cultural spots does, which is more accessible and acceptable by Chinese tourists due to the big barrier of language. Among those natural attractions, coast is one of the favorite photo-taking destinations of Chinese tourists because of the heart-opening feeling

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that it gives to them. Therefore, the beautiful beaches, spectacular cliffs in Majorca are popular among them. Besides, nowadays the social media is well-developed. People love sharing beautiful pictures online, including Chinese tourists. As observed, many Chinese tourists who travel to Majorca want to accommodate in elegant, special and middle-high class hotels where they can take pictures. In conclusion, attractive natural scenery and elegant hotel environment are preferences of Chinese tourists.

5.2 Chinese Tourists Are Fond of Tasting Gastronomy China has profound food culture and they enjoy gastronomy, even when they are travelling overseas they also love to taste local food. Indicated by 2017 outbound chinese tourism and consumption trends [10], for tourists of post 70s–90s, enjoying food is the second highest-ranked objective (the first one is Leisure, the rest three in Top 5 are Shopping, Romantic Getaway and Adventure), which shows that tasting food tourism is very important to Chinese tourists. According to previous experience, Spanish food is popular among Chinese tourists because Spain has various type of food, and even though there are big differences between Chinese food and Spanish food, there are similarities, for instance, the way of cooking, the food people eat such as rice. Paella and tapas are well-known among Chinese tourists now and they are willing to try them as well. Furthermore, Chinese tourists have high demand of seafood in coastal destinations. Thus, trying paella or other fresh seafood is always one of their requirements, even though Majorcan food is a bit salty and heavy for them, according to their feedback.

5.3 Chinese Tourists Need Services in Chinese Language The language barrier is the biggest obstacle for Chinese tourists coming to Majorca. Although most of the Chinese tourists who travel to Majorca are able to speak English, and the majority of tourist staff also speak English, it still gives them the sense of insecurity and unfamiliar due to the main languages in Majorca are Spanish and Catalan. Therefore, when they visit Majorca, they wish to have services in Chinese. For instance, when they are booking hotels online, they prefer those with Chinese comments; when they go to restaurants, they prefer restaurants with pictures on the menu. These all reflect the importance for them to have familiar language.

6 Conclusions According to the above analysis and summary of observations, we can conclude our study as below.

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The main features of Chinese tourists travelling to Majorca are: independent tourists, age from 25 to 45, speaking English, occupied with good job or high income in China, with rich experience travelling overseas, etc. Most of them stay around 2– 4 days on the island, mainly purpose to Majorca not just for leisure but also for sightseeing. There are three main aspects about the attractiveness characteristics of Majorca: Special Mediterranean environment, niche tourist atmosphere and complete tourist facilities and service. There are also threes main aspects about the demand characteristics of Chinese tourists to travel to long-distance coastal destinations like Majorca: they prefer taking photos, they are fond of tasting gastronomy, they need service in Chinese language.

7 Suggestions on How to Open the Chinese Tourism Market with Coastal Destinations in Spain Based on the above two aspects, the following part will combine the situation of Majorca to put forward some suggestions on opening the Chinese tourist market to Majorca and even other coastal tourist destinations in Spain.

7.1 The Tourism Sectors Ought to Strengthen the Promotion of the Coastal Tourist Destinations in Spain From the above analysis we can know that, Majorca or even other coastal destinations have enough attractiveness and accessibility to Chinese tourists, but it is not wellknown yet. Therefore, the related tourism sectors should strengthen the promotion on coastal destinations. To position precisely in the market. The promotion should focus on young and middle-aged customers (mainly post 70s to post 90s), especially those with high level of income, due to the fact that only this group of Chinese tourists is able and willing to travel to these niche destinations. To create a clear destination image. In recent years, the “Lonely” tourist image the Iceland has formed, and the “Unbelievable” image Morocco has created, have attracted numerous Chinese tourists. Coastal destinations in Spain should design a clear image of itself based on the feature of leisure. For example, Majorca can be “the Paradise of Mediterranean”, Tenerife can be a place for “Distant Wandering” because of the story of the famous Chinese author Sanmao (Echo). To choose the effective way of promotion. Films and television program are effective ways of wide promotion. For instance, the Korean TV series The memory in Alhambra Palace which was shot in the Alhambra Palace in Granada attracts plenty of Chinese and Korean tourists; the Chinese TV variety entertainment program called

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Chinese Restaurant 3, shot in Sicilia, Italy, makes this island a hot spot currently. Besides, as the Internet develops, the related sectors should also use well the Internet because it is the channel in which people receive the most travel information.

7.2 Develop Sightseeing and Leisure Tourism Products of “Coast+” Spain is a long-distance destination to China, which means Chinese and other Asian tourists would not come just for leisure like other European tourists do, “Sightseeing+Leisure” would be the main model to develop costal tourism in Spain for Chinese tourists. Tourists products of “Coast+City” should be developed, meaning to combine coastal destinations and urban destinations. Taking Majorca as an example, many Chinese tourists not only want to visit cities like Madrid or Barcelona when they travel to Spain, but also some leisure experience in coasts, therefore they choose Majorca as one of their destinations. In conclusion, coastal destinations should be combined with the traditional city sightseeing to develop new tourist products. In each region, there should be tourist products of “Coast+” according to the characteristic of this region. For example, there are abundant seafood resources in Galicia, so trips with the theme of “Coasts+Seafood” can be made; Ibiza is famous for Electroacoustic music, “Coasts+Parties” will be suitable for it; Majorca has various beautiful old towns, “Coasts+Old Towns” is a good combination. In short, for remote tourist source like Chinese tourists, a simple leisure travel is not enough to attract them. It needs to have sightseeing, special experience to make coastal tourist products more diverse.

7.3 Provide Personalized Services that Fit the Customs of Chinese Tourists Because of the big difference of customs between Chinese tourists and Western tourists, personalized services that fit the custom of Chinese tourists can win their favor. From the perspective of language, We suggest to provide Chinese language on the travel website and tourist brochures, provide Chinese signs in airport and main stations, provide Chinese menu and in restaurants and hotels. From the perspective of customized needs, for instance, Chinese are used to drink hot water, so hotels can provide kettles in rooms; Chinese dining is sharing dishes within one table, while Western dining is people having his own dish. In this case, restaurants can offer food-sharing, asking if the costumers want to share food. Also, as Chinese women think fair skin as beauty, they do not like to take sun bath, but they do like taking photos at the seaside. We suggest that some beaches and sites can set signs at the

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viewing point for tourist photography. Those hotels, restaurants, bars, shops etc. with beautiful environment and decoration can take advantage of this characteristic for their marketing.

References 1. Qiu, H.: Analysis of Spain’s market share in China’s outbound travel. Econ. Dev. Res. 20, 168–169 (2018) 2. Shang, J.: The big data report of Chinese tourists travel to Europe 2018. In: Air Transport Business, pp. 52–54 (2019) 3. Jessica, M.P., Giacomo, D.C.: Understanding Chinese travelers’ motivations to visit Europe. Hospitality & Event Management, Tourism (2018) 4. Prayag, G., Cohen, S.A., Yan, H.: Potential Chinese travellers to Western Europe: segmenting motivations and service expectations. Curr. Issues Tour. 18(8), 1–19 (2014) 5. Li, X., Meng, F., Uysal, M., Mihalik, B.: Understanding China’s long-haul outbound travel market: An overlapped segmentation approach. J. Bus. Res. 66(6), 786–793 (2013) 6. Chang, R.C.Y., Kivela, J., Mak, A.H.N.: Food preferences of Chinese tourists. Ann. Tour. Res. 37(4), 989–1011 (2010) 7. Wei, X., Meng, F., Zhang, P.: Chinese citizens’ outbound destination choice: Objective and subjective factors. Int. J. Tour. Res. 19, 38–49 (2016) 8. Jiang, H., Li, Y., Wang, H.: Experience and Enlightenment of Mediterranean Island tourism development: a case study of Balearic Islands, Spain. World Geogr. Res. 4, 124–131 (2012) 9. Dades informatives, El turisme a les ILLES BALEARS, 2017. http://www.caib.es/sites/ estadistiquesdelturisme/ca/anuaris_de_turisme-22816/ 10. The Nielsen, 2017 Outbound Chinese Tourism and Consumption Trends. https://www.nielsen. com/content/dam/nielsenglobal/cn/docs/outbound-chinese-tourism-and-consumption-trends. pdf

Chinese Tourism in the Caribbean—Destination Image and Future Expectations Xinge Liao and Dolores Sánchez Aguilera

Abstract This study is an analysis about the Caribbean’s image among Chinese tourists based on the current theories of tourist destination images. User-generated contents (UGC) from various online tourism forums are analyzed and categorized using corresponding theoretical models. With tourists from China as the target group for the survey, this paper explores the perception of Caribbean tourism by the potential Chinese travelers. Practical direction and strategies for market positioning are recommended. Keywords User-generated content · Chinese tourist market · Caribbean tourism · Tourism image

1 Introduction Throughout the world, the Caribbean is a recognized tourist destination, yet it is infrequently visited by Chinese travelers. What impression do Chinese tourists who have already visited the Caribbean have of this destination? What attracts those who have not visited it to consider going there? The central idea under discussion in this work is the image of the Caribbean from the perspective of the Chinese tourist. First, the current status of China’s outbound travel will be analyzed. Then, we will analyze the application of UGC in the tourism industry in recent years. After that, we will establish categories in which to classify and analyze the UGC of an online tourism forum. Finally, with a view to proposing some effective measures to improve tourism quality, the image potential Chinese tourists have of the Caribbean will be studied via questionnaires.

X. Liao (B) · D. Sánchez Aguilera Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 Y. Luo et al. (eds.), Tourism Product Development in China, Asian and European Countries, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4447-7_7

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2 Methodology 2.1 Documental and Bibliographic Analysis I have reviewed reports from official institutions and agencies as well as available literature on both the trends found in Chinese outbound tourism and on the application of UGC analysis techniques used in the field of tourism.

2.2 Statistical Analysis I have consulted official yearbooks on Chinese outbound tourism and data provided by the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute to find statistical data such as the number of departures and other trip characteristics, figures and statistics. There are also statistics from several official tourism organizations.

2.3 Questionnaire Design and Exploitation of the Survey During the course of investigation, a questionnaire on the subject was designed, titled: Questionnaire on Caribbean Travel Intentions. The fundamental components of the questionnaire on which the questions are based take into account previous studies and surveys done on the subject and are thus divided into four sections, namely: profile, interests, image of the Caribbean and travel patterns. For the creation of the questionnaire, I decided to use “Wenjuanwang”, a website targeting Chinese audiences containing survey distribution tools similar in function to Google forms. After creating and reviewing the questionnaire, I distributed it through various social platforms such as Weibo and WeChat, both commonly used by Chinese users. Collecting the completed questionnaires was the next step. The process of issuing and collecting the questionnaires was carried out over a period of three weeks spanning from May 25, 2019 to June 7, 2019. A total of 276 valid questionnaires filled out by citizens of mainland China were collected. Finally, statistical exploitation of the survey results was obtained.

2.4 Analysis of Online User-Generated Contents We extracted a number of user-generated content samples from the “Mafengwo Travel” website, a travel forum founded in 2006. By December of 2012, its number of users had reached 313 million, making it the number one online UGC travel

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website in China. The decision to obtain our content samples from “Mafengwo” was made because it fulfilled our major requirements: its dataset is both large and concentrated. Travel-related UGC samples were selected as a source of information due to the nature of the travel blog: tourists publish their travel experiences, feelings and perceptions in real time on the forum. Therefore, it can be an important source when studying the image of tourist destinations. The UGC extracted for this research comes from various travel blogs written by users of the website. After preprocessing the selected samples, we were left with 26 travel blogs. These samples add up to more than 150,000 Chinese characters in total, averaging over 6,000 characters per post. After settling on which UGC samples to analyze, I used Nvivo 10 to separate the data into categories for analysis. In accordance with the purpose of this study, three categories were established: (a) Basic characteristics, (b) Countries and regions visited by tourists and (c) Image of facilities and atmosphere.

3 Chinese Outbound Tourism Chinese tourists now make up the largest segment of the world’s tourism market. In the past, it was uncommon for Chinese tourists to travel abroad. However, with the reduction of barriers to international travel (such as the relaxation of individual tourist visa conditions for Chinese citizens) and the continual increase in national income, the tourist radius of Chinese nationals has rapidly expanded. They have a greater desire to explore the world than ever before. In terms of both number of tourists and consumption as tourists, China is already the largest foreign tourism market in the world. In 2015, the number of domestic trips in China for tourism purposes reached 4 billion and the number of international trips reached 117 million. It is estimated that the number of Chinese tourists abroad in 2020 will surpass 160 million. Chinese tourists spend an average of USD 3,064 per person, excluding transportation costs and tour group fees. Chinese tourists who are unmarried or from the post-90s generation spend the least—about USD 2,900 per person—while tourists who are married or from the post-70s and post-80s generations spend more, averaging around USD 3,150 per person. Furthermore, consumption is considerably higher for trips to the United States and Europe, where tourists spend on average USD 4,462 and USD 3,754 per person respectively. Experts predict that the consumption of tourists abroad from China will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 6.1%, and will exceed RMB 203 billion in 2020. Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou are the three main points of departure in China, but the “new first-tier cities” (large metropolitan cities apart from the big four: Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen) have contributed the majority of outbound tourism, and their consumption power may now surpass the first-tier cities. According to Ctrip.com, “the top 20 cities of departure for Chinese tourists in 2018” were: Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Nanjing, Kunming, Wuhan, Xi’an,

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Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Zhengzhou, Changsha, Guiyang, Jinan, Nanchang, Nanjing, Hefei and Qingdao. Other locations in Asia—Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, in particular—are the most popular tourist destinations for Mainland Chinese tourists. Of all Chinese tourists who traveled abroad in 2017, 67% traveled to other Asian countries or regions, while 38% traveled to Europe, 25% to North America and 20% to Australia and New Zealand. Asian destinations were the most popular destinations among Chinese tourists due to a number of reasons, including simpler visa processes, more affordable prices and more convenient transportation options. Japan, Thailand and South Korea were the three main options, closely followed by Singapore, Malaysia and the Maldives. Hong Kong was the most popular destination among the three Chinese regions of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Europe, the US and Australia and New Zealand are still considered advanced travel options. As the convenience of traveling to Europe increases for Chinese tourists, so does their eagerness to visit these locations. Almost 40% of respondents traveled to Europe in 2017, mainly to France, the United Kingdom and Germany.

4 The Study of Tourism Through New Sources: The Use of UGC User-Generated Content is accompanied by a Web 2.0 concept that promotes personalization as its core feature. In recent years, some academics have begun to apply research on UGC to the study of tourism, focusing primarily on the study of tourism experience, destination image, and tourism motivations. They make use of a wide range of research methods such as text credibility research, subject classification research, artificial intelligence, computer software-based research tools, amongst others.

5 Analysis of Caribbean’s Image 5.1 Basic Characteristics of Chinese Tourists and Distribution Among the 26 samples of Chinese tourists, the average time spent in the Caribbean was 9.09 days. As can be appreciated in Table 1, 46.2% of Chinese tourists in the Caribbean stayed from 7 to 9 days and an additional 23.1% stayed between 10 and 12 days. Only a very small minority stayed fewer than 7 days or more than 12. In general, they were satisfied with their stay and felt they were able to enjoy their time relaxing without feeling bored or tired. There were also tourists who had longer stays

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Table 1 Basic characteristics and distribution of Chinese tourists Content Days of stay

Less than 7 days 7–9 days

Whom they travel with

Cost per person

Number of people 1

Percent 3.85

12

46.15

10–12 days

6

23.08

13–15 days

1

3.85

More than 15 days

1

3.85

Not mentioned

5

19.23

Family

5

19.23

Friends

7

26.92

Partner

3

11.54

Children

4

15.38

Not mentioned

7

26.92

Less than 5,000 yuan (≈640 euros)

0

0.00

5,000–9,999 yuan (≈640–1270 euros)

5

19.23

10,000 to 19,999 yuan (≈1270–2550 euros)

6

23.08

20,000–29,999 yuan (≈2550–3828 euros)

1

3.85

More than 30,000 yuan (≈3,828 euros)

0

0.00

14

53.85

Not mentioned Source Research survey

in the Caribbean. In our sample, the longest stay was 18 days and included 6 nights in Martinique, 7 nights in Barbados and a few days spent traveling by plane. As for whom they traveled with, 26.92% traveled with friends, 19.23% with family members, 15.38% with their children and 11.54% with a partner. Seven people did not specify whether they traveled alone or with others. It is worth noting that, in our samples, none of the Chinese tourists traveling to the Caribbean traveled alone. This may be related to concerns Chinese tourists have regarding the security situation in the Caribbean. According to the aforementioned table, the per capita expenditure of Chinese tourists in the Caribbean was 10,458 yuan (approximately 1,335 euros). Of those who mentioned how much they spent, 91.7% spent between 5,000 and 19,999 yuan (640–2,550 euros). Chinese tourists are fond of cutting costs where possible, but overall they felt that their consumption costs in the Caribbean were acceptable. In the tourists’ travel blogs, there were practically no comments complaining about consumption costs in the Caribbean being too high.

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5.2 Countries and Regions Visited by Tourists From the Table 2, we can see that, among the countries and regions visited by Chinese tourists, Mexico was the most visited country and Puerto Rico the most visited region. Both of these locations were on the itineraries of 11 of the 26 samples surveyed, nearly 50% of them. The Chinese tourists who chose to visit Mexico did so almost exclusively due to an interest in the Mayan ruins. As a tourist wrote in his travel blog, “We decided to go to Tulum, Mexico, even though we had to spend a long time on the road to get there. All I can say is that the charm of the Mayan culture is just too great.” The reasons that attract Chinese tourists to Puerto Rico are more diverse, ranging from “experiencing the city’s exotic cultural landmarks declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations in the ancient city of San Juan” to “visiting the largest bioluminescent lake in the world”. Table 2 Countries and regions visited by Chinese tourists

Countries

Number

Percent

Mexico

11

42.31

Jamaica

8

30.77

Bahamas

7

26.92

Republic of Haiti

6

23.08

Barbados

5

19.23

Dominican Republic

5

19.23

Saint Kitts Island (Saint Kitts and Nevis)

3

11.54

Belize

3

11.54

St. Lucia

1

3.85

Regions

Number

Puerto Rico

Percent

11

42.31

Saint Thomas (Virgin Islands)

9

34.62

Grand Turk (Turks and Caicos Islands)

5

19.23

San Martin Island

4

15.38

Cayman Islands

2

7.69

Roatan (Honduras)

2

7.69

Aruba

1

3.85

Curacao

1

3.85

Bonaire

1

3.85

Martinique

1

3.85

Source Research survey

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5.3 Tourism Products in Caribbean For tourists traveling on a cruise ship, basically there are four main cruise routes in the Caribbean: the east, the west, the south and the Bahamas. The eastern Caribbean route is anchored mainly in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and is also the most classic of the entire Caribbean route, with delicate white sand beaches, islands and diving. The western route of the Caribbean passes through the United States, Mexico, Grand Cayman, Jamaica and other places. In addition to the islands and beaches of the Caribbean, with the western route you can also visit the Mayan civilization sites of Mexico. The southern route of the Caribbean is from San Juan of Puerto Rico. It is a route which is inconvenient for the Chinese tourists. However, the southern route is more diverse, with snorkeling, waterfalls and volcanoes. It is located closer to the South American continent. The Bahamas route is actually a concentrated version of the eastern Caribbean route, which is more suitable for people who lack time but want to experiment with a cruise. In general, they depart from New York or Miami, the route usually passes through Orlando, Nassau, the private islands of Norwegian Cruises and Grand Bahama Island.

5.4 Image of Facilities and Atmosphere In general, with respect to tourist facilities, the view Chinese tourists hold is that the Caribbean tourism industry is mature, with a high level of commercialization of its tourist attractions. A Chinese tourist wrote in a blog entry, “I feel very fortunate that the tourism industry here is very mature: the tourist buses and taxis are near the port, each attraction has staff asking if they can help in any way, and all the attractions have buses to and from the site. Prices are also displayed clearly.” During their trip in the Caribbean, Chinese tourists also experienced the commercialization of tourist attractions. Regarding the hiking trips to the waterfall, one author mentioned that “rain boots and raincoats were expensive, especially considering the low quality of the products, but necessary to go up there”. Similarly, they mentioned other forms of commercialization: “when they left the cruise ship, they flocked to the locals dressed as pirates to take pictures with tourists”. (1) Catering: Chinese tourists were satisfied with the catering facilities in the Caribbean. The main points they made were that prices are low and the flavor of the food is in line with Chinese tastes. A Chinese tourist described Mexican food, saying: “I ordered a soft taco with fish. It tasted great, way better than Taco Bell!” (2) Accommodation: Some authors mentioned that holiday apartments and allinclusive hotels are new to Chinese tourists, but they can easily adapt to both

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types of accommodation. For example, one tourist wrote, “I had some trouble finding a hotel to stay in as there were only a few options to choose from. It wasn’t until I checked online that I saw that renting an apartment in Martinique is a popular option. There were a ton of options, so I ended up renting one too. It was my first time staying in an apartment”. (3) Shopping: Chinese tourists like to buy souvenirs with local characteristics. They typically made their purchases at shopping streets and duty-free shops near attractions or at the ports where their cruise ships are docked. They bought a wide variety of souvenirs, including: small cans made of coconut shells, Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, cigars, rum cakes, Mayan calendars, wood carvings, and so on. Regarding the price, Chinese tourists described it as “cheap”. (4) Guide Services: According to the survey, most Chinese tourists believed that the guides were enthusiastic and professional. Of all the samples, seven mentioned local tourist guide services. Among these, five had very positive things to say, such as “the English tour guide is very good”, “the tour guide is very friendly” and “the service staff is of high quality”. One person, however, thought that the quality of the tour guide service was subpar. Another thing to take note of is the lack of Chinese-language tour services. Of the seven samples that referred to tour guide services, six were English-speaking guides, only one making reference to a Chinese tour guide (and that it was a very unpleasant experience). In the blog “Ocean Oasis - Cruise on the Western Caribbean Cruises”, the author mentioned that he contacted the cruise to request a Chinese-speaking guide in Mexico. The tour guide gave them very little information and simply urged them to walk as quickly as possible. They were visiting Mayan cultural sites and had been looking forward to receiving explanations in Chinese about the history of the Mayans, but, in the end, they felt the experience was very disappointing.

6 Travel Expectations for the Caribbean In this survey we distributed the questionnaires through an online survey platform (Wenjuanwang). A total of 276 questionnaires were collected.

6.1 Image of the Caribbean The results show that the number of people whose view of the Caribbean can be described by the “sun, sea, and beach” is the largest, with 205 people, representing 74.28% of all 276 samples. “Pirates of the Caribbean Movie” came in second, representing 70.65% of respondents (Table 3). Coming in third place was “numerous coral reefs and maritime species”, comprising half of the total sample. The next three, in descending order, are the “mysterious

Chinese Tourism in the Caribbean … Table 3 Caribbean image of respondents

Image of the Caribbean

129 Number

Percent

Sun, sea, and beach

205

74.28

Pirates of the Caribbean movie

195

70.65

Numerous coral reefs and marine species

138

50.00

Mysterious ancient Mayan civilization

104

37.68

Fresh seafood and gastronomy

104

37.68

Mangrove forest/pristine rainforest

101

36.59

Columbus’ discovery of the new world

68

24.64

Flamingos and Pink Lake from Instagram

47

17.03

5

1.81

Other Source Research survey

ancient Mayan civilization”, “fresh seafood and gastronomy” and “mangrove forest/pristine rainforest”. These three represent between 30 and 40% of the total number of respondents. Those who associate “Columbus’ discovery of the new world” or “Flamingos and Pink Lake from Instagram” with the Caribbean are even fewer in number, accounting for only 24.64% and 17.03% respectively. In addition, there were five respondents who selected “other”.

6.2 Interest in the Attractions In this section, we asked one multiple choice question about each of the following subjects: natural resources, heritage, experiences and gastronomy. This was done to understand the underlying interests of the respondents in different types of attractions and activities in the Caribbean. Four options were provided for each question, with respondents being allowed to choose any number of them, including none (Fig. 1). Regarding natural resources, there were 265 responses from a total of 276 samples. The most popular response was “Walking on the delicate white sand along the clear blue sea”. It received 221 responses, accounting for more than 80% of the samples. The remaining three options were less popular, being selected by fewer than 50% of respondents. In decreasing order, we have “Visiting the fluorescent sea as seen in the movie Life of Pi” at 43.48%, “Exploring Puerto Rico’s pristine rainforest, El Yunque” at 40.94% and “Taking photos of pink beach, pink lake, and flamingos” at 38.04%. In addition, 11 people did not answer this question, as they were not interested in these activities (Fig. 2). With regard to heritage sites, there were 261 responses. Of these, the most popular choices were “Exploring the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza, Cancun, in Mexico” and “Visiting Trinidad, a World Heritage Site”. They represented 60.87% and 58.33% respectively of the 276 samples. “Visiting Havana because of the movie Fast & Furious 8, shot in Cuba” had 46.01% and “Visiting Santo Domingo, where Columbus

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Fig. 1 Answers to the question “Which of following natural resources are you interested in?”. Source Research survey

Fig. 2 Answer to the question “Which of the following heritage sites are you interested in?”. Source Research survey

took his first steps in America” had 41.30%. In addition, 15 people left all responses blank, comprising 5.43% of the total (Fig. 3). The survey indicates that Chinese tourists are more interested in the available activities, given that the number of responses was higher, with 269 of 276 people selecting at least one choice. A total of 196 people or 71.01% were interested in “enjoying all-inclusive service on the beach of a five-star hotel”. The number of people interested in “taking a yacht trip to Saona Island to catch starfish” and “doing water sports such as riding jet skis, going kayaking and snorkeling” was similar, both around 56%. Finally, 30.43% of people were interested in “participating in the Reggae Music Festival in Jamaica”. Seven people did not answer this question, representing 2.54% of the total (Fig. 4).

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Fig. 3 Answers to the question “Which of the following activities are you interested in?”. Source Research survey

Fig. 4 Answers to the question “Which of the following cuisines are you interested in?”. Source Research survey

Chinese tourists were even more interested in gastronomy, with a total of 270 answers, more than any of the other questions in this section. Most of the respondents, 83.7%, wanted to try “seafood and fish such as tuna, sardines and lobster”. “Authentic Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee” came in second place, which 166 people, or 60.14%, wanted to try. Next were “fried fish balls from the Caribbean” and “Rum, aka pirate wine”, which interested 52.90% and 46.38% of the respondents respectively. There were six people who did not answer this question (Fig. 5).

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Fig. 5 Answers to the question “How do you prefer to travel?”. Source Research survey

6.3 Travel Mode With regard to preferred way of travel, people’s choices were more varied. 130 respondents chose travelling in a “small group”. This was the most popular choice, consisting of 47.1% of all responses. A quarter of respondents chose a “semi-guided tour” as their preferred way to travel in the Caribbean. What both of these methods have in common is that, while they still involve travel agencies, they give some degree of autonomy to visitors. That is, Chinese tourists enjoy having some level of independence in their travels but also appreciate having a travel agency to reduce the stress and anxiety that comes with booking hotels and tickets. Next, 33 respondents chose “self-organized”, which represents 11.96%.

6.4 What Tourists Worried About During Their Travels In the last part, we wanted to know what Chinese tourists thought about security problems in the Caribbean and what other worries they had regarding their trip. In this question, we used a Likert scale to measure the responses to seven sentences describing possible problems they might encounter in the Caribbean. Respondents stated the degree to which they agreed or disagreed with the seven statements (Table 4). The greatest concerns of Chinese tourists included language problems, flight time, food differences and the visa process. The language problem was the most worrisome for Chinese tourists, as 74.3% were concerned about having communication issues during their trip. In second place was flight time. Chinese tourists were concerned that the flight time would be too long. In terms of security, the most worrying thing for Chinese tourists was the safety of the streets.

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Table 4 What tourists worried about in travel Do you agree with the following phrases? Strongly agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly disagree

Applying for a visa to go to the Caribbean is complicated and annoying

41

56

159

15

5

The flight to the Caribbean is too long

71

93

82

24

6

I’m worried because I don’t understand the languages of the Caribbean

121

84

28

29

14

I am worried that I won’t like the local food

45

79

82

45

25

I’m worried about baggage security

41

75

73

61

26

I am worried about security problems in the accommodation

68

87

72

39

10

I am worried about street safety

74

102

69

26

5

Source Research survey

7 Conclusions While the largest segment of the world’s tourism market comes from outbound Chinese tourism, the Caribbean is still an emerging market for the huge Chinese tourist base. Chinese tourists are generally unfamiliar with the Caribbean and have little knowledge about it. According to the questionnaire responses, Chinese tourists are willing and motivated to travel to the Caribbean, but they have not materialized these desires due to language difficulties and the long flight times. The impressions Chinese tourists have of the Caribbean both before and after travel remain roughly the same. According to the results of the questionnaire, most respondents associate the Caribbean with the “sun, sea and beach”, accounting for 74.28%. In second place comes the film “Pirates of the Caribbean”, at 70.65%. This is one potential direction that could be exploited in the marketing of Caribbean products. Ranked third are the “numerous coral reefs and marine species”, which account for 50% of the total sample. Similarly, the UGC study encompassed a large number of island tours in Puerto Rico, Saint Thomas (Virgin Islands), Jamaica, the Bahamas, and the Republic of Haiti. Taking part in activities such as snorkeling also played an important role in their trips.

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Chinese tourists prefer to have a level of autonomy that allows them to experience the local culture. At the same time, they take advantage of travel agencies in order to reduce the trouble involved in booking hotels and obtaining tickets to attractions. According to our survey analysis, only 6% believe the most desirable way to travel is by cruise ship. Nearly half of the respondents chose small group tours, while 25% chose semi-guided tours. Thus, Caribbean travel packages targeting Chinese tourists could offer more options for these two tour styles. Chinese tourists traveling in the Caribbean generally stay between 7 and 9 days and prefer accommodating themselves in high-end hotels. Holiday apartments and all-inclusive hotels are popular accommodation choices in the Caribbean yet are rarely used by Chinese tourists. Nevertheless, they found both of these types of accommodation acceptable. With regard to the amount of money Chinese tourists are willing to spend on tourism in the Caribbean, according to the UGC analysis, 91.7% spend between 5,000 yuan and 19,999 yuan (640–2,550 euros). Additionally, prices in the Caribbean are generally considered acceptable by Chinese tourists and not too expensive. When it comes to tourist facilities, Chinese tourists are impressed by the maturity of the tourism industry and the commercialization of the Caribbean. They feel that the food and drink prices of the catering industry are inexpensive. In terms of shopping, Chinese tourists prefer to buy souvenirs associated with the local culture. These souvenirs are generally purchased at commercial streets and duty-free shops near attractions or ports where their cruise ship is docked. When evaluating tour guide services, Chinese tourists consider English guides to be enthusiastic and professional. They mention, however, that the complete lack of Chinese tour services is a major problem. For Chinese tourists in the Caribbean, language problems and flight times are the most worrying issues. They are less worried about food habits and visa issues. In both the UGC research and the questionnaire survey, we found that Chinese tourists are worried about security in the Caribbean. Security concerns are one of the reasons why most Chinese tourists who go to the Caribbean prefer to join a tourism group. The governments of the Caribbean, the hotel industry and the catering industry should turn their attention to addressing these safety issues. This will change the perception Chinese tourists have of the Caribbean as an unsafe place.

References 1. Çelikten, E., Le Falher, G., Mathioudakis, M.: Modeling urban behavior by mining geotagged social data. IEEE Trans. Big Data 3(2), 220–233 (2016) 2. Van der Zee, E., Vanneste, D.: Tourism networks unravelled; a review of the literature on networks in tourism management studies. Tour. Manag. Perspect. 15, 46–56 (2015) 3. Leung, D., Law, R., Van Hoof, H., et al.: Social media in tourism and hospitality: a literature review. J. Travel. Tour. Mark. 30(1–2), 3–22 (2013) 4. Di Pietro, L., Di Virgilio, F., Pantano, E.: Social network for the choice of tourist destination: attitude and behavioural intention. J. Hosp. Tour. Technol. 3(1), 60–76 (2012)

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5. Fondevila Gascón, J.F., Mir Bernal, P., Muñoz González, M.: Redes sociales y proyección de imagen: el caso de Turisme Barcelona. Actas del I Congreso Internacional Comunicación y Pensamiento. Comunicracia y desarrollo social, pp. 456–474. Egregius (2016) 6. Jansson, A.: Rethinking post-tourism in the age of social media. Ann. Tour. Res. 69, 101–110 (2018) 7. Akehurst, G.: User generated content: the use of blogs for tourism organisations and tourism consumers. Serv. Bus. 3(1), 51 (2009) 8. Marine-Roig, E., Clavé, S.A.: Tourism analytics with massive user-generated content: a case study of Barcelona. J. Destin. Mark. Manag. 4(3), 162–172 (2015) 9. Mariani, M.M., Borghi, M., Gretzel, U.: Online reviews: differences by submission device. Tour. Manag. 70, 295–298 (2019) 10. Águila Obra, A.R., Garrido Moreno, A., Padilla Meléndez, A.: Creación de valor en internet en el contexto del turismo cultural. El caso de los Museos. Nuevas perspectivas del turismo para la próxima década: III jornadas de investigación en turismo, pp. 691–714 (2010) 11. Martín Fuentes, E.: Tourism surveying from social media: the validity of User-Generated Content (UGC) for the characterization of lodging rankings. Universitat de Lleida (2018) 12. De Ascaniis, S., Morasso, S.G.: When tourists give their reasons on the web: the argumentative significance of tourism related UGC. In: ENTER, pp. 125–137 (2011) 13. Dai, B., Jiang, Y., Yang, L., et al.: China’s outbound tourism–stages, policies and choices. Tour. Manag. 58, 253–258 (2017) 14. Travel Daily Media: http://traveldailymedia.com/ (2018) 15. China Tourism Statistics Bulletin: http://en.cnta.gov.cn(2017)

Exploring Emotional and Memorable Tourism Experiences Mingge Tian and Gemma Cànoves

Abstract The image of a tourist destination should be thoroughly investigated before product positioning attempts are undertaken. In this paper, components of a tourist destination image of Barcelona in the Chinese market are identified. A qualitative analysis software is used to process the data collected from a set of semistructured, in-depth interviews. Three factors of perceptual image and four factors of affective image are discovered. The results show that the majority of the Chinese tourists prefer cultural and architecture tourism products rather than the sun and beach product. Shopping is one of the most important activities within any tourism products for the Chinese tourists. On the other hand, communication and interaction between tour guides and visitors is one of the important components of a tourism product. The results of the study provide useful suggestions for the design and marketing of tourism products in general. Keywords Chinese tourism · Tourism product · Destination image · Barcelona

1 Introduction 1.1 Aim and Justification of the Study The main objective of the study is to measure the characteristics that impact Barcelona tourism products as they are adapted to suit Chinese tourists. This work will utilize qualitative method and the aforementioned measurement to understand the characteristics of Barcelona’s tourist destination image (TDI) in the Chinese market. Why are Barcelona and the Chinese tourists specifically selected as the objects of this study? First of all, Chinese outbound tourism has been booming recently, so it is quite worth pursuing. Secondly, Barcelona is one of the top worldwide destinations. Thirdly, 2018 was the 45th anniversary of Spain-China diplomacy, and meanwhile the dealings and culture communication between Spain and China are becoming more M. Tian (B) · G. Cànoves Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 Y. Luo et al. (eds.), Tourism Product Development in China, Asian and European Countries, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4447-7_8

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frequent. During the last several years, Barcelona has established several institutions, organizations and branch offices in Shanghai. In the academic field, there is lack of research on Barcelona’s image in China’s tourist market, whereas Spanish culture and Catalan culture are silently penetrating China. Lastly, one of the authors herself is from China and lived in Barcelona almost ten years. Considering all of these motivations, it would be good to address these two targets.

1.2 Actual Situation of Chinese Tourism in Barcelona Filled by its growing middle class and rising spending power, China is experiencing a travel boom and the Chinese are hungry to travel abroad like never before. “In the year of 2018, China outbound tourist arrivals totaled 149.72 million [37]. According to China Tourism Academy (CTA) Chinese tourists made over 6 million trips to Europe, and a quarter of the top 20 destinations for them were European countries [12]. Only 249,032 Chinese tourists visited Spain in 2018, but contributed over 1.66 billion euros a year to Spain’s tourist industry [39]. The number of Chinese tourists who visit Spain still has a lot of room to grow. In short, China is a potential market for Spain. As for Barcelona, it is a very mature tourist destination with rich tourist resources and a historical culture. However, many Chinese people still do not know about it until they happen to visit it. For many of them, Barcelona is still mainly famous for Football Club, FC Barcelona. Sometimes they are confused with the places of origin of flamenco and bullfighting [2]. Therefore, the question of “how to attract the Chinese tourists with suitable tourist products” arises very naturally. Thus, investigating the factors of Barcelona’s tourism products designed for Chinese tourists is significantly useful for the practical implication in the Barcelona’s tourism industry. Barcelona’s TDI from the Chinese tourists’ eyes is the key starting point of the study.

2 Literature Review and Core Concepts of the Study 2.1 Tourist Destination Image (TDI) and Tourism Product (TP) The origin of Tourist Destination Image research began at 1970s [20], and went through an important attempt in the concept of integration in the 1980s. So far, researchers have not yet formed a consensus in the definition and concept of destination image, and each one put their points of view from different perspectives. Recalling the definitions of TDI in the last 30 years [3, 5, 14, 15, 20, 22, 28], the combination of the concept of TDI indicated by Cheng [10] and Prayag [31], which is

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more convenient to our study, will be applied in our study: “TDI refers to a city’s exterior and interior public’s evaluation of the overall, abstract and general knowledge and evaluation of the city’s external landscape characteristics and inherent historical and cultural heritage”. Destination image, as characteristics of a tourism product, and comprehensive quality level, in essence is the reputation displayed and formed various factors. This includes the destination tourism history, realistic development and many other functions. The destination image is also a reflection of the overall quality of the destination tourism sector. Therefore, before positioning the tourism product for the destination, it is essential and useful to investigate its destination image. Regarding TDI formation, two approaches to its process are considered: static and dynamic formations [5] (Gallarza, et al. 2002; Jekins 1999). Gunn (1988) identifies seven stages, wherein the destination image formation is changing. In our study, we investigate Barcelona’s TDI by using the static approach. From the perspective of static approach, the majority of previous scholars suggest that TDI is formed by cognitive and affective components. Cognitive component is the sum of what is acknowledged about a destination, and affective component represent one’s feeling toward a destination [4, 5, 18, 35]. Before 2000, most tourist destination image studies’ dimensions focus on physical or functional characteristics that are directly observable or measurable (Jekins 1999). Few studies attempted to include the less tangible components of destination image of difficult-to-measure psychological characteristics, such as the atmosphere or romance of the setting (Echtner and Ritchie 1991). Since 2000, such as Beerli and Martin [6], and Martín and del Bosque (2008), attempted to consider the affective evaluation and atmosphere, which are also considered in our study. The tourist destination image must be thoroughly investigated before tourism product positioning attempts are undertaken [1]. Few scholars studied the relationship between the destination image and tourism product. In our study, based on the components of the city tourism image measurement, the following two questions will be investigated: what are the characteristics should Barcelona’s tourism products possess to be suitable for Chinese tourists? What aspects should the tourist products focus on?

2.2 Something (Glocalization) and Nothing (Globalization) in the Tourism Products, and the Emotional Connection Between Visitors and the Destination In an era where everyone is shouting “internationalization” and “globalization”, George Ritzer, author of McDonalidization of Society, with the sociological point of view and his own unique opinions, asks if the result of globalization is only nothingness? The concept of McDonaldization was first introduced by Ritzer in his book: a phenomenon that occurs when society, its institutions, and its organizations

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are adapted to have the same characteristics that are found in fast food chains: efficiency, calculability, predictability, control and irrational rationality. Nothingness in McDonalization does not mean physically empty, or meaningless, but simplification, standardization of commodity, performance, service or space [32]. Ritzer indicated the theoretical framework of something and nothing in his book. Something is defined here as (largely) full forms that are indigenously conceived and controlled and relatively rich in distinctive content [32]. The something concept is coined out with glocalization, which obviously is a portmanteau of globalization and localization, means the simultaneity—the co-presence—of both universalizing and particularizing tendencies [34]. It describes the tempering effects of local conditions on global pressures [30]. Nothing here, refers to empty forms that are centrally conceived and controlled and relatively devoid of distinctive content. As the standardized, simplified commodities are spread all over the world and many sectors, the way people look at the world and people’s worldly values are also more and more similar. Although everyone understands the importance of “internationalization” and “globalization”, blindly accepting it and lacking a reflection of a “globalization” of society. “Nothing products” have a high degree of mobility while lacking emotional/affective connection and regional and time characteristics. If tourism products are promoted by the city’s local characteristics (e.g. historical and cultural resources) but without the affective connection between tourists and the destination, the socalled “local characteristics” can be considered as promotional chips, which is one of the marketing strategies. For instance, a tour-rout with tight schedule makes it easy for tourists to visit in hurry to accomplish “must visit” list, so that they cannot feel the city spirit tranquilly. Therefore, the role of the tour guide, who leads the visitor to around his or her destination, is significant. The way the tour guide leads the visitors can determine whether visitors have an emotional connection with the city or merely accomplish the “must visit” list.

3 Methodology Considering the status of the topic: by now the research of Barcelona’s city image from the Chinese tourists’ eyes has not been sufficiently studied, so we select the qualitative method, specifically use Grounded Theory (GT) for the exploratory research to acquire the holistic understanding of the study question and build a specific measurement for our case, reviewing literature, studying relevant research and interviewing tourism practitioners and experts. With an objective of discovering Chinese tourists’ perceptions and opinions to Barcelona’s city image as a tourist destination, we have conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews to gather and code data, and build a measurement relevant to Barcelona’s city image in the Chinese market. Eventually, we obtained 25 interviews in total for the qualitative research. During the interviews, we applied participant

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observations and unstructured observations, meaning that even though with the outline drawn up in advance, we still maintained a posture of participants and listen to concern of the theme that the interviewee is discussing, and encourage them to express their true thoughts.

3.1 Data Collection We started with the fieldwork that we signed up two tour-groups to visit Barcelona city with tour-guides. During the visit, we observed the tourists’ behavior, such as their reactions to the tourism attractions, satisfaction level to the tour-guide and also to the entire trip and besides, we chatted with them as the role of a tourist as well to further know about their thoughts especially on the trip and on Barcelona to obtain the basic information to start our qualitative research. Continually, we selected various tourists of the two groups as interviewees for our further interviews, and some other candidates of our interviewees were recommended by the personal of the targeted tourism agency. Afterwards, we started the interviews through the prepared outlines, appointments and the modifications of the notes to improve the quality of the data collection. In summary, we followed 2 tour-groups and interviewed 25 persons in total, in which there were 3 tourism practitioners, 12 tourists in China and 10 tourists in Barcelona. Regarding the two tour-groups of the fieldwork for the study, one was from one of the largest and well-known travel agencies in China (labeled as “Fdw. A1” in the ensuing text), and the other group (labeled as “Fdw. A2” in the ensuing text) was from a travel agency that was one of the first agencies that founded groupbus-tours around Europe, and its target clients were Mandarin/Cantonese-spoken tourists but lived in Europe. Table 1 outlines the characteristics of the two travel agencies’ products. Respect to the in-depth interviews, the interviewees were from different agencies. As the study focuses on the tourism products provided by travel agencies, we display 3 representative samples of agencies of the total 25 interviews as models, whose aim is to ensure the reliability and validity of the research, because the different-angle method can help to eliminate prejudice generated by only one Table 1 Characteristics of the tourism products sold by the travel agencies Fdw. agencies

Characteristics of their tourism products

Fdw. A1

• Line of business is wise, including travel services with license of doing outbound tour, inbound tour, domestic tour and MICE

Fdw. A2

• Offers 7-day group bus tour • Five tour lines, covering 15 European countries and 50 cities • Tourists can freely choose the day to start the trip with the group and the day the leave the group • Tourists can choose one of the 50 cities to follow and exit the group • Tourists can combine the five lines freely to create the most suitable line for themselves

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source. Table 2 outlines the characteristics of the tourism products provided by the 3 agency-samples (respectively labeled as “Int. A1”, “Int. A2” and “Int. A3” in the following text). In the Tables 3 and 4, we display the profile of our interviewees. Table 2 Characteristics of the travel agencies No.

Information of the agency

Target clients

Trip characteristics

Int. A1

1. Agency in Barcelona managed by Chinese owner 2. 23 years of establishment 3. Cooperate with travel agencies in China

1. Chinese tourists that live in China 2. Chinese visiting students/immigrates in Barcelona

1. Low-cost Individual groups 2. TSrips around Europe 3. Step-on-tour-guide trip

Int. A2

1. Agency in Barcelona managed by Chinese owner 2. 5 years of establishment

1. Chinese tourists that live in China 2. Chinese visiting students/immigrates in Barcelona

1. Low-cost Individual groups 2. Media-end Business groups 3. High-end official business groups

Int. A3

1. Agency in Barcelona 2. 24 years of establishment, belonging to a Spanish family group 3. Cooperate with travel agencies in China

1. Chinese tourists that live in China 2. International tourists

1. High-end custom group 2. High-end business group 3. High-end official business group 4. High-end individual group

Table 3 List of the interviewees (Chinese tourists) Interviewees

No.

Sex

Times to Barcelona

Interviewees

No.

Sex

Times to Barcelona

Chinese tourists in China 12 persons

C01

M

1

B01

F

1

C02

M

2

B02

F

1

C03

F

1

Chinese tourists in Barcelona 10 persons

B03

M

1

C04

M

1

B04

F

1

C05

F

1

B05

M

1

C06

F

1

B06

M

1

C07

F

1

B07

F

1

C08

F

1

B08

M

1

C09

M

2

B09

F

1

C10

M

1

B10

F

1

C11

F

1

C12

M

1

Note M = Male; F = Female

In total: 22 interviewees of Chinese tourists

Exploring Emotional and Memorable Tourism Experiences Table 4 List of the interviewees (tourism practitioners)

143

No. of interviewees

Sex

Job

Travel agencies

P01

F

Tourism operator

Int. A1

P02

F

Co-founder of the agency

Int. A2

P03

F

Tourism receptive

Int. A3

Note F = Female

Before the personal interviews, we sent messages via email or Wechat (Chinese version of Whatsapp but with more functionalities like “moments” where users can post their photos, videos or “what’s on their mind” at the moment) to the interviewees in order to inform them of the general topic of the interview, prior to conducting a personal interview (face-to-face interview, or Skype/Wechat video call interview if the interviewees are physically in China). If the interviewees are at Barcelona, we had interviews at their working reception area or the place that we had agreed with. Every interview lasted around 1 h and to ensure the complete content of the response and the accuracy of the post-analysis, we recorded the entire process of the interviews after respondents’ permissions. At some interviews, we had an assistant to make note of the whole process so that the interviewer could totally concentrate on the conversation with the respondent. After each interview, the authors did the interview notes collation work according to the recording content. After each interview, the interviewer and the interview assistant promptly summarized and reflected on relationship establishment, the atmosphere construction, the topic guidance, the time control and the skill application in the interview to determine the direction of the next sample and to improve the quality of the next interview. The interviewer and the assistant summarized the interview content within 3 days after the interview and confirmed the information with the respondent via Wechat. During the research process, we wrote research memos while coding the data and recorded our theoretical considerations on the research issues, totaling approximately 30.000 Chinese characters.

3.2 Data processing This study follows the data processing procedures of classical GT to complete open coding and selective coding. Coding is the core procedure to build the theory, which functions to extract topics from a large amount of qualitative data. First, we started with open coding. To ensure the validity of the study, when each interview record was confirmed, we used qualitative data analysis software Atlas.ti to perform substantial data encoding and make research notes.

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The data coding standard of this study principally was generated from the data collection process. In keeping theoretical sensitivity in line with the research questions, as well as concrete words, phrases and regularity and some incidents that were worth noting for some reason, we established the standard for the data coding. The factors involved in the impression of Barcelona, motivations to travel Barcelona, satisfaction of the service and of the overall trip, the difference of the impression between the before and after visiting Barcelona are all listed as our coding object. Through the open coding to the obtained data, we obtained a total of 120 primary data, 90 secondary data, 50 tertiary data and 20 forth level data. Continually, selective code was conducted. This study performs selective coding to figure out the core variable that includes all the data, based on the tourist destination image theory, including its formation and the stage theory. We mainly followed two principles when performing selective coding: First, the combination of comprehensiveness and hierarchy: due to the complexity of the contents of Chinese tourists’ impressions of Barcelona, the selective coding cannot be too tedious. Therefore, we performed the selective coding with as much coverage as possible. At the same time, the hierarchy of the structure could be reflected as well; Second, the combination of theory and application: in order to reflect the characteristics of Barcelona city image in Chinese tourists’ eyes based on the categories, the selected variables can better reflect this feature and specifically be applied for the Chinese tourists as the research target. In the end, we have obtained the core categories of Variety (amount) of Information Sources, Type of Information Sources, Travel Motivations, Attractions, Social Environment, Atmosphere, Affective Evaluation and Overall Tourist Destination Image. Finally, we sought advice from tourism-related experts. We discussed with two tour-operators about the initial categories obtained through the selective coding for their opinions and advice and finally completed the model modification, adjusting the previous seven core categories to six categories: Variety (amount) of Information Sources, Travel Motivations, Attractions, Social Environment, Atmosphere, Affective Evaluation.

4 Analysis of Theoretical Components and Structure 4.1 Observation of the Constituent Elements This study uses the adapted GT approach, and abstracts new concepts and categories with an emphasis on the perspective of the Chinese tourists according to the indepth interviews and a series of models indicated by previous scholars: Baloglu and McCleary’s [5] model (quality of experience, attractions, value/environment); Martin and del Bosque’s (2008) model (infrastructures and socioeconomic environment,

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atmosphere, natural environment, affective image and cultural environment); LlodraRiera et al.’s (2015) model (induced information sources, induced/autonomous information sources, opinion leaders, destination/intermediary/media web, user generate content web). This chapter abstracts four dimensions of Barcelona’s city image from the Chinese tourists’ eyes: attractions, social environment, atmosphere and affective evaluation. • Attractions Obviously, attractions is one of the most important components of a tourism product. According to the report of Statista about “[24] and 2016” (by number of tourists), among the top 10 destinations, only one European country, which is France at the tenth place of the ranking. The reason why France, especially Paris, has been frequently the most popular destination for people all over the world is its tourism attractions and products integrated into its unique and special city image and the romantic, historic, cultural, artist, and sometimes vintage atmosphere, or, in other words, an atmosphere which you can easily fall in love with, and this type of city image has been rooted in so many people’s minds. Forming a city image for the foreigners and designing tourism products adapted to the visitors, its tourism attractions is essential, especially for the tourists whose major motivation of traveling the destination is exploring its attractions with a relatively more intensive itinerary. The feeling and the atmosphere that the attractions transmit to the tourists are also one of the key factors. In the context of our study, the cultural attractions in Barcelona is one of the most attractive scenic spots for Chinese tourists. Among the numerous cultural attractions, the modernist architectures and some other architectural works, Sagrada Familia and Parque Güell, designed by Gaudí are undoubtedly the top 1 scenic spot. As an interviewee (tourism practitioner) said “after visiting Barcelona, the Sagrada Familia and Parque Güell are the favorites of the Chinese tourists, but also because we automatically put these two attractions in their route” (P01). Secondly, Casa Milà and Casa Batlló are also the most recommended Gaudi’s architecture for the Chinese tourists. “They do not like the beach so much. When summer time, they may go to the beach, but not to sunbath. They prefer have a walk or feel the atmosphere” (P03). According to the interviews with the tour-operators, majority of them have noted that for the Chinese tourists traveling Barcelona, regardless of the profile of tourists (i.e. high/low spending power), “the majority of them are interested in shopping”. “Normally, we spend four or five hours on shopping at la Roca Village, along Passeig de Gracia around four hours. In short, almost one entire day of shopping, but I like it” (B10). Because the luxury products in Barcelona are relatively not so expensive compared with those in China, and there are more brands and resources here. If we discuss it from the perspective of Chinese culture and custom, gift-giving is one of the most popular ways in China to strengthen the bond with other persons, and to maintain the personhood [9]. In summary, if we create a list of the scenic spots of tourism products that China’s travel agencies in Barcelona to rank the reception, it would measure one being very

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interested and notice the degree of interest successively decreases as the number increases: 1. Shopping spots (La Roca Village and Passeig de Gracia) 2. Gaudi’s architectures (Sagrada Familia, Parque Güell, Casa Milà and Casa Batlló) 3. Cultural and historical attractions (Barrio Gótico, la Rambla, etc.) 4. Montjuïc and 1992 Olympic Games stadium, Camp Nou 5. Natural landscape (Sun and beach). • Social environment According to the literature review, the “social environment” is one of the basic factors that form TDI, and it influences tourism product of the destination. Structural equation modeling suggests that socially responsible environment and local people positively influence destination’s personality [25]. Our environment and spaces around us shape the tourists’ mood and thinking. Different environment shapes different mood and thinking, that inflects their impression of the destination and makes them to shape different city image in their eyes. In our study, based on the information obtained from the literature review and interviews with tourism-related experts or professionals, we finally have concluded these following initial attributes of “social environment” specifically for Chinese tourists: personal safety, friendly local people, service quality, travel-related information and good weather. Considering the attributes from the angle of tourism products, the interviewee (P02) said “service quality is an essential item for the Chinese tourists to value while traveling”. In general, Chinese tourists are quite satisfied with the service quality of shopping points in Barcelona, because almost every single luxury store has Chinese stuff that totally resolves the issue of language barriers. Besides of that, if Chinese tourists come with a tour-group, the tour-guide also provides shopping information to facilitate the shopping process. However, one of the interviewees (C09) said: “In fact, China’s service industry has done a good job. As long as the economic strength is high, various services can be enjoyed and the quality is high. Therefore, they think that the service industry here is generally regular, especially the speed of serving food and the cleanliness of the hotel.” Another very significant item is the relatively “slow life” in Barcelona compared with the rhythm of life in the first-tier cities1 in China. “A very inconspicuous but obvious example is that many elevators in Spain do not have a door closing button” (C03). Various Chinese tourists are even willing to immigrate to Barcelona in the future just due to the slow life here. • Atmosphere 1 Chinese

first-tier cities: China’s first-tier cities usually refer to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen which make “The Big 4”. Second-tier cities include Tianjin, Chongqing, Chengdu, Wuhan, and Xiamen. It is frequently referred to by various media publications for purposes including commerce, transportation, tourism, education, and more. The government does not recognize an official list of the tier system.

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Several previous researchers put the “atmosphere” in the attribute of “social/travel environment” (Chi and Qu, 2008), but in our study we divide them into two attributes of cognitive image because our interviewees tended to use adjective words to express their feeling about the city atmosphere, and these adjective words are relatively more abstract (i.e., curious, pleasant, restful, comfortable), whereas the words that the participants used to describe the city´s social environment are specific things (i.e., personal safety, service quality, etc.). Hence, in order to facilitate the measurement for the city image, these are two attributes in the measurement scale of the cognitive image in our study. The ancient mysterious atmosphere created by the ancient Roman ruins in the Ciutat Vella would impress the visitors. The impression will greatly influence the city image that is constantly changing in the tourists’ minds. Based on the data and information obtained from the interviews, we finally get the following items of the attribute of “atmosphere”: pleasant, relaxing, exciting, curious and cosmopolitan. Majority of the Chinese tourists consider that the Barcelona’s city atmosphere is relaxing, and is attractive because of the modernist architecture along Passeig de Gracias and Barrio Gótico. • Affective evaluation The affective component refers to the evaluation stage, concerning the feelings that the individual associates with the place of visit [4, 6]. As mentioned previously, the city atmosphere directly influences tourists’ affective evaluation to the TDI, and certain Chinese tourists feel relaxed during the trip. However, for those tour-groups of 30–40 tourists with a two-or-three-day-intensive itinerary in Barcelona, they would feel very exhausted because of the too-tight schedule even though the trip was supposed to be relaxed. “Generally independent tourists value higher than group tourists on the affective evaluation” (P01), and “some tourist routes organized by agencies are too intensive; tourist guides have obvious intention to take visitors to certain shopping points that have collaboration with the agencies” (P02). Tlili and Amara [36] suggest that positive emotions experienced during a trip, develop and emotional attachment and generate satisfaction, but, according to the interviews we can observe that the emotional bond between tour guides and tourists is not positively enough. On the other hand, certain tour-operators also mentioned “curious” and “excited” because of the special style of architecture compared to those in China. The results of the interviews also show that many Chinese tourists know about the information of the destination by the travel agencies or the tour guides, so the way that the travel agencies design their tourism products and the way that the tour guides present to the tourists are very important aspects of the tourist experience.

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5 Conclusions, Discussions and Practical Implications 5.1 Conclusions How to avoid the McDonalization of tourism products? How to enable tourists to experience the emotional connection with destinations during their travel? These are questions worth posing and discussing. This paper has attempted to address these questions using qualitative methods with aim of obtaining an initial scale of Barcelona’s city image as a tourist destination in the Chinese tourists’ eyes and summarizing aspects direct attention to Barcelona’s tourism products. Through the above analysis, the following conclusions are mainly drawn as a reference for the future design of Barcelona’s tourism products for Chinese tourists. • Barcelona’s cultural and historical sites are very attractive to Chinese tourists, such as: Barrio Gótico, Sagrada Familia, and many other sites of Gaudi’s modernist architecture. • For Chinese tourists, shopping is a very important part. Buying gifts to their relatives and friends is one of the Chinese customs. In the Chinese society context, giving gifts can be considered as “giving face”. Face refers to a person’s public self-image, which is an evaluation of a person regarding his or her status within a social structure [8]. Therefore, giving gifts is significant to give your relatives and friends’ faces. • The way that tour guides lead tourists to visit the city greatly affects tourists’ impression of the destination. In other words, whether a tourist can leave a good impression on the city or have an emotional connection with the city at that moment, tour guides are one of the important factors. The identity of the tour guide is not only to present a tourism product to the visitors, that is, to lead the tourist to the attractions, they are also cultural messengers of the tourist destination. In other words, whether or not visitors experience a correct perception of the tourist destination is a great test for tour guides.

5.2 Discussion Obtaining affective link between the visitor and the tourist destination is the key point of achieving the “Glocalization” of tourism product. In our study, the “affection” is considered as local ties and human relations [33]. The “local ties” refers to the ties to the local community of the destination and the human relations mostly refer to the relationship and communication between the tour guide and the tourists. Affection is the custom style of specific context. The initial meaning of tourism and tourism products is for non-native residents to experience the historic context of the destination, in addition to the intuitive visual appreciation, but also to understand the

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meaning behind it and feel the affective connection between the scenic spot or festival with local people, which is a real experience. Previous scholars [7, 26] indicate that “positive emotions are related to a higher propensity for tourists to revisit and recommend a destination” [19]. However, today many Chinese tourists still stay in the first-time/second-timeoutbound-trip phase, so the majority of the stakeholders use the “local features” as their promotional chips to attract foreign travelers. Their purpose is not so “humanized”, so there appear to be cursory and stepping-on-spots-style tours. For instance, when it comes to European travel, the vast majority of Chinese travelers choose a few days of multi-country-group tours, more sitting-on-the-bus time and more shopping time over, time for visiting scenic spots. In short, their vacation is on a very tight schedule. In this kind of tourism product, given this type of atmosphere and conditions, even if the visitors want to sufficiently feel and experience “something” it is quite difficult.

5.3 Practical Implications A number of practical implications arise from the study. According to the results and findings of the study, visiting cultural sites and historical architectures should be considered as part of the tourism products of Barcelona for the Chinese tourists. In addition, as the number of Chinese outbound tourists increases year by year, the majority of the Chinese tourists would already have outbound tourism experiences or even already visit European countries before visiting Barcelona. As such, the trend of Chinese outbound tourism is already materializing with the development of new tourism products, ranging from more mainstream tourist offerings to more specific focus and niche travels (from visiting global landmarks to looking for more in-depth travel experiences [38]. One of their tourism preferences is to know more about the local culture and experience the local lifestyle in a relatively quick way instead of only visiting the tourist attractions. Therefore, more experience activities should be added to the tourism products, such as paella workshops or wine tastings. Results also show that shopping is one of the important activities for Chinese tourists. In relation to this, service quality is a factor that Chinese tourists value a lot of a tourism product and a city’s image. Therefore, the quality of shopping services in Barcelona is significant, including services in the Chinese language and shopping guide services The quality of tour guide services in tourism products is crucial. The behavior, professional skills and problem-solving abilities of the tour guides need to be appropriately improved. In addition, the quality of communication and interaction between tour guides and tourists is also valued by tourists.

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Influence of Religions in the Development of Hospitality Culture in Asia—The Case of Tibet Xinru Liu, Duojie Suolang, and Xueying Lu

Abstract Religion, as one of fundamental elements in culture, is believed to exert some influence on traveler’s behavior and the interaction between the host and the guest. This paper aims at exploring how religion influences in the development of hospitality industry from both the demand and supply. Using Tibet for a case study, the paper finds out that the authentic lifestyle and religious behaviors of the Tibet people are the prominent elements towards hospitality. There is only limited direct interaction between tourists and the local people. Instead, intangible interaction occurs in tourists’ spiritual experience which creates an emotional link between them. From the host’s perspective, the influence of religion in the hospitality culture is mainly generated in the five major aspects. Business objective and principle, guest relation, human resources, public relationship and physical evidence are these major aspects.

1 Introduction Modern travel has led to remarkable growth in the Asian tourism industry. According to the World Tourism Organization, the number of international tourists in Asia and the Pacific recently reached 263.3 million (an increase of 5.4% since 2013). The total money spent has reached US$377 billion (up by 4% since 2013). The region accounts for around a quarter of tourist arrivals and one-third of money spent on tourism worldwide, which has significantly increased since 2010 [1]. The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) predicted Asian hospitality industry will continue to grow and the continent will become the driving focus of the worldwide tourism industry over the next decade. The rapid development of the Asian tourism and hospitality industry is not only thanks to regional economic growth, increased income level of X. Liu (B) · X. Lu Xiamen University of Technology, Xiamen, Fujian, China e-mail: [email protected] D. Suolang Tibet Vocational Technical College, Lhasa, China © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 Y. Luo et al. (eds.), Tourism Product Development in China, Asian and European Countries, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4447-7_9

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tourists, and reduced political barriers and travel restrictions [2], but also thanks to the unique cultures and experience [3]. In the field of tourism, hospitality can be interpreted as an interaction between a host and a guest [4]. Chon and Wan (2001) specifically define hospitality as a behavior that can add material comfort, convenience, and smoothness to social interactions [5]. Chon [6] further explained hospitality as a cultural domain with different degrees and types, including reluctant, contractual, religious, and cultural [7]. By this definition, hospitality varies from region to region and time to time because of diversified religious, social, and cultural practices. Scholars examined Asian hospitality from different angels. After comparing the cultural differences between the west and the east, Kolesnikov-Jesop [8] explained that Asian hospitality involves more cultural elements, emotional connections, and intangible words [8]. As the largest and most populous continent in the world, Asia varies greatly in these regards because of its diversified ethnic groups, cultures, and environments. It was believed that Asia was the origin of many of the world’s current mainstream religions, such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and more [9]. Religions, in particular, have been drawn attention in recent years because of the current international situation. There is no doubt that religions and culture are fundamentally linked [10], as religion relates to people’s daily lives and behaviors, such as their rituals, clothing styles, eating and drinking habits, social and political views, etc. [11]. It also influences travel behavior and interaction between host and guests [6]. With the development of the Asian hospitality industry, more and more attention has been paid to the unique characteristics and success secrets of Asian hospitality. However, as a fundamental cultural element, there is still few researcher studying the relationship between Asian religion and hospitality culture. Does religion influence the development of hospitality culture in Asia? If so, how does it influence that culture? What is tourists’ perception regarding to religions and hospitality? This study aims to explore the relationship between religions and Asian hospitality from both demand and supply sides. In particular, it will try to determine how religions influence the development of hospitality culture in Asia. This research attempts to answer these questions using Tibet as a case study, a small area greatly influenced by religion, to draw some preliminary conclusions for further studies.

2 Literature Review 2.1 Tibet Tibet, known as the “Roof of the World” and “the Third Pole”, refers to a geographic area in the Tibetan Plateau near Himalayan Mountains in China [12]. It is one of the most attractive tourism destinations in the world because of its unique natural resources and its mysterious cultural as well as religious allure [13]. Tourism to Tibet has increased dramatically since 2006 as a result of better promotion and improved

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accessibility. It has become an important sector in Tibet’s economy. According to the China National Tourism Administration (2016), the number of visitors has reached 20 million (an increase of 30% from 2014), while total money spent on tourism has reached US$28 billion (an increase of 25% from 2014). Wang (2015) studied the motivation of tourists and their perceived image of Tibet and found that religious experience is one of the most important motivations for those visiting Tibet [14].

2.2 Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism is the dominant religion in this region. According to the statistics, over 90% of the population of Tibet follow Tibetan Buddhism [15]. Originating from Mahayana Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism is known for its rich mythology, relief, and knowledge, as well as a strict value system. It has its own distinctive features, such as a combination of political and religious function, temple education and economy, as well as the reincarnation of the spiritual Buddha [16]. Four major branches of the religion have formed over the centuries, including Nyingma, Sagya, Gagyu, and Gelug. Despite being different, they all have common goals and features [12]. The elaboration of nature, life, and society in Tibetan Buddhism has great influenced the recent awareness of Tibet by the modern world. Reverence toward nature is one of the basic Tibetan Buddhism concepts. It was believed that the universe is composed of earth, water, fire, wind, air, and spirit. For thousands of years, a mysterious, snowy plateau was perceived as the embodiment of the Buddha [16]. Tibetan Buddhism also has a strong emphasis on the equality of all beings. It is believed that everyone has a potential to become Buddha (literally, an enlightened person who has already achieved inner peace and discovered the truth of the world) through meditation and spiritual practice. This can help practitioners achieve Moksa, releasing themselves from the cycle of rebirth [17]. Consequently, Tibetans pursue a spiritual life rather than a physical life, and accept their fate instead of fighting for a better life [16]. In addition, five precepts guide the individuals’ daily behavior, which cause them to abstain from harming living beings, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and intoxication [14]. In a nutshell, the key values of Tibetan Buddhism are loving, kindness, compassion, equity, clarity of mind, and wisdom (achieving inner peace). Besides, Tibetan Buddhism has great influence in literature, music, architecture, and medicine [18].

2.3 Religions and Hospitality There are some researches addressing the relationship between religions and tourism and hospitality. Poria et al. [19] suggested that religious relief can affect tourists’ perception of hospitality [19]. Weidenfeld and Ron [20] suggested the influence of religion on hospitality can be found on both tourists and hosts. For example, how

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a tourist selects their destination or product and what the host offers to their guests [20]. Kirillova, Gilmetdinova, and Lehto [21] examined how religions influence the constructed meaning of hospitality and its enactment in three different religions. It was found that, regardless to their religions, hospitality is defined as the relationship between the host and their own community, which is supported by religious teachings. However, different religions interpret hospitality in different ways. For example, in Buddhism, hospitality is delivered through practice, such as by donating food to monks or tramps on the street [21]. Rotman [22] described Buddhism hospitality as: “for a person of faith, the chance to make an offering a guest is tremendous opportunity to earn merit and plant new roots of virtue. One must treat “the guest, as a god”. While in Christian tradition, hospitality means treating people with kindness and generosity. Besides, differences were also found between private hospitality and commercial hospitality [22]. Religious value has a greater influence on private hospitality, while public hospitality is more profit driven [9]. Poria, Bulter and Airey [19] stated tourists’ strength of religious relief and their religious affiliation are linked to various aspect of the visitation patterns [19]. Deng [23] believed Tibetan Buddhism can increase the attractiveness of hospitality culture, enrich the tourists’ experience and satisfy tourists’ spiritual pursuit [23]. Conversely, after conducting the investigation in Muslim countries, Din [24] found that the behavior of guests could have a potentially negative impact on local traditions, cultures, lifestyles, and religious habits [25]. Other scholars further explained that this kind of influenced exits between the hosts and guests, even if they believe in the same religion [24]. In order to maintain harmony with local societies, Chan and Chon (2015) indicated the importance of respecting local culture and religions for Asia Brand Hotels when expanding worldwide. However, there is limited study addressing the relationship between religions and hospitality in Asian and exploring how religions influence Asian hospitality culture [7].

3 Methodology This study is an exploratory research that is trying to gain in-depth information. Therefore, a qualitative approach was applied in this study. A combination of content analysis, and in-depth interviews is utilized to explore the most comprehensive, descriptive, and explanatory data for each objective [26]. First, content analysis was used. The ten most popular travel dairies for Tibet were downloaded from Mafengwo, one of the largest and most popular travel sharing forum in China, provided comprehensive information about destinations, attractions, restaurants, etc. on August 12, 2016 (shown in Table 1). These ten articles were first screened. As this study explored the relationship between religions and hospitality, only data related to these topics was selected for further analysis. Then, data was labelled and grouped before establishing a formal encoding table. Second, primary data analysis through in-depth interviews with hotel owners was conducted (shown in Table 2). According to the objectives introduced previously,

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Table 1 Ten most popular traveling dairies from Mafengwo No.

Article

Posted time

1

Tibet, in the distance

Jun. 27, 2015

2

Memory in Tibet

Apr. 22, 2016

3

Image of Lhasa

Dec. 04, 2011

4

Cycling to Lhasa

Apr. 07, 2012

5

Cycling in Tibet, life and death

Oct. 25, 2012

6

Crossing Tibet

Aug. 16, 2016

7

Encounter Tibet

Sep. 25, 2015

8

Loafer of Lhasa

Sep. 21, 2016

9

That year in Tibet

Jan. 01, 2016

10

First time in Tibet

Jun. 11, 2016

Table 2 Four interviewees’ profile Interviewee

Hotel categories

Background

A

Bed and breakfast

Private hotel with a Tibetan owner

B

Hotel

State-owned hotel with a Tibetan general manager

C

Boutique hotel

Private hotel with a Tibetan owner

D

Luxury hotel

International Hotel Chain with a foreigner general manager

# of rooms 12 239 31 289

one open-ended interview question was developed, “How does the local religion affect the local hospitality culture?” Follow-up questions were also prepared, due to the interviewer’s wish to solicit a rich picture of how the participants perceived the influence of religion on hospitality culture. Four hotels offering different ranges of accommodations with different scales and ownerships in Tibet were selected. A brief profile of interview participants was provided in Table 2. The length of each in-depth interview was around 20–30 min. Because some of the interviewees answered the questions in Tibetan, there was a translator available during interview. As religion is a sensitive topic, only writing memos were used. The data was later translated into English to facilitate analysis.

4 Findings and Discussions 4.1 Tourists’ Perspective After labeling and grouping the article, a total six attributes were generated accordingly, which can be seen in Table 3. Obviously, the effect of religion is present in every

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Table 3 Four interviewee’s profile Attribute

Sub-attribute

The Tibetan People

Introverted; Simple Desires; Loving and Kind; Honest

Religious Behavior

Meditation; Religious Rituals (e.g. Circumambulation walks; Kowtowing to Buddha; Chanting; Meditation)

Authentic Lifestyle

Teahouse; Traditional Food; Customs; Traditional Houses

Spiritual Experience

Peaceful Atmosphere; Self-reflection

Interaction

Taking Pictures; Observation; Smiles

Facilities and Service

Lack of Profession; Religious Design and Decorations; Tibetan Style Greeting

aspect of tourists’ journeys in Tibet. The Tibetan people, including their authentic lifestyle and religious behaviors, were the most frequent mentioned element in the travel journals. From the tourists’ descriptions, it was found that the Tibetan people were shy and introverted, but expressed sincerity and kindness from the bottom of their hearts, which allowed them to easily create emotional connections with visitors. Another distinguished factor of the Tibetan people is that they all concentrated on religious activities such as meditation, kowtowing to Buddha, circumambulation walks, and chanting, which were perceived as attractions for tourists. Unlike other destinations in China (e.g. Lijiang, Guilin), Tibet is far less commercialized. Although there are some areas, like Barkhor Street, that are full of stores and commercial activities, the Tibetan people have generally retained their original lifestyle. For example, the teahouse, just like bars and coffee shops in Western countries, is the social center in Tibet. This is in accordance with the values of Tibetan Buddhism that followers pursue inner peace and a spiritual life and don’t like to change. They accept their fate and engage in spiritual practices in hopes of a better rebirth [16]. This is why such an authentic lifestyle can be retained in Tibet. According to travel dairies, Tibet is also different from other destinations due to the direct interactions between tourists and local people, which were generally described as welcoming, but limited within Tibet. This distance between tourists and Tibetan people may be due to the language and cultural barriers. However, limited direct interaction didn’t create obstacles. Tourists can feel sincerity and kindness from the smiles and behavior of Tibetans. On the contrary, the interaction between the Tibetan people and tourists occurs in its own kind of spiritual experience. Interestingly, during their travels, tourists expressed their thoughts regarding life, reflected on themselves, overcome personal difficulties they encountered, and released themselves from suffering. They started to think about the meaning of life. They started to pay attention to their spiritual growth. This kind of intangible interaction creates an emotional link between host and guest. Although, they didn’t say a word to show their hospitality, the behaviors of the Tibetan people had already influenced the tourists. It was noted that the Tibetan people are willing to help those in need. It was common to see Tibetan people donating money and food to beggars and pilgrims

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in the street. Unlike in other destinations worldwide, authentic Tibetan people are willing to take photos with tourists without asking for payment. This is in line with the key values if Tibetan Buddhism, such as love and kindness. It also confirmed the belief of the previous study that hospitality is supported by religious teachings [21]. Moreover, the majority of tourists mentioned that they felt safe and comfortable despite the strong religious environment. “Harmless”, “trustworthy”, “kind”, and “law-abiding” were most frequently mentioned descriptors of the Tibetan people by tourists. These terms are, of course, in accordance with Tibetan Buddhism’s five precepts, which guide Tibetans’ daily behavior and push them to abstain from harming living beings, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and intoxication. When describing their accommodations, tourists were impressed by the Tibetan greeting (e.g. Hada, a piece of silk presented as a greeting gift for guests), as well as the design and decorations of their hotels. However, the quality of service and facilities were a source of complaint from many tourists in the travel diaries. This may be due in part to the environmental stress of the plateau. Another reason may be because the Tibetans are satisfied with the existing state and condition due to their religious beliefs.

4.2 Hosts’ Perspective There are many aspects mentioned by informants in this study. It is found that the influence of religion can be seen in the five areas: (a) Business objective and principle; (b) Guest relation; (c) Human resources; (d) Public relation; and (e) Physical evidence. First, religion has great influence over how Tibetan people do business. Although earning profits is the pre-condition for running a hotel, the Tibetan people are not profit-driven. They don’t have long-term goals or strategic plans. They believe every single individual in this world has his or her own duty and obligation. They emphasize spiritual practice instead of profit gaining. Besides, they have their own principles and bottom line when doing business. For example, when talking about business philosophy, one of the interviewees mentioned that he attempts to promote Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan culture through their hotel: For a long time, there are many misunderstandings about Tibet. Actually, as you can see, we are all kind, friendly and easy to get along with. I think it is my obligation to promote Tibet and its culture to people from around the world. I am not saying profits are not important. Earning profits is the basic requirement for survival. We have our own relief.—Interviewee 3

Promoting Tibetan culture and its religion in this respect contributes to the interviewee’s sense of belonging. What the interviewee 3 emphasized is not about business operation but the obligation of keeping one’s faith. Besides obligation, another interviewee stated that:

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We have our principles or bottom line when we are doing business. For example, we will never lie or cheat. This is guided by Buddhism.—Interviewee 1

Besides, guest relation is another aspect mentioned by interviewees. They try to introduce some religious elements into their service to enhance guests’ experience. For example, some hotels greet guests by presenting Hada (a traditional ceremonial white silk scarf of Buddha) to show their respect and warmest welcome. Some hotels greet guests by singing Tibetan traditional songs and dancing or throwing barley on Chema (religious ritual for pray) to pray for good luck. Traditional food and beverage such as yak butter tea is offered as well. They try to tangibilize those intangible elements to involve guests in their culture. For example, one of the interviewees mentioned: We always welcome strangers in our house. If there is no tea in our house, the family will make tea for you.—Interviewee 2

Human resources with religious background is another aspect stressed by interviewees. This kind of influence is a double-edged sword. Obviously, the Tibetan people are kind, honest, sincere and helpful and they respect other living beings. This kind of nature makes them easier to be trained and managed in the service industry. However, they have few desires and accept their fate instead of fighting for a better future. It is believed that every single individual in the world has the potential to be a Buddha. As a result, it is difficult for them to make progress and plan their future career. On the other hand, they pay attention to meditation and inner spiritual practice which will reduce their interaction with guests as well as affect the service quality. For example, one of the interviewees stated: It seems difficult for them to pay attention to details. They concentrate on spiritual practice so much. Even in the workplace, they are chanting. They all believe every living being in the world is equal. They are not doing the job. Instead, they are performing their duties.— Interviewee 4

This can account for some guests’ complaints. They thought the hotel staff lacked profession and efficiency. Another frequently mentioned aspect is public relation. As Tibet is a place with strong religious culture, it is impossible to maintain the public relation without being affected by the influence of religion. For example, as an international hotel Chain, Hotel D tried to embrace the local community and culture. Although a large portion of the staff are non-Tibetan and believe in other regions, they respect the local religion and maintain harmony with the local communities. Additionally, recruiting and developing more Tibetan talents are another aspect mentioned by the interviewees: Although globalization is our development strategy, the number of Tibetan employees has taken up 50% of the total number. We will continuously recruit, train and develop more local talents.—Interviewee 4

Moreover, religion also influences the authenticity of hotels in Tibet in terms of physical evidence such as design or decoration. For example, there are some Hadas hanging on the top of the gateway. Some religious symbols are sued such as the

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Ashtamangala, a suite of Eight Auspicious Signs symbolizing good luck. Although, as a part of cultural elements, the religious design or decoration might be attractive, it might also create some cultural distance between the host and the guest. Based on the previous discussion, it can be seen that religion plays an important role in local hospitality culture from the host’s perspective. However, there are some differences. It seems that private sectors and small-scale hotels are more deeply influenced by religion in terms of business objectives and guest relation, while public sectors and large-scale hotel chains are more influenced in the aspects of human resources and public relation. This might be due to the survival stress of largescale hotels in the increasingly competitive environment. In the private sector, the owners have more freedom and authority to do what they want and fulfill their obligation. In other words, the influence of region in hospitality culture varies by the commercialization level of hotels. However, the results show that some inner and deeper value of Tibetan Buddhism do guide and influence local hospitality culture either from the aspect of management or public relation. These results are different from those of previous studies which state that commercial hospitality is a business unrelated to religion [21].

5 Conclusion and Recommendation Religion, as a fundamental element of culture, is believed to have influence on traveler behavior and the interaction between the host and the guest [27]. In order to examine the influence of religion in hospitality culture from both the demand and the supply side, Tibet, a small place greatly influenced by religion, was used for the case study. A content analysis was done on the ten most popular traveling dairies and in-depth interviews were carried out with owners from four hotels. The findings suggested that religion is presented in every aspect of tourists’ experience in Tibet. The Tibetan people, as well as their authentic lifestyle and religious behaviors were the most frequently mentioned elements. Concentrating on meditation and spiritual practice and pursuing inner peace are the core reason for retaining the authentic lifestyle in Tibet. Although people can feel sincerity and kindness from the local people, the interaction between tourists and the Tibetan people is limited. The results also showed that authentic Tibetan people are willing to help others which is in line with the key values of Tibetan Buddhism. Interestingly, the interaction between tourists and the Tibetan people occurs in their own spiritual experience. This kind of intangible influence creates an emotional link between the host and the guest even though they do not say a word to show their hospitality. Besides, “Harmless”, “Trustworthy”, “Kind” and “law-abiding” were most mentioned words when tourists described the Tibetan people. These are in accordance with Tibetan Buddhism’s five precepts. Additionally, tourists can experience hospitality through some special religious rituals (e.g. greeting gift) and physical evidence (e.g. design and decoration). However, the lack of profession and efficiency in the practical service is a source of

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complaints from tourists. This might be due to the environmental constraints as well as the local people’s religious beliefs. Five aspects including business objective and principle, guest relation, human resources, public relation and physical evidence from the host’s perspective were examined. The results revealed that the Tibetan people are not profit-driven and strictly follow their duty and obligation. They try to realize the intangible religious elements and integrate them into their service. For example, they present Hada, a traditional ceremonial scarf of Buddha, to show their respect and warmest welcome. Tibetan human resources is an important asset but also a challenge as they concentrate on meditation and inner spiritual practice which may reduce the interaction between the hotel staff and guests as well as affect the service quality. In terms of public relation, the hotels are trying to embrace the local community, respect local religions and maintain harmony with local societies. By comparison, the influence of religion in hospitality culture varies by the commercialization level of hotels. However, some inner and deeper value of Tibetan Buddhism do guide and influence local hospitality culture, which make the culture more unique and special. As an exploratory research study, this paper has its limitations. First, only ten traveling dairies from the website were examined. The authors have provided some information regarding their experience in Tibet, it does not necessarily mean that they have told their real experience. Second, only four interviewees from the hotels have participated in the in-depth interview. In future studies, more data and information should be collected through different methods.

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Role of Tourism Products to Promote Iran’s Image as a Destination via Social Media Mahdieh Jahangir Bolourchian and Mahdi Karroubi

Abstract This paper examines the role of tourism products for promoting Iran’s image as a destination through social media. Instagram is selected for the study due to its popularity and availability in the world and in the country. The study uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to identify the factors that have impact on the destination image and distinguishing the sampling community. The sampling community for qualitative part is a group of tourism experts. For the quantitative part of study, a set of international tourists who visited or willing to visit Iran is used. The study analyzes the situation of the destination image appeared in the Instagram and comes up with suggestions to improve. It shows that tourism products appeared on social media play an important role to attract more tourists to the destination. Keywords Destination image · Social media · Tourism products · Tourism

1 Introduction and Theoretical Foundations Tourism is an industry connected with economic growth and profit and the influence of inbound tourism on national economies is becoming increasingly important [1]. Tourism industry changed into one of the main sources of income for the governments over the recent years, and its profitability growth index is of great importance and value [2, 3]. Tourism is a multifaceted industry with political, social and economic aspects [4]. In addition to economical and commercial profits, attracting international tourists can have social, cultural and political impacts on the destination country [5]. The growth in tourism in every country brings along economic prosperity, employment and increase tourism product development. Thus the strategic plans are based on a particular structure to deploy Tourism products in order to attract more foreign tourists and achieve economic profit [6]. Attracting tourists in economic, religious, M. Jahangir Bolourchian (B) · M. Karroubi Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran e-mail: [email protected] M. Karroubi e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 Y. Luo et al. (eds.), Tourism Product Development in China, Asian and European Countries, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4447-7_10

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cultural and even medical sectors is considered one of the methods that can generate considerable income for the destination country [7].

1.1 Tourism Product Tourism product has an important role to attract tourist to a destination. There is a difference between what is called product and what is a site. The product is often the package that can include the site in itself. But there are other elements in the package including the access road, accommodation, transportation and other facilities which can turn a site into a Tourism product. On the contrary, a destination usually offers several products to its visitors, with each distinct travel experience constituting a tourist product [8].

1.2 Destination Image of Iran Destination image is a fundamental factor in travelers’ selection of a destination, since it influences their behavior [9–13]. In this context, ‘image’ can be defined as mental concept formed from a set of impressions [14]. There is a cognitive element to the image created in the minds of tourists that depends on the quality and quantity of available information. In contrast, the affective part of the image is formed based on each individual’s characteristics [9, 14]. As for Iran, the country is usually on top of the news of mainstream media for political headlines and there is few information on major news outlets about its cultural, natural and historical heritage and the development of tourism products in the country. For the same reason, the visual portrayal of Iran in the mainstream media is often not in favor of the country’s tourism industry. The perception of tourists is often such as civil war or lack of security in Iran. It is also perceived as an undeveloped country. These all have led to a different and often exaggerated image of Iran as a destination among other nations. As a result, it has a negative impact on attracting foreign tourists to the country. Portrayal of Iran as a country with undeveloped infrastructures and lack of tourism products is the factor that demotivates foreign tourists for travelling to Iran.

1.3 Social Media Marketing Of the main relevant tools for attracting tourists is social media and similar platforms. The communication platforms connect different classes of people to each other, is one of the best and most appropriate tools to advertise the destination, and in other words, a different type of marketing [15]. We live in a knowledge-based

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era and the social media is one of the main sources of information used by many people worldwide [16]. Social media platforms are also considered very important in communications. The importance comes from the fact that many people can get knowledge about destinations that they have not traveled to [17, 18]. Social media became as an integral part of the path leading the visitors to find exactly what they are looking for, and making the tourist destination a perfect fit. Of all the Social media platforms, Instagram plays a significant role on destination image through developing direct communication with the people of the destination country. The form of communication in Instagram is visual and this helps a lot to create an image in the mind of the users and to establish a perception about tourism and travel in that country. Stereotypical misconceptions about Iran should be corrected in order to succeed in the field of tourism. The social media is considered an important tool to improve the destination image because it provides the possibility of direct interaction with the people from other countries. Besides that, it helps to identify the effective factors that can help Iran’s tourism sector to plan and improve image of Iran as a tourist destination. With the same purpose, the present study analyzes the impacts of a social media such as Instagram on Iran’s image as a destination and identifies the factors that can improve the way that the country is perceived by international tourists.

2 Research Methodology The present study is considered a mixed method research. By identifying the main indicators through qualitative methods and semi-structured interviews, it conducts a descriptive, correlational and inferential study into the research variables.

3 Sample Community The population of the qualitative part of the research includes all relevant experts in the tourism industry. Nine experts were selected to be interviewed, through targeted sampling. The population of quantitative part are the international tourists that visit Iran and use Instagram. In quantitative part of research due to lack of access and dispersion, the members of the research population were selected from among the available community. Cochran formula was used to determine the size of quantitative sample. n= n=

z 2 pq d2

(1/96)2 (0/5)(1 − 0/5) ≈ 385 (0/5)(1 − 0/5)

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where n minimum required sample size p trait distribution ratio in population zα/2 the value obtained from standard normal distribution table (in this research, the value obtained from the Standard normal distribution table is 1.96 considering an error value of 0.05) d the error accepted by the researcher or the tolerance interval of the estimation of the given parameter (that is usually considered to be 0.05 in social sciences). The point that should be considered here is that if value of p is not available, then it can be considered 0.5. In which case, this formula provides the greatest and most conservative possible number; This value has been considered 0.5 in the present study as well. By placing the parameters in the formula, the sample size will be 384.16, which will be used as the basis for analysis.

4 Research Tools In order to continue the research, the social media factors that has impact on image of Iran as a destination were identified and analyzed initially from the perspective of qualitative interview and study of the theoretical foundations. Later the questionnaire for the quantitative part of the research was developed accordingly. At first, the psychometric features of the created tools we examined (Table 1). The value of AVE indicator is greater than 0.50 for all variables of the research. Since the convergent validity is confirmed when the explained average variance extracted (AVE) is greater than 0.50; therefore, we can say that the convergent validity is confirmed for all variables of the research. Also, the reliability of each component, which indicates the intrinsic fit of the examined variables, in all components of more than 0.7, represents an instrumental capability. Table 1 Examination of the psychometric features of the questionnaire designed by the researcher

Component

Construct validity

Cronbach’s coefficient alpha

Composite reliability

Tourism products

0.742

0.856

0.898

Cost of traveling in Iran

0.738

0.827

0.862

Hospitality of locals

0.743

0.815

0.848

Safety

0.717

0.774

0.823

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5 Findings Examination of the descriptive characteristics of the population shows that they are aged between 22 and 57 years, out of whom 79% are male, more than 88% are married and more than 52% of the population had an active Instagram account.

5.1 Inferential Findings According to the findings obtained from the qualitative section, 28 indicators were shown as the effective factors of social media (Instagram) on destination image. In the following, the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed for these factors. The fundamental structure of the variables and the associated factors were examined. KMO indicator and Bartlett’s test were employed in exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to make sure that the current data can be used for analysis. KMO indicator is examined to determine the sampling adequacy through the evaluation of lowness of partial correlation among the variables. According to the obtained results, KMO indicator shows the value near 1 indicating the adequacy of the data related to the identified effective factors for factor analysis. The significance level of 0.001 for Bartlett’s indicates the appropriateness of the research variable for factor analysis. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed through the principal component analysis and varimax rotation. The factors with extraction communalities greater than 0.5 were placed in one category according to the research literature and experts’ views, and the variables whose extraction communalities were smaller than 0.5, were removed. Of course, this is done in phases, starting from the variables with lower extraction communalities values. In the following, the steps of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) for each construct will be shown. According to the performed analysis, the size of three indicators were less than 0.5 that were removed, and the factors affecting the perception of the international tourists towards Iran based on the social media were analyzed. According to the results obtained from the qualitative section, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed for 25 identified above 0.05 and the obtained results will be mentioned in the following (Table 2). In the following, we will examine and identify the main components based on the current indicators. In Table 3, we see the extraction of the main components based on Kaiser Criterion such that each component with Eigenvalues greater than 1 is selected as the main component. As it can be seen in the table, there are four factors include Eigenvalues greater than 1 and the total five factors explain 80% of the current indicators variance of the given variable. Accordingly, the results obtained from exploratory factor analysis (EFA) show that four main factors can be identified from twenty-five existing indicators. These

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Table 2 Indicators commonalities Questions

Initial commonalities

Extraction commonalities

1

1.0000

0.852

3

1.0000

0.741

5

1.0000

0.711

7

1.0000

9

1.0000

11

Initial commonalities

Extraction commonalities

2

1.0000

0.745

4

1.0000

0.651

6

1.0000

0.802

0.715

8

1.0000

0.717

0.843

10

1.0000

0.741

1.0000

0.810

12

1.0000

0.689

13

1.0000

0.745

14

1.0000

0.637

15

1.0000

0.732

16

1.0000

0.743

17

1.0000

0.612

18

1.0000

0.699

19

1.0000

0.629

20

1.0000

0.712

21

1.0000

0.698

22

1.0000

0.748

23

1.0000

0.779

24

1.0000

0.889

25

1.0000

0.758

Table 3 Items variance explained by factors

Questions

Total

Variance percentage

Variance cumulative percent

First

3.147

31.54

31.54

Second

2.558

22.15

53.69

Third

2.115

15.10

68.79

Fourth

1.998

11.18

79.97

factors were named according to the expert’s views and the content analysis of the concepts of tourism capability and products, prices and costs of tourism in Iran, reaction of people to tourists and tourism reception and safety of the region. In the following, Friedman test was employed to give importance to the variables and to rank them in terms of the extent of business strategy effect on export performance, leading to following results (Table 4). Table 4 Results of Friedman test to rank the variables under study

Dimensions

Mean rank

Rank

Safety

3.00

1

Tourism products

2.71

2

Costs of traveling in Iran

2.04

3

Hospitality of the locals

1.99

4

Sig = 0.001 df = 3 X2 1051/46

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As it is obvious from the results obtained from Friedman test, among the factors presented, the factors with greatest role on Iran’s image through social media are in following order: Safety, tourism products, cost of traveling in Iran and Hospitality of the locals. Tourism products stand in second place based on the research.

6 Conclusion This study examines the role of Tourism product to promote Iran’s image as a destination through social media. The method of the research is both qualitative and quantitative, to identify the factors that can have impact on Iran’s image as a destination and to distinguish the sampling community. The sampling community for qualitative part of the research are tourism experts and the sampling community for quantitative part, were the international tourists who visited or willing to visit Iran. The study shows that one of the reasons behind the relatively low numbers of international tourists in Iran originates from the negative political portrayal of the country in the mainstream media. This portrayal is often on the other side of the tourism potentials of the country and leads to ignoring Iran’s cultural, historical and natural capabilities. The result also indicates that portrayal of the following factors on social media like Instagram can have an impact on attracting international tourists: (1) Safety, (2) Tourism products (3) Cost of traveling (4) Hospitality of locals. Of which, the portraying the tourism product of the country, stands in second place. These results are in accordance with other relevant investigations conducted about the same subject such as those of Diedrich [19] and Anup et al. [20]. Based on this paper, it would be helpful for Iran’s inbound tourism to present a fair image of Iran to the global community on the social media such as Instagram, especially by posting images of the infrastructures and tourism products in the country. Instagram could be considered as visual tool which bring together Iranians, those who visited Iran and potential tourists willing to travel, to exchange information about safety of the country as well as the quality of tourism products offered to tourists.

7 Limitation and Possible Future Research One of the limitations of this research is that most tourists who visit Iran are considered silver tourists. Silver tourists are the type of tourists who travel after retirement, because they have more free time and enough financial assets to buy tour packages. On the other hand, they are from older generations and they are not often familiar with the social media.

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The other limitation is that the result cannot be also applied for the Chinese market as many Chinese do not use Instagram as a social media platform. For future research, considering popular applications in China such as WeChat can give a better perspective toward the major impact of social media on country’s image as a destination, including the Chinese outbound tourism market.

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19. Diedrich, A., Aswani, S.: Exploring the potential impacts of tourism development on social and ecological change in the Solomon Islands. Ambio 45(7), 808–818 (2016). https://doi.org/ 10.1007/s13280-016-0781-x 20. Anup, K.C., Rijal, K., Sapkota, R.P.: Role of ecotourism in environmental conservation and socioeconomic development in Annapurna conservation area, Nepal. J. Int. J. Sustain. Dev. World Ecol. 22(3), 251–258 (2014)

Let’s Talk About Chinese Tourism, but Fertility Águeda Parra Pérez

Abstract The main goal of the study presented in this paper is to assess the progress and impact of the so-called ‘fertility tourism’ after the end of the one-child policy in China. The nature of the relationship between birth rate and fertility tourism is discussed. The paper tries to determine whether fertility tourism could be an opportunity for Spain to become an under-the-radar alternative to Chinese travellers. With some analysis on China’s changing demography related to one-child family planning policy, a comprehensive overview is provided for both Chinese tourists’ arrivals and expenditure in Spain. The fertility benchmark criteria for international fertility treatment destinations are then applied to discuss Spain’s potential role as a valuable fertility destination for Chinese travellers and travellers all over the world. Keywords Medical tourism · Chinese tourism · IVF treatment · Fertility · One-child policy

1 Objective and Methodology The main aim of this study is to assess progress and impacts of the so-called ‘fertility tourism’ after the end of the one-child policy in China. The nature of the relationship between birth rate and fertility tourism has not been extensively discussed as it carries a negative connotation still associated with fertility treatments in Chinese society. It is also because social and economic issues impact the patient’s decision of a medical tourism destination. In this scenario, the study tries to determine whether fertility tourism could be an opportunity for Spain to become an under-the-radar alternative to Chinese travellers. With some relevant figures on China’s changing demography related to one-child family planning policy, a comprehensive overview is provided for both Chinese tourists’ arrivals and expenditure whilst in Spain, as well as fertility benchmark criteria for international fertility treatment destinations, which are key to determine Spain’s potential role as a valuable destination worldwide. Á. Parra Pérez (B) Cátedra China, Madrid, Spain e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 Y. Luo et al. (eds.), Tourism Product Development in China, Asian and European Countries, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4447-7_11

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The following sections start with an explanation of the methodology and limits of the research. An overview of the methodological approach is provided to move on to describe the context of the annual newborn population within the demographic evolution approach, China’s Achilles Heel. Next, the study gives insights into Spain’s position in the reproductive medicine arena, followed by the evaluation of the impacts and consequences of capturing this kind of tourism for Spain as the second world’s leading tourism brand. As a conclusion, China’s medical tourism comes up with a number of possible scenarios where the most likely outcome may positively promote Spain’s ability to attract an increasing number of Chinese tourists willing to seek destinations overseas. This assessment has been carried out on the basis of a combination of evaluation tools including indicators (demographic data, tourist flow, international tourist arrivals), context indicators (GDP growth, household income, average expenditure per tourist), social and cultural analysis indicators (factors for planning overseas travel itineraries) and medical indicator (in vitro fertilization (IVF) success rate). Therefore, the analysis of each of these topics is informed by the fact-finding work, document reviews and quantitative and qualitative information gathering. This deskbased research relies on extensive data collection from international sources and the analysis has been completed with an in-depth literature review across the main research topics, namely medical tourism, IVF treatment destinations and the most up-to-date tourism statistics. The challenge facing analysis of tourism market revolves around difficulties in establishing reliable estimates of Chinese inbound tourism market to Spain bearing in mind the border-free Schengen Area enables free movements and, ultimately, in assessing whether medical tourism growth can translate into tourism growth. A particularly complex aspect is the estimation of which percentage growth rate is more likely to be captured. This study presents an analytics-based approach of tourism trends and the best positioned countries leading in vitro fertilization treatments. Focus is drawn on criteria of tourist decision-making based on assessing the factors influencing destination choice, comprising motivational and concern factors. To provide a systematic analysis, the appraisal involves comparing data in the two main fields of study (China tourism trends and competitive destinations for in vitro fertilization). The study also considers three additional areas (economic growth and socio-political changes in China, the emergence of the middle class, average spending per Chinese visitor) in order to assess whether the medical tourism forecast could develop a niche market generating a significant Chinese tourism growth to Spain. The sections of this study comprising ‘The Birth Rate, China’s Achilles Heel’, ‘Tourism and Science, a Successful Couple’ and ‘Tourism Yes, but Fertility’ describe the implications arising from China’s demography situation after the implementation of a nationwide family planning policy, as well as the establishment of a comprehensive evaluation of the degree of coupling between tourism industry and advanced medical treatments. These sections have been prepared after a thorough study of several articles, specific and focused research, and considering the analysis of core tourism indicators data.

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2 Literature Review In order to assess the evolution of Chinese outbound tourism to Spain and travel motivations drawn to a specific destination, relevant data from the European Travel Commission and the Delegation of the European Union to China have been analysed, in addition to figures from Asociación de Turismo España-China (ATEC) [30], National Statistics Institute (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE) [38], Turespaña [41], National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS) [17], the World Bank [39] and the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) [23]. In relation to destinations for in vitro fertilization treatments, this study has collected highly valuable qualitative and quantitative data from the report on crossborder reproductive care prepared by the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) [19] and Asociación Nacional para Problemas de Infertilidad (ASPROIN) [31]. Following on from this, China’s main macroeconomic indicators have been analysed to calibrate the potential contribution to economic growth and tourism development. Finally, the study briefly outlines the impact for Spain as a fertility tourism destination by attracting a significant percentage of China’s booming medical tourism. This research has addressed the difficult task of dealing with different sources and different methods of data analysis. Moreover, data offered by the National Statistics Institute and Turespaña considerably show more modest numbers of Chinese visitors than the information offered by ATEC. A border-free Schengen Area guarantees that visitors from outside the European Union move freely, making it increasingly difficult to determine the real number of inbound tourist arrivals per country. Considering data discrepancies across multiple sources, the assumption made in estimating different scenarios of Spain capturing Chinese medical travellers takes ATEC’s tourist arrivals as the preferred reference data. The challenges of one-child family planning policy have been featured in some publications considering the impact of moving to a national two-child policy as a measure to bring about a more balanced population growth [1], and the changes occurred since the new birth policy reform came into force [2]. Furthermore, comparing “selective two-child policy” to universal two-child policy as the means to adjust the current fertility policy with a clear aim at alleviating an ageing population [3] has also been featured. More recently, the context of fertility and family planning in China has been more deeply explained with insights in reproductive medicine and family planning in China and in filial piety as a traditional value in Chinese society [4]. Other assessments address some indications of the incidence of cross border reproductive care assessing the major socio-demographic characteristics, the reasons for seeking treatment outside the country of residence [5], as well as the context of the state-of-the-art of reproductive technologies around the world [6]. Regarding travelling abroad, insights into visa-free travel setting the political decisions as a key factor that influences the number of visa-free privileges offered [7] have been analysed. More specifically,

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enhancement measures and factors related to visa exemption that affect Chinese tourists’ travel decision-making [8], and how the outstanding natural and cultural tourism dimensions of Spanish attractions could leverage the destination branding and nation branding [9] have also been reviewed. Specific motivations and needs related to outbound medical tourists from China [10] combined with an analysis of preferred destinations to carry out this type of treatment [11–14] provide a narrative overview of the current state of knowledge.

3 The Birth Rate, China’s Achilles Heel Some might think 1,380 million people is a large enough population, or even overpopulation. However, depending on the desired objective, it may result in an insufficient amount. This is the case of China, the most populated country in the world, where 18% of the world’s population lives. But the possibility of becoming an advanced economy could be threatened by not having a young population. China’s population issue occurs as a result of the one-child policy, considered the greatest social experiment in history where women became the government’s instrument to implement the family planning model that best served the country’s developmental goals. During the last 20 years prior to 1979, when the one-child policy was implemented, Chinese population grew at a rate of 45%, and overpopulation was one of the greatest limitations to the country’s development. After 39 years of implementation of the model, the results were evident, registering a lower population growth rate, barely 13% during the last two decades before its removal. The one-child policy had in the Han ethnicity, which constitutes the largest ethnic group in China, its main objective, excluding from this ban all other ethnic minorities in the country and the rural population, to whom a less strict rule were applied. After almost four decades, the Chinese government faces the challenge of an ageing society that threatens the country’s economic development [1], a circumstance that would not be that complex if this family planning model had been eliminated a decade ago. Paradoxically, if control of the population, or more specifically the overpopulation, was one of the first measures taken by Deng Xiaoping in 1978 to address the period of reforms and economic openness that has led the country to become the second world power, the population issue, this time decreasing, again becomes the main challenge China must face if it wants to become a global power by 2050 [15]. Considered as a national emergency issue, the latest official data of 15.23 million new births in 2018 confirm a decrease of 2 millions of childbirths compared to 2017. Considering it is estimated that up to 51% of new births will be the second child of the families, the situation of the Chinese population in the short to medium term becomes even more complicated, as it highlights the decreasing desire for young couples to have their first child. In the first year of application, the new policy had the positive effect of significantly increasing the figure of new births by 16.55 million children in 2015, although insufficient for the government’s aims to encourage a greater number of couples to have a second child [16].

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Fig. 1 Annual newborn population in China. Source Prepared by the author based on data supplied by China’s National Bureau of Statistics, 2019

After the good outcomes recorded during the first year, 2016 means, nevertheless, a turning point in the birth rate in China [2], highlighting the beginning of a significant decrease in the number of new births, as shown in Fig. 1. The 17.23 million newborn children in 2017 are 630,000 less than those registered the previous year, according to official sources. This figure is also significantly lower than the 17.86 million newborn children in 2016, the first year after the one-child policy ban being lifted, having been in effect for almost four decades between 1979 and 2015. Without a significant increase in new births, China faces with few guarantees the challenge of accomplishing the country’s transition to become an advanced economy. Hence, the government has taken urgent measures to reverse this situation by eliminating any reference to ‘family planning’ in the draft of the new civil code that is scheduled to come into force in 2020. With this measure, the Chinese government aims to reverse the issue of having a labour force between 16 and 59 years old reaching 902 million people in 2017, 5 million less than the previous year, whereas the population over 65 years old increases to reach 158 million, 11.4% of the population and 8 million people more than in 2016, according to official sources. If this trend continues, by 2030 China would have a population over 65 years larger than young people under 14 years, adding 100 million more Chinese to the already 158 million that are part of this senior group in 2017, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China. This means adding up an ageing population that equals that of Spain and Italy combined. Furthermore, in 2030, people over 60 will be almost a quarter of China’s population, a significant increase from the 13% they represented in 2010. The forecasts do not reflect a very optimistic outlook [3], and the risk could be even higher in 2050, when it is expected that the current dependency ratio of 7 workers per retiree will be placed at a ratio of 2 to 1, making the country’s growth unsustainable. As China’s population ages rapidly, the shortage of new births puts the country’s economic growth at risk. To achieve the desired economic development level, the

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country requires a population of 1,450 million people in 2030, a figure that is beginning to be unattainable at this time. Some of the major projects promoted by the Chinese government depends on achieving this challenge. Initiatives such as Made in China 2025 and Healthy China 2030, which aim to turn the Asian giant into an innovative power in the coming decades, depend to a large extent on achieving the ‘rejuvenation of the population’ that the Chinese government aims to boost. The decrease in the number of births means the middle-income trap would threaten the Asian giant, in essence, it would have an ageing population and the scenario could lead to the collapse of its economic growth, before managing to overcome the per capita income of $25,000 established by the International Monetary Fund as average income [18]. Failing to improve birth rates, Chinese economy will begin to register growth rates below the current 7%, which could be 5% in 2020 and reach 4%, or lower, in 2030, according to some analysts. This means China has only about two decades to be able to achieve the advanced-economy level.

4 Tourism and Science, a Successful Couple The new Chinese government family planning model puts an end to its 39-year onechild policy, thereby generating an explosion in the number of couples who, having fertility problems [4] and having enough economic resources, seek help overseas, making the fertility tourism a booming market [32]. With the forecast of medical tourism doubling up in 2020 up to 900,000 trips, Spain has the opportunity to position itself as a pivotal country among fertility tourism destinations [5] for Chinese couples, opening up a new way to the shortage of fertility centres in the country, taking into account China has 40 million couples with fertility problems, according to official data. Spain has in its favour the fact it already concentrates 40% of the European fertility treatments, mainly due to having a very high-quality reproductive medicine, according to European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology

The position of Spain as a tourist destination is still very weak in Chinese society [20] and under no circumstances, it is associated with the treatment of fertility techniques [37]. From the point of view of the promotion of our country as an international tourist destination among Chinese citizens, the recent initiative of the 2018 EU-China Tourism Year [33] has proved to be a great boost to foster the arrival of a greater number of Chinese visitors to Europe, and to Spain. However, there is still unfinished business as regards the visa issue that, if overcame, could boost the growth of Chinese tourism between 7% and 18% from 2018 to 2023, according to a report by the European Travel Commission [21]. Regarding the visa issue, the improvements could come from the fact of considering enhancement measures in the issuance [7], or even a possible exemption, in the Morocco and Tunisia style, which have achieved a three-digit increase in the number of Chinese visitors by just applying this measure. In the case of fertility tourism,

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the application of exemptions [8], or considering the issuance of visas adjusted to the time required for this type of treatment, would be a matter to be taken into account among Chinese couples who consider opting for Spain as a destination for the provision of these services. Spain received authorization from Beijing as a tourist destination in 2004, and on average Spanish consulates take 15 days on visa processing, compared to the five days Italy takes, 3 days in Germany, whereas in France it is possible to have a visa in only one day. Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, as traditional sources of issuing of Chinese tourism, hold the current headquarters of the Spanish consulates, together with Hong Kong. But other cities such as Chengdu, Chongqing and Nanjing, driven by the development of the cities of the interior, are becoming a new outbound tourist gate increasing the pressure on the four Spanish consulates; an issue that requires a review shortly. Among European countries, Spain has already taken the first steps to ease the arrival of Chinese tourists. The initiative would address improving visa accessibility for Chinese tourists and a new direct air route from Madrid to a Chinese city, two issues that will improve the attractiveness of Spain [9] among Chinese tourists. Likewise, our country should take advantage of the circumstance that the situation of international economic instability does not mean Chinese tourists travel less. Quite the contrary, confirming Chinese tourism is in good health, registering 149 million trips overseas in 2018, 14.7% higher than in 2017 [40]. Booking data to overseas destinations during Chinese New Year celebration in 2019 show an increase of 30% compared to 2018, whereas travelling expenses experienced a growth of 10%, according to Ctrip data. In the context of tourism between Spain and China also highlights the shortage of direct connections with respect to the frequencies offered by our European neighbours. This is the result of an unequal interest, because since Air China began operating the first direct connection in 2006, it would not be until 2016 that Iberia established the Madrid-Shanghai direct route. Among the short-term objectives, the purpose is to establish new connections until reaching 39 weekly frequencies scheduled for 2019, a significant increase from the 32 recorded in 2018 and the 23 connections in 2017, although still far from the more than one hundred weekly flights operating with China from Germany or France. The result is a clear imbalance between the attractiveness of Spain as the second world tourism power, with 82 million international tourists, only behind France, and the ninth position in the Top 10 most-visited European countries by Chinese tourist, according to Ctrip and Huayuan International Travel. Out of the 187,000 visits registered in 2012, the figure has almost quadrupled up to 718,000 travellers in 2017, and the 800,000 that were reached in 2018, according to the Spain-China Tourism Association (ATEC, Asociación Turismo España-China). This data barely reflects Spain’s 0.8% of Chinese tourism, figures that are far from the 1.6 million visits Italy received, and at a considerable distance from France that, with 3 million Chinese visitors, is the European country that receives more visitors from the Asian giant. However, the figures on the Chinese tourists’ arrival vary according to the source. In fact, data offered by the National Statistics Institute and Turespaña show a more

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Fig. 2 Chinese tourists’ evolution in Spain. Source Prepared by the author based on data supplied by Turespaña and National Statistics Institute

modest number of visitors. In this case, Chinese tourists who visited Spain would reach 649,032 in 2018, registering an annual increase of 26% over the previous year and placing the Chinese tourists’ market share with respect to the total number of visitors visiting our country in 0.8%, as shown in Fig. 2. Taking into account that the outlook is for Chinese tourism to reach 200 million in 2020 [22], it is a priority to become an attractive destination to achieve the objective of Spain exceeding one million visits for that date. In terms of tourism expenditure, China is the world leader, reaching $258 billion in 2017, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, 5% more than the previous year, and almost double the $135 billion registered by the United States, ranked second among the countries on tourism expenditures. With 9 to 10day average stay in Spain, Chinese tourists spend an average of about 2,500 euros, more than twice the average of 743 euros per person of other international tourists, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4 [35], a strong reason to promote our country brand and place Spain on the radar for the Chinese traveller. Fig. 3 Total average expenditure per tourist in Spain. Data from 2018, euros. Source Prepared by the author based on data supplied by La Vanguardia and The Shopping & Quality Tourism Institute

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Fig. 4 Overnight stays of Chinese tourists in Europe. Source Prepared by the author based on data supplied by La Vanguardia and The Shopping & Quality Tourism Institute

5 Tourism Yes, but Fertility Since the end of the one-child policy in 2016, and with the proposal to incorporate into the civil code in 2020 the elimination of any reference to the number of children that a couple can have, it opens the opportunity for Chinese couples to plan their families according to their wishes—even those with fertility problems [6]. Approximately 200,000 children are born in China through in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures, a treatment that couples normally carry out overseas, seeking better quality medical care and access to more advanced medical treatments [24]. Mencius, one of Confucius’ most outstanding disciples, highlighted that 不孝 有 三, 无 后 为 大, that is, ‘There are three things which are unfilial, and to have no posterity is the greatest of them’, showcasing China values offspring. Therefore, to prevent Chinese families who opt for fertility treatments from resorting to medical tourism, the government has promoted the development of IVF services in China, a booming market estimated to reach $1.5 billion in 2022, doubling the figure of $670 million recorded in 2016, according to BIS Research. China’s growing middle class, with greater access to economic resources, is favouring the development of this type of tourism in search of better medical assistance and access to the most innovative treatments [25], spending around $7,300 on these trips, according to Ctrip. Health tourism is a growing sector in China [10]. In fact, it is already considered as a relevant factor for a trip abroad. Among the most important motivations for those with high financial capacity, medical treatments are in position 12, representing 12.8%, very close to those who choose to go abroad interested in a particular destination just because they have found it in magazines or through the Internet, as can be seen from Fig. 5. The average expenditure associated with this type of travelling for treatments [36], along with Chinese families’ incomes steadily increasing and the elimination of the one-child policy, are the factors that forecast a good development of the market for the issuing of Chinese medical tourists. Among the most popular destinations for Chinese couples to receive fertility treatments, Malaysia has established itself as a benchmark in the region with an average success rate of 65%, above the global average of 50%, the same as China.

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Fig. 5 Factors for Chinese high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) Planning Overseas Travel Itineraries. Source Prepared by the author based on data supplied by Hurun Report, 2019

Distance is another factor to be considered, although the 30-day visa authorized by the Malaysian government is especially valued to facilitate the stay of tourists who request these treatments. Although the country is allocating approximately $7.4 million to promote itself as a medical tourism hub in the region, the perception among Chinese citizens that Malaysia has a lower level of development makes many couples choose Thailand [14], South Korea [26], Taiwan [11], the United States [13] or Canada [12] as preferred destinations to carry out this type of treatment. On the other hand, Beijing allows 100% foreign capital clinics to operate in the country since 2010. Moreover, China’s new Foreign Investment Law [34], recently approved by the National People’s Congress and whose entry into force will be next January 1, 2020, establishes foreign investors will be treated no less favourably than that granted to domestic businesses. A new scenario that should boost the number of foreign companies interested in carrying out an internationalization of their business in the Chinese market [27]. Among them, those ones dedicated to the medical care market in general and, in particular those ones that offer fertility services. This way, multiple possibilities are open for those foreign companies that want to be part of the flourishing development of China’s healthcare market, one of the most important worldwide with an annual growth of 11%, higher than 4% registered by the United States, according to the World Health Organization [28]. With the medical tourism outlook in China reaching 900,000 trips in 2020, a very significant increase compared to the current 500,000, new opportunities arise to position Spain as the destination to-be in this type of treatment. In a conservative scenario of Spain capturing 10% of medical tourism China plans to issue in 2020, it could increase the figure of 718,000 visitors ATEC recorded in 2018 by 12.5%, to reach 808,000 visitors. In a somewhat more ambitious scenario contemplating the possibility of capturing up to 15% of medical tourism issued by China, it would

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mean Spain could reach 853,000 Chinese visitors, 18.8% higher than the ATEC data in 2018. In a conservative scenario of Spain capturing 10% of medical tourism China plans to issue in 2020, it could increase the figure of 718,000 visitors in 2018 by 12.5%, to reach 808,000 visitors.

Promoting the health tourism attraction would not only improve the Spain’s ability to attract Chinese tourists, who would enjoy our gastronomy and culture whereas their stay during treatment, but it would also triple the average expenditure associated to Chinese tourism, established around $7,500, compared to the almost $2,800 on average Chinese visitors spend. Among the benefits of promoting Spain as a destination for fertility treatments also highlights Spain’s ability to attract a greater number of Chinese tourists seeking destinations overseas. In this case, tourist recommendations made by medical treatments visitors would be key for relatives and friends to choose our country among future destinations to consider in their travels around the world, and specifically, when they think about visiting Europe. Meeting the Chinese health tourists’ requirements should also be one of the Spanish companies’ priorities in their patient recruitment campaigns for fertility treatments. China concentrates the issuance of tourists abroad on two special dates [29]. The first period takes place during Chinese New Year celebration, which, as a result of the lunar calendar, usually begins between the end of January and the beginning of February. The week around October 1st is the second period, when the National Day is celebrated on occasion of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, time at which almost half of the country moves around in what is considered the largest human migration in history. In this way, it would be highly convenient and recommendable to be able to create the right conditions so that Chinese health tourists can receive their fertility treatments whilst in vacation.

6 Practical Implications This section briefly discusses the assessment of the main factors influencing a patient’s decision on the choice of medical tourism destination. This study presents a first approach towards positioning Spain as a fertility tourism destination for in vitro fertilization. The findings suggest there are some factors affecting a patient’s decision of a medical tourism destination. Hence, improvements in some areas can have a more positive impact on the flow of Chinese medical tourists travelling to Spain, with special emphasis on the following policies: (1) enhancement measures in the issuance of visas on a general basis, considering the issuance of visas adjusted to the time required for this type of treatment in order to boost medical tourism as a more specific approach, (2) establishment of new air connections and more flight frequencies between China and Spain as other European gateway cities have, improving the offering of long-haul flights and tailor-made services that better cater to the needs of Chinese medical tourist, (3) promotion of nation branding

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campaigns to boost the Chinese tourist arrival to Spain with a comprehensive and integrated cultural heritage and healthcare tourism strategy to best highlight some of the under-the-radar destinations to Chinese medical tourists, (4) promotion of Spain as the preferred destination for IVF treatment also requires the expert-based recommendation of China’s fertility doctors, providing support to Chinese couples of all treatments they can undertake in western clinics. The cooperation between public and private sectors, in both medical and tourism industry, would provide the best framework to have a positive impact on achieving an increasing trend in Chinese outbound medical tourism choosing Spain as a top destination for IVF treatments. Where possible, a third pillar would certainly be desirable, considering interactions with Chinese institutions in this model, focused on the promotion of sector-specific initiatives that may lead to increased knowledge of the best-in-class capabilities Spain has to offer in medical tourism to capture more Chinese tourists. In summary, the findings of this study reveal that Spain can meet the demand of the increasing number of Chinese couples suffering from fertility problems who seek IVF treatments abroad.

7 Conclusions With the medical tourism outlook reaching 900,000 trips in 2020, compared to the current 500,000, and generating an expenditure of about $10 billion a year, business opportunities arise in the Spain ability to attract this type of tourism. In a conservative scenario, Spain could increase the number of Chinese visitors to our country by 12.5%, thanks to capturing 10% of medical tourism China intends to issue in 2020. In a somewhat more ambitious scenario considering the possibility of reaching up to 15% of China’s health tourism by 2020, Spain would have a chance to increase the number of Chinese visitors by 18.8% compared to ATEC data for 2018. It is not only that our fertility service centres make Spain an attractive medical tourism destination, but also promote the internationalization to China of the most pioneering Spanish companies in this type of treatment. In these companies’ strategies, it should also be considered the fact that the Chinese middle class, as the future economic engine of the country, will reach 480 million people in 2030, about 35% of the world population, according to a study by the Economist Intelligence Unit. A growing middle class that will demand more and better services, also in relation to health and fertility treatments, and will choose to carry them out in their own country. In these cases, to assert that our country already concentrates 40% of European fertility treatments will help to achieve a better positioning of our most avant-garde companies that have decided to settle down in the country.

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Medical Tourism in China: Traditional Medicine Serving as an Emerging Tourism Resource Yao Yan

Abstract The paper discusses the development of traditional Chinese medicine as a tourism product. More and more people are increasingly concerned about their health and seeking all kinds of forms to improve health and wellness. Many traditional or nature-based therapies in the healthcare sectors are being accepted by the public. Among them, the traditional Chinese medicine’s philosophy and therapeutic elements are earning high praise by the world public. This paper focuses on the development, current status and prospects of the tourism products based on the traditional Chinese medicine. The relationship of medical tourism and the traditional Chinese medicine tourism is analyzed. Special features and advantages of Chinese medicine tourism are introduced. The challenges and answers for developing the Chinese medicine tourism are presented in the paper. Keywords Medical tourism · Traditional Chinese Medicine · Traditional Chinese Medicine Tourism

1 Introduction In a recently released report by VISA and Oxford Economics, the Medical Tourism industry is projected to grow by 25% year-on-year for the span of the next decade, as an estimated three to four percent of the world’s population is expected to travel internationally for healthcare and health-related treatment [1]. Nowadays, with the intensifying problem of population aging and the hike in medical costs, medical tourism, which combines treatment with tourism, is developing rapidly. There are more than 100 countries and regions in the world currently implementing medical tourism. In 2017, global health tourism accounted for 16% of the world’s total tourism revenue. The development of medical tourism is astonishing as it has offered a fresh contribution to the rapid growth of global economy in recent years. According to the Y. Yan (B) Autonomous University of Barcelona, Bellaterra, Cerdanyola, Spain e-mail: [email protected] Yunnan University of Chinese Medicine, Yuhua Road 1076, Kunming, Yunnan, China © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 Y. Luo et al. (eds.), Tourism Product Development in China, Asian and European Countries, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4447-7_12

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Medical Tourism Calculator (MTC), “about 14 million people in the world travel to other countries in search of medical care annually. It is an activity worth between 50 and 70 thousand million dollars.” [1]. The MTC has found that as a new sector, medical tourism has begun to gain ground, with Chinese traditional medicine proving a new attraction and opportunity.

2 Medical Tourism and Traditional Chinese Medicine Tourism Medical Tourism essentially entails cross-border healthcare. There are related synonymous terms such as Health Tourism, Wellness Tourism, Transnational healthcare [2], Global healthcare, Medical value travel [3], to name a few. The main difference between Medical Tourism and regular tourism is the ultimate purpose, which in the former case it has to do with medical care, rehabilitation and in some cases recuperation as well. Simply put, Medical Tourism is an integration of medical healthcare into regular tourism. Although Medical Tourism has witnessed an upsurge of development as an emerging industry since the 1980s, millennia ago it was the Ancient Greeks who pioneered practicing Medical Tourism, with pilgrims traveling from the eastern Mediterranean to Epidauria for healthcare. As explained below, medical tourists could be categorized on the basis of the medical aid they seek [4]: Treatment: 1. Items which the destination country provides as advanced treatment or medicament, such as cosmetic surgery, organ transplant, joint replacement in Thailand, India, to name a few. 2. Items which are prohibited or have not been approved in the source country, such as abortion, assisted reproduction and stem cell transplantation. Recuperation: It commonly refers to rehabilitation physiotherapy, such as spa and traditional medical health, beaches, forest treatment methods, to name a few. In general, the potent factors of Medical Tourism are price, techniques or medicines as well as the quality of the service. Today, the highly developed medical tourism countries are the United States, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, India, Indonesia, Costa Rica, to name a few. The Top 5 destination countries in 2016, according to the Medical Tourism Index (MTI), were Canada, UK, Israel, Singapore and India. Traditional Chinese Medicine, as a cultural heritage and a treasure of Chinese civilization, has gained an outstanding reputation, currently being approached by a growing number of nations around the world. Traditional Chinese Medicine not only provides recuperation but also proffers treatment. In addition to the well-known acupuncture and massage techniques, Traditional Chinese Medicine possesses certain advantages in the treatment of chronic non-communicable diseases, anorectal disorders, orthopedics, dermatology and gynecology. It focuses on natural treatment, which is becoming progressively popular nowadays. The new International Classification of Diseases (ICD) released by the World Health Organization (WHO)

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following a meeting in Geneva on June 18, 2018, covers traditional medicine, in general, as a new chapter [5]. This formal recognizing of traditional medicine boosts support for Traditional Chinese Medicine. The idea of Traditional Chinese Medicine tourism originated in the 1990s. In 2000, the term “Traditional Chinese Medicine health tourism” was proposed for the first time by Wang Jingming and Wang Jinghe[12], though in 1998 the Beijing Massage Hospital had already been given the status of a foreign tourist Traditional Chinese Medicine hospital. Not long after, Beijing Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital and Beijing University of Chinese Medicine also organized classes, seminars, activities for foreign students, physicians and regular tourists. Until now, various types of activities of Traditional Chinese Medicine have been offered across the country [6].

3 Features of Traditional Chinese Medicine Tourism Chinese Medicine Tourism has shown multiple advantages throughout its evolution. Tian [9] contends that Traditional Chinese Medicine Tourism enjoys four key features in general: regional characteristics, medical and health characteristics, cultural characteristics, and period characteristics. In addition, it is also believed to include the following important elements.

3.1 Reasonable Price and Safety The key motive for people who choose Medical Tourism is the price. China, as a developing country, provides a lower price and greater effectiveness in medical service. In terms of safety and as a universal health service, Traditional Chinese Medicine has been integrated into the national medical insurance. It is backed by formal education and scientific research under state-offered medical supervision. Moreover, the “Law of the People’s Republic of China on Traditional Chinese Medicine” took effect on July 1, 2017, which guarantees medical safety.

4 Diversity in Tourist Activities The tourism sector in general is associated with variety, and so is Traditional Chinese Medicine. Nowadays, according to Ji and Pei [7], the sector can be classified into (1) Traditional Chinese Medicine ecotourism, (2) Traditional Chinese Medicine industrial tourism, (3) Traditional Chinese Medicine Material market tourism, (4) Traditional Chinese Medicine health tourism and (5) Traditional Chinese Medicine culture tourism.

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With the growing number of Traditional Chinese Medicine students and Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners worldwide, Traditional Chinese Medicine education tourism has turned into an emerging and worth-discussing subcategory of Traditional Chinese Medicine Tourism.

4.1 Policy Support The implementation of the “Law of the People’s Republic of China on Traditional Chinese Medicine” has shown the intensively promulgated policies related to Traditional Chinese Medicine pursued by Beijing, whose support for Traditional Chinese Medicine industry has proven unprecedented, lending significant benefits to Traditional Chinese Medicine Tourism as a branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine industry. Last month, the 6th China International Fair for Trade in Services, the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences Guang’anmen Hospital, the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine and a few other institutions signed memorandum of understanding in Chinese medicine, tourism, scientific research and products in association with relevant institutions from Japan, Peru, Belgium, Angola and some other countries.

4.2 Medical Advantage As mentioned earlier, Traditional Chinese Medicine has comparative advantages in the treatment of several disorders, due to the fact that Traditional Chinese Medicine is not merely a type of medicine. It is, indeed, an orientation to maintain health. The book titled “Huang Di Nei Jing” introduces the concept of classic Traditional Chinese Medicine in the following way: “In the old days of the disease treatment, by preventing illness before it began, just as a good government or emperor was able to take the necessary steps to avert war, treating an illness after it has begun is like suppressing revolt after it has broken out.” (Translated by Maoshing Ni: Huang Di Nei Jing, 1995, USA.). That offers a manifest picture on the importance of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Therefore, by using diet, qigong (for example Taiji) and other health guides, Traditional Chinese Medicine can help patients improve their quality of life, using both treatment and recuperation.

5 Research Status The present study retrieved 149 related pieces of literature from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). The research on Traditional Chinese Medicine tourism in China started in 2000. Later, it exhibited a growing trend, reaching its

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peak after 2016 while falling back afterwards (Fig. 1). The total citations of these papers are 902. Around 7.3% of the research was contributed by the government and other scientific research institutes (Fig. 2), while 12.2% came from researchers at universities and colleges of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Fig. 3). Basically, in

Fig. 1 Overall publication trends. Horizontal axis = years, vertical axis = quantity

Fig. 2 Sources of funds

Fig. 3 Institutional distribution

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Fig. 4 Literature statistics table

our view, the research started late, the overall number is small, and the study was underfunded (Fig. 4). Analyzing the data from the literature, it is concluded that 73.2% of the research concentrated on industrial development while 60.4% entailed case studies, meaning that Traditional Chinese Medicine Tourism as a new branch of tourism, is still fledgling and in the preliminary stages of development and practical exploration.

6 Problems and Possible Solutions China’s Medical Tourism is developing rapidly. Nevertheless, the status of Traditional Chinese Medicine Tourism has not risen to the expected levels. The following are the actual problems faced by Traditional Chinese Medicine Tourism sector as identified by Zhu Haidong in his thesis titled Research of Strategy on TCM Tourism (2014) [11]: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Late start, limited scale and low level Single model with few brands Lack of reasonable planning and design Misallocation of resources Lack of high quality and professional personnel.

7 Inadequate Supervision Which Has Led to a Chaotic Market Until 2016, the Chinese government was taking the lead in exploring the field. So far, it has managed to establish three Medical Tourism Pioneer Zones. Later in July 2016, the National Tourism Administration of China and the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine issued a joint notice, announcing plans to build 10 national Traditional Chinese Medicine health tourism demonstration zones countrywide in a period of 3 years as well as 100 national Traditional Chinese

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Medicine health tourism demonstration bases. The National Traditional Chinese Medicine Health Tourism Demonstration Project will comprehensively promote the rapid development of Traditional Chinese Medicine Tourism [8]. Government investments might not address above mentioned problems, and we do believe the following could explain why: 1. Objectively, the essential reason is that Traditional Chinese Medicine has not received the same recognition as modern medicine. Thus, Traditional Chinese Medicine Tourism, which depends on this type of medicine, cannot enjoy the same development as modern medicine does. 2. The promotion of Traditional Chinese Medicine tourism is not strong enough. The distinguishing characteristic of Traditional Chinese Medicine tourism lies in healthcare, not mere treatment, which is different from the Western medical treatment model, and the Chinese version, thus, suffers from limited advertising. 3. The staff in the two industries of Traditional Chinese Medicine and tourism need to work together to integrate the advantages of medical and tourism sectors to further bolster related projects. Currently, most tourism projects have not been approved on either side. 4. As a result of low market demand, the institutions have not yet initiated the relevant professional training projects. 5. Traditional Chinese Medicine tourism and even medical tourism are seen as emerging industries in China. Therefore, Beijing has not yet ratified the relevant laws to regulate market behavior, which is fundamental to the rights of patients (tourists). Medical treatment and healthcare shape the core of Traditional Chinese Medicine tourism. As safety remains the top priority, the case of Puerto Rico, for instance, is a success story, in which medical tourism laws are in force,1 giving patients greater confidence in local medical tourism. From the academic standpoint, research centers and universities could perhaps play a more effective role by contributing in the following ways: 1. Explore the mode of tourism in Traditional Chinese Medicine and perfect tourism activity plans by combining the features of the local tourism sector with Traditional Chinese Medicine to create medical tourism brands. 2. Strengthen cooperation between Tourism and Medicine, and train medical tourism professionals.

8 Conclusions According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the medical health-related service industry will become the world’s largest and fastest-growing industry. Traditional Chinese Medicine Tourism with its advantages in treatment is, therefore, expected to enjoy significant progress thanks to its innate potentials. As a reputable Medical Tourism destination, Spain is one of the popular spots for Chinese tourists. 1 https://www.lexjuris.com/lexlex/Leyes2010/lexl2010196.htm.

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Fig. 5 By Google Book Ngram Viewer https://books.google.com/ngrams/interactive_chart? content=medicina+china%2Cmedicina+tradicional+china&year_start=1800&year_end=2019& corpus=21&smoothing=2&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cmedicina%20china%3B%2Cc0%3B. t1%3B%2Cmedicina%20tradicional%20china%3B%2Cc0

The WHO has ranked the Spanish medical system as the world’s seventh, taking into account the country’s well-known practices in organ transplantation, oncology, to name a few. With data from the corpus of Google Book Ngram Viewer (1800–2019), Spanish phrases “Medicina China” and “Medicina Tradicional China”2 were examined in Spanish textbooks and proved to have a considerably high frequency, underscoring a growing reputation and demand for Traditional Chinese Medicine. Additionally, Spaniards have in recent years displayed an interest in learning Chinese medicine. Beijing and Madrid have also signed many medical cooperation pacts, in an effort to improve bilateral Medical Tourism (Fig. 5).

References 1. Medical Tourism Industry Valued at $00B; Poised for 25% Year Over-Year Growth by 2025. https://www.medicaltourismindex.com/2016-medical-tourism-industry-valuation/ 2. Mainil, T., Van Loon, F., Dinnie, K., et al.: Transnational health care: from a global terminology towards transnational health region development. J. Health Policy 108(1), 37–44 (2012) 3. Johnson, T.J., Garman, A.N.: Impact of medical travel on imports and exports of medical services. J. Health Policy 98(2–3), 171–177 (2010) 4. Shi, S.-P., Wu, H.: Medical tourism and nursing under the trend of globalization. Hainan Med. J. 25(18), 2771–2775 (2014) 5. China Tourism Economy Blue Book No. 11. Chinese Tourism Academy. 2019.01.29. 6. Tribute to Chinese tourists, China’s outbound travel reached 122 million in 2016China Tourism Research Institute and Ctrip.com released” 2016 China Outbound Tourist Big Data”. https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/18-06-2018-who-releases-newinternational-classification-of-diseases-(icd-11) 7. Ji, B., Pei, L.: Cultural tourism based on the characteristics of Henan Traditional Chinese Medicine research on the design and development of Fan base. China Med. Her. 2014(2), 125–128 (2014) 2 We

treat “Medicina China” and “Medicina Tradicional China” as synonyms.

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8. Notice on the establishment of the National Traditional Chinese Medicine Health Tourism Demonstration Zone. https://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2016-08/19/content_5100669.html 9. Tian, G.-Z.: Analysis on the development of Traditional Chinese Medicine Tourism. AR. Res. Dev. 12(24), 82-85 (2005) 10. Statistics and Data of The Global Market of Medical Tourism. https://hospitalcmq.com/ medical-tourism/statistics/ 11. Zhu, H.: Research of Strategy on Traditional Chinese Medicine Tourism. China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing (2014) 12. Wang, J., Wang, J.: Thinking and exploration on developing Chinese Medicine Tourism. Inq. Econ. Issues 2000, 85–86 (2000)

Study on Spatio-Temporal Distribution and Evolution of Tourism Innovation Ability in China’s Provinces Jinbo Jiang, Min Zhang, and Yi Guo

Abstract The paper analyses the regional tourism innovation ability in China which highly affects the new tourism product creation. According to the paper, regional tourism innovation ability refers to the ability of a specific region to create new tourism products. Based on the tourism innovation ability data of 31 provinces in China from 2000 to 2016, the paper studies the spatial and temporal pattern and evolution characteristics of China’s tourism innovation ability. The reasons of forming such spatial and temporal pattern are also identified in the paper. Stable and continuous policy for tourism innovation, increased investment and improved innovation environment in the past decade in many regions are among those reasons. The paper also finds out an expanded gap in tourism innovation between coastal and inland regions, and suggests paying more attention to the coordinated development of regions in the future. Keywords Tourism innovation ability · Spatio-temporal distribution · Evolution · China’s provinces

1 Introduction With the continuous and rapid development of China’s economy and the improvement of residents’ living quality, tourism has become an increasingly important industry in the national economy. However, the homogeneity of tourism products, the lack of individuality in tourism services and the lack of novelty in tourism experience make tourism services unable to meet the needs of tourists and restrict the high-quality development of tourism industry. Therefore, innovation becomes an J. Jiang · M. Zhang · Y. Guo (B) School of Economics and Commerce, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, People’s Republic of China e-mail: [email protected] J. Jiang e-mail: [email protected] M. Zhang e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 Y. Luo et al. (eds.), Tourism Product Development in China, Asian and European Countries, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4447-7_13

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important approach to promote the transformation of the tourism industry. The traditional tourism industry mainly relies on tourism resources and invests a large amount of capital and manpower to improve the construction of tourism facilities, and pays insufficient attention to innovation [1]. In the era of knowledge-driven economy, the tourism industry is facing the fierce global industry competition. It has become an important issue for China’s tourism industry to improve its competitiveness and sustainable development ability through innovation. In the existing literature, the research on innovation ability in manufacturing, hightech industry, information industry and other fields has achieved fruitful results, and the related research on service innovation and service industry innovation ability has also developed rapidly. Although the academic research on tourism innovation ability started late, significant progress has been made. Regional tourism innovation ability refers to the ability of various subjects in a specific region to create new tourism products, create and apply new knowledge, or recombine existing knowledge in new ways to create new tourism products. For a long time, some scholars defined tourism innovation from the perspective of scientific and technological invention [2], while others directly applied the Schumpeter’s Innovation Theory to tourism innovation [3, 4], ignoring the characteristics of tourism itself. With the deepening of the research on the innovation theory, more and more scholars put forward the connotation of tourism innovation according to its own characteristics. They define tourism innovation in terms of satisfying tourism demand and innovation [5]. Their point of view is that tourism innovation is the process that tourism enterprises use management innovation, technological innovation (from technical equipment, network technology to low-carbon technology, etc.), market innovation or combination innovation to change the existing tourism industry structure or create a new form of tourism, and it is the systematic integration of tourism enterprises’ group innovation, which is the highest level of tourism enterprises’ innovation [6]. Research on tourism innovation ability and its evaluation index system has been deepened comprehensively. Tourism innovation ability is regarded as the overall level of tourism innovation input and output, as well as the ability of tourism to transform capital, resources and scientific and technological knowledge into new tourism products, new technologies and new services [7]. The research of index system changes from single index to comprehensive index system. Among them, the single indicator is mainly patent [8], The comprehensive indicators refer to the relevant indicators of tourism competitiveness, tourism comprehensive attraction, urban competitiveness, technological innovation ability, regional innovation ability, especially service industry innovation ability [9]. It is necessary to screen the evaluation indicators from the aspects of innovation input, innovation support, innovation environment and innovation output [7, 10]. Among them, the application of innovation input, innovation output and innovation environment dimension is particularly prominent. Meanwhile, the whole index system is constantly refined by the Delphi Method and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) [7, 11–15]. For the spatial and temporal pattern of tourism innovation ability, the selection of research methods includes not only factor analysis, principal component analysis, Gini coefficient and

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other common methods, but also exploratory spatial data analysis to visualize the research results of spatial and temporal evolution [7, 11]. The existing researches mainly focus on regional innovation ability and service industry innovation ability, but the research on tourism innovation ability is relatively insufficient. There have been researches that focus on one aspect of innovation ability index, such as tourism service innovation research, tourism science and technology innovation research, etc., but the overall systematic research on tourism industry innovation ability is particularly inadequate. In addition, the related case study, usually taking specific provinces and cities or scenic spots as the research objects, paid less attention to the tourism innovation ability of different provinces from the perspective of spatio-temporal evolution. Thus, the spatio-temporal evolution and the comparative research in this field need to be further studied.

2 Data and Methodology 2.1 Data This study takes provinces as the research unit, including 31 provinces (cities and districts) of China except Hong Kong special administrative region, Macao special administrative region and Taiwan province. The research period is from 2000 to 2016. The basic data come from three sources: first, China tourism statistical yearbook, China tourism statistical bulletin, China science and technology statistical yearbook and China statistical yearbook from 2000 to 2017 at the national level. Second, statistical yearbooks of 31 provinces at the provincial level from 2000 to 2017, statistical bulletin of national economic and social development and official websites of provincial tourism bureaus. Third, other relevant databases and websites, including the patent retrieval database of the state intellectual property office, CNKI database, Elsevier SDOL database and Baidu news website.

2.2 Research Method: Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis 2.2.1

Nondimensionalization, Index Weight and Innovation Ability Measurement Method

The extremum entropy method is an optimal entropy method to improve the entropy value, that is, the data processed by the extremum method is more applicable to the actual application of entropy method [20]. Therefore, we first used the extremum method to carry out non-dimensional treatment to data, with the specific formula as below:

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xti j

  xti j − min xti j     = max xti j − min xti j

(1) 

where xti j is the jth index of the province i in the tth year; xti j is the value after the   non-dimensional treatment of xti j ; max  xti j the maximum value of the jth index of various provinces in the tth year; min xti j is the minimum value of the jth index of various provinces in the tth year. The weight coefficient is then determined by the entropy method. To avoid the insignificance of ln 0 when taking logarithm for index during the weight calculation, we replace the value 0 after non-dimensional treatment with 0.00001 [21, 22]. Based on this, we set r years, n provinces and m indexes, so xti j is the jth index of the province i in the tth year, with the specific calculating steps as follows: ➀ the proportion of indexes: 

ytij = 17

xtij 31

t=1

i=1



xtij

(2)

➁ the information entropy of the jth index: ej = −k

17  31 

  yij ln ytij

(3)

t=1 i=1 1 where, k > 0, k = ln(r×n) ➂ the information utility value of the jth index:

gj = 1 − ej

(4)

➃ the weight of indexes: gj wj = 24 j=1

gj

(5)

Lastly, calculate the tourism innovation ability by linear weighted synthesis method, with the formula as below: Iti =

24     xtij × wj

(6)

j=1

where Iti is the comprehensive evaluation value of tourism innovation ability of the province i in the tth year.

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203

Global Spatial Autocorrelation Analysis

Global spatial autocorrelation is mainly for inspecting regions geographically adjacent with each other whether they have similarity [23], which in general can be judged by spatial autocorrelation index—Moran’s I, with the specific formula as follows: 

n n Moran’s I =

i=1



j=1 Wij Xi − X Xj   S2 ni=1 nj=1 Wij

−X



where n is the number of research areas, and the value is 31. Xi /Xj is the observing value of the ith/jth region; Wij is the spatial weight matrix 2    X = 1n ni=1 Xi , S2 = 1n ni=1 Xi − X . Under the significance level, the value of Moran’s I is from −1 to 1. When it is larger than 0, it indicates that the neighboring provinces have a similar tourism innovation ability, i.e., there is a positive spatial autocorrelation relation, the provinces studied present a spatial cluster with large or small values close to each other, and the larger the Moran’s I is, the stronger the agglomeration degree is. When Moran’s I is smaller than 0, it means there is a significant difference in tourism innovation ability between neighboring provinces, i.e., there is a negative spatial autocorrelation relation, the provinces present a spatial distribution with large or small values close to each other, and the smaller the Moran’s I is, the larger the overall spatial difference. When Moran’s I equal to 0, it means there is no spatial autocorrelation relation, the innovation of provinces is independent to each other, presenting a random distribution [24].

2.2.3

Local Spatial Autocorrelation Analysis

The local spatial autocorrelation analysis is mainly used to reflect the cluster and change in local regions, and reveal the spatial distribution features of tourism innovation ability in different regions, thus making up deficiencies of the global spatial autocorrelation analysis. Moran scatter plot and LISA (local indicators of spatial association) cluster map are selected to show the difference of spatial autocorrelation degree in different regions. According to LISA proposed by Anselin, the calculation formula is as follows [24]: Local Moran’s I =

 n  Xi − X  2

S

  Wij Xj − X

j=1

where what the variables represent are the same as those in the above formula. The values of local Moran’s I index also range between −1 and 1, by which the research areas are divided into four types in spatial correlation—Low-Low (LL), High-High (HH), Low-High (LH) and High-Low (HL). In the Moran scatter plot, the horizontal axis represents the observing values of some variable in different provinces, while the

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vertical axis displays the values of the spatial lag effect of the variable (standardized local spatial autocorrelation index of Local Moran’s I). The scatter plot has four quadrants respectively corresponding to the above four types, i.e., the first quadrant corresponds to (HH), the second to (LH), the third to (LL) and the fourth to (HL). In addition, the combination of the Moran scatter plot and LISA map visualizes the regions that pass the significance test on the map.

3 Index System Considering the comprehensive characteristics of tourism innovation ability, this chapter constructed an integrated evaluation index system for the tourism innovation ability from four aspects of input, support, environment and output, including 4 Grade-I indexes and 24 Grade-II indexes (see Table 1). Innovation input as the basis of tourism innovation has a profound impact on the expansion of tourism innovation space and the development of innovation activities. Thus, based on the relevant studies [16–18], we selected the tourism R&D expenditure (X1 ) as the index of tourism innovation input, the rate of tourism researchers in total practitioners (X2 ) as the index of researcher input, the number of tourism academies and schools (X3 ) and the number of qualified tourism planning units (X4 ) as the index of tourism innovation knowledge input, the fixed assets investment in tourism (X5 ), highway density (X6 ) and rail operation density (X7 ) as the measuring index of tourism infrastructure input. Innovation support as the basis of tourism innovation development is more relied on tourism enterprises, resources and investment capitals [7]. Based on the previous research [7, 11], we selected the number of travel agencies per 10,000 visitors (X8 ) and the rate of 4-star (or above) hotels in starred hotels (X9 ) as the index of tourism enterprises, the number of AAAA (or above) scenic areas (X10 ) as the index of tourism resources, and the total foreign direct tourism investment (X11 ) as the measuring index of tourism innovation support. Innovation environment refers to the infrastructure, policies and regulations provided by a region for the generation, implementation and dissemination of tourism innovation activities, as well as the creation of social atmosphere for innovation subjects to carry out innovation activities, reflecting the government support for innovation [7]. The research on this aspect is relatively mature, and most of them choose the index of innovation environment from the aspects of economic environment, social environment, scientific and technological environment, institutional environment, cultural environment and information environment [19]. Therefore, we selected the rate of total tourism revenue in GDP (X12 ) as the index of economic environment of tourism, the number of mobile phones per 10,000 people (X13 ) and the number of Internet users per 10,000 people (X14 ) as the index of sci-tech information environment, the formulation and improvement of official terms of tourism laws and regulations (X15 ) and the promulgation and implementation of tourism innovation

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Table 1 Comprehensive evaluation index system for tourism innovation ability Target

Grade-I index

Grade-II index

Unit

Tourism innovation ability

Tourism innovation input

Tourism R&D expenditure (X1 )

100 million Yuan

Rate of tourism researchers in total practitioners (X2 )

%

Number of tourism academies and schools (X3 )

School

Number of qualified tourism planning units (X4 )

Unit

Fixed assets input in tourism (X5 )

100 million Yuan

Highway density (X6 )

Mileage/area

Rail operation density (X7 )

Mileage/area

Number of travel agencies per 10,000 visitors (X8 )

Agency

Rate of 4-star (or above) hotels in starred hotels (X9 )

%

Number of AAAA (or above) scenic areas (X10 )

Scenic area

Total foreign direct tourism input (X11 )

100 million US dollars

Rate of total tourism revenue in GDP (X12 )

%

Number of mobile phones per 10,000 people (X13 )

Mobil phone

Number of Internet users per 10,000 people (X14 )

Person

Formulation and improvement of official terms of tourism laws and regulations (X15 )

Article

Tourism innovation support

Tourism innovation environment

(continued)

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Table 1 (continued) Target

Grade-I index

Tourism innovation output

Grade-II index

Unit

Promulgation and implementation of Tourism innovation ability policies (X16 )

Piece

Number of students majoring in tourism per 10,000 college students (X17 )

Person/10,000 persons

Number of news reports (by mainstream media) on local tourism innovation (X18 )

Piece

Number of tourism academic papers published (X19 )

Paper

Number of tourism patents applied (X20 )

Patent

Growth rate of total tourism revenue (X21 )

%

Percentage of international tourists in global tourists (X22 )

%

Foreign exchange earnings from tourism (X23 )

100 million US dollars

Number of newly-added tourism enterprises (X24 )

Enterprise

policies (X16 ), the number of students majoring in tourism per 10,000 college students (X17 ) and the number of news reports (by mainstream media) on local tourism innovation (X18 ) as the index of social system environment. Innovation output refers to the achievements from the innovation activities in the tourism industry, including tourism invention patents, academic papers and other knowledge output, as well as the development of new products and processes and the addition of new enterprises [7, 11]. Based on this, we selected the number of tourism academic papers published (X19 ) and the number of tourism patent applied (X20 ) as the important measuring standards for tourism innovation knowledge output, the growth rate of total tourism revenue (X21 ), the rate of international tourists in global tourists (X22 ), the foreign exchange earnings from tourism (X23 ) and the number of

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newly-added tourism enterprises (X24 ) as the measuring index for tourism innovation output from the perspective of economic benefits.

4 Spatio-Temporal Distribution and Evolution of the Tourism Innovation Ability in China’s Provinces 4.1 Overall Analysis on the Spatio-Temporal Evolution In the chapter, 31 provinces in China were selected except Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, in order to obtain available data by the same statistics caliber. According to the above formula (1) to (5), the index data of 31 provinces from 2000 to 2016 were calculated to obtain the index weight of tourism innovation ability evaluation (Table 2). According to formula (6), the comprehensive evaluation score and ranking of tourism innovation ability of each province from 2000 to 2016 were calculated, and the score was drawn as Fig. 1, which reflected the level of tourism innovation ability of each province. It can be seen that China’s tourism innovation level showed an overall uptrend in 2000–2016, with the comprehensive sore rising by nearly 54.32%, to 0.2515 from 0.1630, at an average annual growth rate of 3.18%, and that it could be divided into three development stages. The first stage was from 2000 to 2002, during which China’s tourism innovation grew rapidly, with the score increasing from 0.1630 in 2000 to 0.2088 in 2002 at an average growth rate of 13.23%, over four times the annual average growth rate. Specifically, tourism innovation support and innovation environment were steadily improved in this stage, while innovation output fluctuated slightly, and innovation input was significantly increased in 2001–2002, mainly owing to the greater improvement of the tourism innovation environment. In 1999 when the “golden week” policy was implemented, the fast development of holiday tourism and the positive guidance of the state policies, along with the improvement of the tourism standards and the large investment on tourism development by governments and enterprises, greatly improved the tourism innovation level in this stage. The second stage was from 2003 to 2008, during which China’s tourism innovation ability fluctuated greatly. On the one hand, tourism is vulnerable. Due to the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in 2003, the development of China’s tourism industry was seriously affected [25]. However, with the active response of the central and local governments, SARS did not cause fundamental harm to the development of China’s tourism industry. In 2005, the tourism industry recovered, the tourism market boomed, tourism innovation rebounded, tourism enterprises and other innovative supporting factors developed rapidly. On the other hand, the innovative development of tourism not only depends on the growth of “quantity”, but also pays more attention to the improvement of “quality”. However, the tour programs in rural

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Table 2 Comprehensive evaluation index weight for tourism innovation ability Target

Grade-I index

Grade-II index

Index weight

Tourism innovation ability

Tourism innovation input

Tourism R&D expenditure (X1 )

0.0649

Rate of tourism researchers in total practitioners (X2 )

0.0346

Number of tourism academies and schools (X3 )

0.0583

Number of qualified tourism planning units (X4 )

0.0674

Fixed assets input in tourism (X5 )

0.0371

Highway density (X6 )

0.0268

Rail operation density (X7 )

0.0267

Number of travel agencies per 10,000 visitors (X8 )

0.0327

Rate of 4-star (or above) hotels in starred hotels (X9 )

0.0196

Number of AAAA (or above) scenic areas (X10 )

0.0264

Total foreign direct tourism input (X11 )

0.0691

Rate of total tourism revenue in GDP (X12 )

0.0178

Number of mobile phones per 10,000 people (X13 )

0.0281

Number of Internet users per 10,000 people (X14 )

0.0406

Formulation and improvement of official terms of tourism laws and regulations (X15 )

0.0413

Promulgation and implementation of Tourism innovation ability policies (X16 )

0.0762

Tourism innovation support

Tourism innovation environment

(continued)

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Table 2 (continued) Target

Grade-I index

Tourism innovation output

Grade-II index

Index weight

Number of students majoring in tourism per 10,000 college students (X17 )

0.0416

Number of news reports (by mainstream media) on local tourism innovation (X18 )

0.0592

Number of tourism academic papers published (X19 )

0.0259

Number of tourism patents applied (X20 )

0.0729

Growth rate of total tourism revenue (X21 )

0.0158

Percentage of international tourists in global tourists (X22 )

0.0397

Foreign exchange earnings from tourism (X23 )

0.0638

Number of newly-added tourism enterprises (X24 )

0.0135

Fig. 1 The changing trend of China’s tourism innovation ability in 2000–2016

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areas were focused on the increase in quantity rather than quality, so was the socalled “Sky Road Tour” depending on the newly-established Tibet railway. As a result, the tourism innovation ability met another low point in 2006. In this stage, the fast growth of the tourism industry was driven mostly by abundant tourism resources and demands, triggering many problems like inefficient tourism development mode, uncreative tourism products and out-of-date tourism facilities, so that the tourism innovation failed to grow substantially, but saved space for the subsequent innovation in the industry. In 2008 when the Olympic Games was successfully held in Beijing, the tourism innovation ballooned temporarily, promoted the tourism input growth and gained supports by the strong policies to expand domestic demands, thus effectively avoiding the negative impacts from the 2008 global financial crisis. The third stage was in 2009–2016, during which China’s tourism innovation presented a fluctuant yet stable uptrend. Since 2009 when the country began to issue series of pertinent policies and laws supporting the fast development of the tourism industry, the policies like the Rules for Tour Agencies and the Detailed Regulations for Implementing the Rules for Tour Agencies have been officially implemented. The idea of “fostering the tourism industry into a strategic backbone and a modern service industry that the public satisfies” had been taken as a new development orientation by the end of 2009; Some Suggestions on the Construction and Development of Hainan International Tourism Island was published by the State Council in 2010; China’s National Tourism Day was set up in 2011, and especially the Travel Law of the People’s Republic of China was launched and implemented in 2013. The issuance of the above policies, along with the Shanghai World Expo and Guangzhou Asian Game successively held in 2010, significantly optimized the holistic development and innovation environment of the tourism industry. Due to the different implementation of these policies in various provinces, however, the overall tourism innovation had a slight fluctuation in individual years. With the continuous, positive promotion of the policies, the tourism innovation input peaked in 2014, and the innovation environment and output peaked in 2015.

4.2 Spatial Distribution Features for the Tourism Innovation Ability of Provinces To directly reflect the spatial distribution of the tourism innovation ability of different provinces, ArcGIS10.3 software was used in this chapter to draw the spatial distribution map of tourism innovation ability in China’s provinces in 2000, 2008 and 2016 (see Fig. 2). From these maps we can clearly see that China’s tourism innovation presented an overall uptrend from 2000 to 2016, and that the high innovation level first emerged in the eastern coastal provinces such as Guangdong, Shandong, Zhejiang and Shanghai, and then gradually extended to all the eastern coastal regions till 2016. Meanwhile, the inland tourism innovation areas cluster in Sichuan, Inner Mongolia and other central provinces. The gap between the coastal and inland areas

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Fig. 2 Spatial distribution diagram for tourism innovation ability in China’s provinces in 2000, 2008 and 2016

gradually enlarged in this regard. The high-level tourism innovation regions were mainly located in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, so the overall China’s provincial tourism innovation was still imbalanced. Although the number of provinces with higher scores and better innovation ability increased, the number of such provinces was always small, and there were significant regional differences with other provinces.

4.3 Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis 4.3.1

Global Spatial Autocorrelation Analysis

ArcGIS10.3 software was used to calculate the global spatial autocorrelation index Moran’s I for 31 provinces and regions in China from 2000 to 2016 (see Table 3). The values of Moran’s I, which represent the tourism innovation ability of provinces between 2000 and 2016, are all positive, Z values are all above 0, and P values, except those for 2004 and 2005, are all less than or equal to 0.1, which indicate that the tourism innovation ability of these provinces present significant spatial agglomeration effects. That is, the provinces with a high level of innovation ability are adjacent to the provinces with a high level of innovation ability, or the provinces with a low level of innovation ability are adjacent to the provinces with a low level of innovation ability. From the perspective of changing trend, except for the abnormal changes in 2004 and 2005, Moran’s I value showed an overall rising trend from 2000 to 2013. The changes in 2004 and 2005 May reflect the recovery of the tourism industry following the SARS outbreak in 2003. Although the value of Moran’s I decreased in recent three years compared with 2013, it was basically stable between 0.15 and 0.16, with little fluctuation range,

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Table 3 Moran’s I value of China’s provincial tourism innovation ability from 2000 to 2016 Year

Moran’s I

P value

Z value

Sd.

2000

0.141

0.015

2.430

0.005

2001

0.169

0.008

2.668

0.006

2002

0.089

0.093

1.629

0.006

2003

0.192

0.002

3.070

0.005

2004

0.024

0.441

0.771

0.006

2005

0.025

0.439

0.774

0.006

2006

0.117

0.042

2.035

0.005

2007

0.108

0.058

1.898

0.006

2008

0.143

0.020

2.326

0.006

2009

0.139

0.024

2.255

0.006

2010

0.149

0.016

2.407

0.006

2011

0.158

0.012

2.522

0.006

2012

0.146

0.018

2.368

0.006

2013

0.187

0.004

2.896

0.006

2014

0.165

0.009

2.615

0.006

2015

0.154

0.014

2.454

0.006

2016

0.160

0.012

2.524

0.006

indicating that the spatial agglomeration effect of tourism innovation ability gradually tends to be stable in the process of the industrial structure adjustment and optimization.

4.3.2

Local Spatial Autocorrelation Analysis

Based on the tourism innovation data on different provinces in 2000, 2008 and 2016, Moran scatter plot (see Fig. 3) was drawn by the GeoDa software to further

Fig. 3 Moran scatter plot for the tourism innovation ability in China’s provinces in 2000, 2008 and 2016

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analyze local spatial autocorrelation differences and characteristics of provincial tourism innovation ability. As the definition of spatial adjacency in Hainan province is controversial, it was removed from the local autocorrelation analysis by referring to the practice of Jiang [26]. From the above diagram, it can be found that the elements distributed in the HH cluster area in the first quadrant and the LL cluster area in the third quadrant are far more than the elements distributed in the LH cluster area in the second quadrant and the HL cluster area in the fourth quadrant. This indicates among all the provinces studied, those with a positive spatial autocorrelation distribution pattern are far more than those with a negative one. Most elements’ gathering in the third quadrant indicates the majority of the provinces have a lower level in tourism innovation, featuring a LL cluster. In addition, the slight expansion of the elements in the four quadrants indicates that the spatial difference might be further polarized. Table 4 shows the provinces correspond to the quadrants in the above diagram. It can be seen that the geographic differentiation for the regional tourism innovation in China was significant in these three years, with provinces in HH and HL cluster areas mainly located Table 4 Provinces in the Moran scatter diagram in 2000, 2008 and 2016 Year

HH

LH

LL

HL

2000

Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Hebei and Fujian

Guangxi, Jiangxi and Anhui

Shanxi, Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, Guizhou, Yunnan, Ningxia, Qinghai, Gansu, Xinjiang, Tibet, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Henan, Shaanxi and Sichuan

Guangdong and Liaoning

2008

Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong

Guangxi, Jiangxi, Anhui, Hebei and Fujian

Shanxi, Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, Guizhou, Yunnan, Ningxia, Qinghai, Gansu, Xinjiang, Tibet, Jilin, Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia

Guangdong, Liaoning, Sichuan, Shaanxi and Henan

2016

Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Fujian and Anhui

Guangxi, Jiangxi, Hebei, Hunan and Guizhou

Shanxi, Hubei, Chongqing, Yunnan, Ningxia, Qinghai, Gansu, Xinjiang, Tibet, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Shaanxi, Henan and Liaoning

Guangdong, Sichuan and Inner Mongolia

Note Hainan Province excluded

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in East China, and those in LH and LL cluster areas in the Midwest, presenting an east-west polarized spatial landscape. Since the Moran scatter plot could not show the specific significance test results, we used GeoDa software to draw the LISA cluster map of chapter the tourism innovation ability of provinces in 2000, 2008 and 2016 based on the Z test (P ≤ 0.05) (Fig. 4). It can be seen that although the provinces with a higher level of significance are relatively fewer, there are significant spatial shifts in the three temporal agglomeration areas. The HH cluster area emigrated from Tianjin-Hebei region to the eastern coastal areas in 2000, forming a strip-like distribution in 2016. Although its neighboring cities of Beijing and Tianjin had a higher innovation level, Hebei Province

2000

2008

2016

Fig. 4 LISA cluster map of provincial tourism innovation ability in 2000, 2008 and 2016

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moved to the LH area in 2008 from the HH area in 2000 performing the opposite, leading to a severe polarization effect. This weakens the HH cluster significance in this region that had an insignificant spatial spillover effect. On the contrary, the eastern coastal areas featured a strip-like HH cluster in 2016 compared with the scattered HH cluster in 2012, indicating to certain extent that these areas had an obvious spatial spillover effect in tourism innovation, and an intense spatial connection. In addition, due to the HH area transferring to the eastern coastal areas, the tourism innovation level in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian was far higher than their surrounding regions, but failed to help their neighbors in this regard. Therefore the provinces underperforming in this aspect had a significant LH space cluster, such as Jiangxi in 2016. This indicated that the spatial spillover effect in tourism innovation, which decreased with the increase of the spatial distance, was regionally different. Dominated by most western provinces in 2000, the LL cluster area had only two northwest provinces in 2016, indicating that the tourism innovation in recent years improved at a lower growth rate. Additionally, there is an HL cluster area developed from nothing. In 2016, two HL cluster areas - Sichuan and Inner Mongolia, expanded their spatial difference rapidly. It was because Sichuan as an important tourism province in Southwest China, was developing pretty fast in tourism resource, product innovation and new industrial state [7], with its comprehensive tourism innovation level higher than the surrounding regions. Inner Mongolia, relying on its prairies, deserts and other rich tourism resources, rolled out diversified tourism innovation programs which attracts large amount of tourists. It has an improved tourism innovation level much higher than its neighbors, thus presents a HL cluster pattern.

5 Conclusion and Discussion Regional tourism innovation ability refers to the ability of various subjects in a specific region to create new tourism products, create and apply new knowledge, or recombine existing knowledge in new ways to create new tourism products. The research shows that in the past 17 years, the innovation ability of China’s tourism industry has shown an overall trend of fluctuation and increase, which can be divided into three stages. First, from 2000 to 2002, although the innovation ability of China’s tourism industry was relatively low, the growth rate was relatively fast. Second, from 2003 to 2008, the innovative development of tourism showed a rising trend of fluctuation. Third, from 2009 to 2016, the innovative development of tourism showed a steady upward trend, and the overall level of innovation ability of tourism was relatively high. There are significant regional differences in the spatial distribution of tourism innovation capacity: The areas with high tourism innovation capacity are mainly concentrated in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other provinces, and form a spatial pattern of agglomeration in geographical space. The difference between coastal and inland regions is becoming more and more significant, with significant spatial autocorrelation. The agglomeration effect of China’s provincial

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tourism innovation capacity has evolved over time. HH agglomeration area was transferred from Tianjin Hebei region to Yangtze river delta region and extended to Fujian province, transforming from scattered agglomeration to banded agglomeration. LL cluster is mainly concentrated in the western province, and has been shrinking with time. In the central region, the HL cluster, with Sichuan and Inner Mongolia as the core, has gradually expanded its tourism innovation ability from other central provinces, which has little effect on the radiation driving of the surrounding provinces. The LH agglomeration area keeps changing with the change of HH agglomeration area, mainly appearing in the neighborhood of provinces with high innovation capacity. China’s tourism innovation ability presented a fluctuant but rising trend. It showed a cluster pattern, with the cluster areas gradually enlarged. The possible reasons were: first, stable and continuous policy innovation that promoted the improvement in innovation input and environment; second, the contribution of the major events to the innovation support and output; third, abundant tourism resources in difference provinces, and the difference between them in tourism development history, national economic basis and social development level, as well as the impact of SARS, global financial crisis and other negative factors. With the enlarged difference between coastal and inland areas in the tourism innovation, it is imperative to accelerate the coordinated development among these regions, thus to embrace China’s overall improvement in this regard. The future research should deepen the study on the evaluation index system of innovation ability and improve the pertinence and persuasion of the practical application of the index system. At the same time, we should strengthen the analysis of the subdivision dimension of innovation ability, so as to improve the explanatory power of the spatio-temporal evolution of core indicators of innovation ability. Acknowledgements This work was supported by a grant “The spatial distribution, evolution mechanism and coordinated development of tourism innovation ability in China’s provinces” from the National Natural Science foundation of China (No. 41671150).

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7. Jiang, J.B., Li, H., Jiang, T.T.: Research on tourism cooperation innovation in pan-pearl river delta based on structural capacity model. Tourism Tribune. 32(10), 67–77 (2017) 8. Chen, Y.W., Yang, Z.P., Shu, F., Hu, Z.Y., Martin, M., Bhattacharya, S.: A patent based evaluation of technological innovation in eight economic regions in PR China. World Pat. Inf. 31(2), 104–110 (2009) 9. Li, X.B.: China’s regional innovation capacity in transition: an empirical approach. Res. Policy 38(2) (2008) 10. Li, Y.H., Liu, X.L., Liu, J.B.: Construction and application of the evaluation index system for innovation for the modern service industry. Technol. Econo. 28(2), 1–6 (2009) 11. [11] Wang Y., Chen Y., Lu Y. Q. et al.: Study on spatiotemporal dynamics and driving factors of technological innovation in china’s tourism industry. J. Geo-Inf. Sci. 19(5), 613–624 (2017) 12. Xu, P.: Factor construction and comprehensive evaluation on technological innovation of tourism enterprises. J. Ind. Technol. Econ. (28), 142–145 (2009) 13. Yuan, M.H.: Study on eco-innovation evaluation in the tourism industry. Soc. Sci. Guangxi 2010(7), 55–59 (2010) 14. Zheng, L.J.: Evaluation on key innovation of island tourism in Liaoning Province. J. East. Liaoning Univ. (Soc. Sci.) 5(15), 114–121 (2013) 15. Jiang, K.: Study on construction and application of the index system for innovation evaluation for the modern service industry: based on Guangzhou and Shenzhen. South China University of Technology (2012) 16. Jiang, J.B., Tang, J.: W. Study on the coordinated development in tourism innovation ability in the Pearl River Delta: based on the perspective of two-image duality theory. Geogr. Res. 37(9), 1751–1761 (2018) 17. Porter, M., Stern, S.: The new challenge to American’s prosperity: finding from innovation index, p. 176. Harvard Business School Press, Boston (1999) 18. Chu, L.B.: Construction and actual measurement of the evaluation system for the regional innovation. Zhejiang University, Hangzhou (2010) 19. Yang, H.J.: Empirical study on evaluation index for the technological innovation of enterprises. Stat. Res. 1, 53–58 (1998) 20. Zhu, X.A., Wei, G.: D. Exploration on excellent standards for non-dimensional methods in entropy evaluation method. Stat. Decis. 2, 12–15 (2015) 21. Huang, P., Guo, M., Lan, S.R.: Dynamic evaluation and comparison of AHP method and entropy evaluation method for land eco-security in Fujian Province. J. Shenyang Agric. Univ. (Soc. Sci.) 17(03), 337–341 (2015) 22. Zhang, J.Y., Su, W.C., Zhang, F.T.: Evaluation on land ecological security of ecological economic zone of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region based on the PSR model. China Environ. Sci. 31(06), 1039–1044 (2011) 23. Cao, F.D., Huang, Z.F., Wu, J., Xu, M., Jiang, H.N.: Analysis on evolution and its formation of time-space pattern of regional economic difference in Jiangsu Province since 1990. Econ. Geogr. 31(06), 895–902 (2011) 24. Yi, M., Gao, L., Yang, L.S.: Study on evolution laws of time-space dynamics of group innovation in cities in the middle reaches of Yangtze River. Stat. Decis. 05, 134–138 (2017) 25. Luan, H.D.: External impact and tourism development: based on SARS case. Stat. Inf. Forum 24(1), 66–69 (2009) 26. Jiang, T.Y.: Analysis on evolution and the impact factors of the time-space pattern of the regional innovation difference in China. Econ. Geogr. 33(06), 22–29 (2013)

Residents’ Perception and Participation Behavior on the Poverty Alleviation Effect of Tourism Mu-chun Li and Bing-chen Han

Abstract IThis paper studies the situation and status of pro-poor tourism in a county in China. In recent years, the Chinese government has paid more attention to the development of poverty alleviation. As an important part of the national poverty alleviation strategy, pro-poor tourism has become an industrial poverty alleviation model generally favored by all sectors of the society. The poverty-stricken population, as the target of pro-poor tourism, has been the focus in the related studies. The paper analyses the current poverty situation and tourism development status in a specific region - the Nanzhao county, Henan province. The empirical results show that the development degree of the scenic area, different demographic characteristics and the relationship between residents and tourism will affect the local residents’ perception of the pro-poor tourism effect. Some suggestions are put forward on the development of poverty alleviation as well as the related tourism product development in the county. Keywords Pro-poor tourism · Residents’ perception · Participation willingness

1 Introduction The series of social problems caused by poverty are major concerns of all countries in the world and the United Nations has ranked poverty as the top three themes of world social development. Even though the global economy has been developing vigorously since the beginning of the twenty-first century, governments around the world have attached more and more importance to solving the problem of poverty and the problem of poverty all around the world still cannot be ignored as it has even become a major obstacle to world development. According to the report of ILO’s (International Labor Organization) outlook on social trends, nearly 2 billion M. Li · B. Han (B) School of Economics and Commerce, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China e-mail: [email protected] M. Li e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 Y. Luo et al. (eds.), Tourism Product Development in China, Asian and European Countries, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4447-7_14

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people worldwide live on less than $3.10 per day and this proportion exceeds 36% in merging and developing countries. China is a large agricultural country with a large population, the rural population accounts for 41.48% of its total population. Among these forty percent of rural population, the lack of capital, technology and talents and other factors of modern production lead to the backward of economic development in some remote areas, resulting in a large number of poverty-stricken people. From 2012 to 2019, China’s poor population decreased from 98.99 to 5.51 million. But how to achieve sustainable poverty alleviation is still worth thinking about. As a comprehensive environment-friendly industry, tourism plays an increasingly important role in the development of poverty alleviation. As early as 1980s, the Chinese government learned from the practical experience of developing tourism in some areas of China to get rid of poverty and become rich, that tourism, as a service industry, has greatly promoted economic development. Therefore, the slogan “Pro-poor tourism” was put forward. Based on the survey, tourism has become a major factor in economic development, household incomes growth and employment opportunities increasing of rural areas of China. With the development of domestic poverty alleviation and rural tourism, Pro-poor tourism has once again become the research object of scholars from all walks of life.

2 Research Status of the Subject 2.1 Research Review The concept of Pro-poor tourism (PPT) was first proposed by the Sustainable Development Committee of the UK International Development Agency in its report of 1999, which was the first time in the world that the concept of poverty alleviation through tourism was formally proposed. Early researches on Pro-poor tourism at home and abroad mainly focus on the macro-economic effects of Pro-poor tourism, including regional economic growth, changes in employment rate and foreign exchange income and multiplier effects that brought by Pro-poor tourism activities [1, 2, 3]. Some scholars also believe that Pro-poor tourism not only fail to reduce poverty, but exacerbated the widening gap between the rich and the poor [4].In recent years, the research on the effect of Pro-poor tourism is no longer limited to the analysis of macro-economic effect, but more attention is paid to non-economic impacts such as social culture, ecological environment etc. [5]. Other scholars believe that the comprehensive effect of tourism on poverty alleviation is manifested as the effects and influences on local “social culture, economy and ecological environment, generally including economic effect, social culture effect and ecological environment effect” [6]. The economic effects of Pro-poor tourism include the economic growth and increase in employment, as well as the “leakage effect” caused by poor economic

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foundation [7]. The cultural effects of Pro-poor tourism include not only the improvement of education level and cultural level, bring new ideas etc., but also the impact on local folk culture, excessive commercialization and other phenomenon [8]. The ecological environment effects of Pro-poor tourism include not only reducing the local ecological pressure that brought by local economic development through tourism, but also problems such as wasted resources or even damages and environmental pollutions caused by improper development. In addition to the changes in research trend from macro-economic impact to the comprehensive impact of economy, society and culture, the research subject has also presented a trend of transition from poor areas to poverty-stricken residents. On the one hand, it studies both the positive effects of Pro-poor tourism on job opportunities and income growth of residents as well as the negative effects of widening income gap and increasing crime rate [9, 10]. On the other hand, it studies residents’ perception of the effects of Pro-poor tourism and its influence on residents’ participation willingness [11, 12]. Some other scholars have noted the impact of Pro-poor tourism on special groups such as women and children in their studies [13]. However, domestic and foreign studies on the residents of poor areas are mostly concentrated in a wide range of countries or regions, domestic studies are particularly concentrated in southwest minority areas such as Yunnan, Guangxi and Guizhou province. Therefore, this paper takes Nanzhao county as an example, which is in the central of Henan province, and selects two scenic areas in Nanzhao county as case sites for empirical analysis so as to understand the factors that influence local residents’ perception of Pro-poor tourism effect and also the relationship between residents’ perception and participation willingness. Based on this, the author finds out the shortcomings of Pro-poor tourism in Nanzhao county and puts forward corresponding suggestions to achieve a better development of the Pro-poor tourism work in Nanzhao county.

2.2 The Poverty Situation of Nanzhao County Henan province is a large agricultural province in China with a rural population of over 50 million. Correspondingly, it is also a major province with a large number of poverty-stricken residents. At present, more than 2 million poverty-stricken people have not yet get rid of poverty and become better off. Nanzhao county belongs to Nanyang city and is located in the western of Henan province. The county has a total jurisdiction of 16 towns, 340 administrative villages and a total population of 640,000. The total area of the county is 2,946 km2 , of which the hilly area covers an area of about 2,800 km2 , accounting for 95% of the total area of the county; the cultivated land covers 497,000 mu, only accounting for only 1.7% of the total (Table 1). Table 1 shows the demographic data of Nanzhao County in 2018.

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Table 1 Demographic table of Nanzhao county Item

Poverty- stricken population

Total population

Poverty-stricken village

Poverty-stricken family

Quantity

650000

46700

89

12000

2.3 Tourism Development Status of Nanzhao County Nanzhao coutny, with both natural resources and cultural resources coexist, is a key part in the tourism development of Nanyang city. The total number of tourism resources in terms of single units reached 586, among which 233 are excellent ones, having a broad prospect of tourism development. In terms of traffic location, Jiaozhi railway, expressway G55, national highway G207 and G345, provincial roads S333 and S248 are all pass through Nanzhao county. What’s more, the county is 70 km away from Nanyang Jiangying airport and 180 km away from Zhengzhou airport. All of these make it has a good location conditions to develop tourism industry. Most of the poor villages in Nanzhao are located in the deep mountainous areas with sound ecological environment, the potential for poverty alleviation through tourism is huge. In recent years, relying on the construction of major scenic areas and beautiful rural villages, Nanzhao is implementing the strategy of “tourism + poverty alleviation”. It has carried out in-depth development of home stay resorts and rural guesthouses clusters and has achieved remarkable results. In this study, Wuduo Mountain scenic area and Waterfall Group scenic area are selected as the case sites for investigation. After basic analysis, these two scenic areas will be further analyzed through comparison. Wuduo Mountain scenic area is located in Sikeshu yown of Nanzhao county, it enjoys the reputation of Taoist Holy Land in the central plains. The Wuduo Mountain scenic area is mainly composed of three scenic spots, namely, the Baopu Gorge, the Wuduo Peak and the Wanfu Palace. It has both the beauty of natural landscapes and the charm of human history. Developed by Wuduoshan Group, the development of the Wuduo Mountain scenic area is earlier, therefore, the infrastructures such as cableways, plank roads, commercial streets and toilets is relatively complete. Spring, summer and autumn are its peak seasons. During the Spring Festival every year, the number of visitors on the first day of the holidays is over 15,000. The Waterfall Group scenic area is located in Mashiping town. Although the development of this scenic area is earlier, it has not been able to develop into a certain scale, the maximum number of visitors can only reach 4,000 to 5,000. Tianrui group, which is responsible for the development of it, is also the developer of many scenic spots in Nanzhao. Due to the large number of development projects of the group and other reasons, the development of the Waterfall Group scenic area is temporarily at a standstill currently.

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3 Study Design 3.1 Research Hypothesis In this paper, three sets of hypotheses are proposed. Two sets of hypotheses are about the impact of resident factors on the perception of Pro-poor tourism effect, the rest one is about the relationship between residents’ perceptions and their participation willingness. Demographic factors include gender, age, industry and occupation, cultural structure and other factors. Liu and Var found in their study on Hawaii in 1986 that demographic characteristics would have an impact on Hawaiian residents’ perception of the effects of tourists. In addition, studies have shown that factors such as gender, age, education degree, occupation, income level, distance to the scenic areas can affect the perception of tourists [14, 15, 16]. Based on this, the following hypotheses are proposed: H1: Residents of different demographic characteristics have significant differences in their perception of tourism effects. Through a comparative study of Fiji and Florida, scholar A Pizam (1994) found that residents’ perception of the tourism effects was related to the relationship between residents and the tourism industry. Factors such as residents’ dependence on the tourism industry and their participation in it would affect residents’ perception of the tourism effects [17, 18]. Whether residents are engaged in the tourism industry, the degree of dependence of family income on the tourism industry and the ability of residents to participate in the tourism industry will have a significant impact on residents’ views on the tourism industry. Based on this, the following hypotheses are proposed: H2: The relationship between residents and tourism is significantly related to their perception of the effect of Pro-poor tourism. Ap (1992) introduced social exchange theory into tourism activities, pointing out that residents’ evaluation of tourism activities would affect their behavioral willingness to participate in tourism activities [19]. Surveys show that when residents perceive more positive impacts, they are more willing and active to participate in Pro-poor tourism activities. On the contrary, if residents feel more negative impacts that brought by the activities, they will be reluctant to participate or even resist it. Based on this, the following hypotheses are proposed: H3: Residents’ perception of the effects of tourism is significantly related to their participation willingness. H3A: Residents’ perception of the positive effects of Pro-poor tourism economy, social culture and ecological environment is significantly positively correlated with their willingness to participate; H3B: Residents’ perception of the negative effects of Pro-poor tourism economy and ecological environment is significantly negatively correlated with their willingness to participate;

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H3C: Residents’ perception of the negative social and cultural effects of Pro-poor tourism is significantly negatively correlated with their willingness to participate.

3.2 Questionnaire Design and Content Main contents of this questionnaire are divided into four parts: basic social information, the relationship with tourism industry, perception attitude towards the effect of Pro-poor tourism and the willingness to participate, with a total of 37 questions. For the measurement of residents’ perception, Likert Scale was adopted. In order to compare the two cases, a pilot question was set to determine the area where the residents belonged. The questionnaire was distributed by means of field research and some training was given to the personnel before the questionnaire was distributed. In addition, seven people were randomly selected for face-to-face interviews to enrich the research content and ensure the accuracy of this survey. This questionnaire survey was conducted successively from January 31, 2018 to March 1, 2018 with a total of 185 questionnaires were issued. By the end of March 2018, a total of 184 questionnaires had been collected. After the elimination of invalid papers, 177 valid questionnaires were left, which represents an effective rate of 95.6%.

3.3 Data Processing Software SPSS20.0 was used to process the data obtained from the survey and reliability, validity, descriptive statistical analysis, factor analysis and correlation analysis were performed on the questionnaire data.

4 Results and Analysis 4.1 Statistical Analysis As can be seen from Table 2, the overall data of the survey shows that most of the male respondents were surveyed and the majority ages of them are between 41 and 60. Their educational background is mostly high school and below secondary school, which means a relatively low level. Occupation of these respondents is mainly farmers and their monthly average income shows a state of polarization.

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Table 2 Demographic characteristics of respondents Items

Description (frequency/percentage)

Address

Sikeshu Town (101/57.1); Mashiping (76/42.9)

Gender

Male (105/59.3); Female (72/40.7)

Age

25 (45/25.4); 26–40 (47/26.6); 41–60 (72/40.7); > 60 (13/7.3)

Education background

Junior high school or below (46/26.0); Junior high school (68/38.4); High school and technical secondary school (45/25.4); College (14/7.9); Bachelor and above (4/2.3)

Occupation

Farmer (100/56.5); Scenic staff (17/9.6); Travel agency staff (3/1.7); Self-employed (and petty dealer) (12/6.8); Government and public employee (9/5.1); Others (36/20.3)

Monthly income

500 (51/28.8); 501–1000 (20/11.3); 1001–1500 (27/15.3); 1501–2000 (25/14.1); > 2000 (54/30.5)

Distance from residence to scenic area

 500 m (48/27.10);  1 km (33/18.6);  3 km (26/14.7);  5 km (23/13.0); > 5 km (47/26.6)

4.2 Reliability Analysis In this study, the internal consistency reliability was used to check the stability of the scale. Generally speaking, if A coefficient is greater than 0.9, the scale is considered to have a high degree of reliability, and the reliability of the scale between 0.8 and 0.9 is normal. If A coefficient is greater than 0.7, it illustrates the internal consistency reliability is acceptable. The Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients of the perception of the positive and negative effects of economy, social culture and ecological environment and residents’ participation willingness are 0.910, 0.751, 0.887, 0.893, 0.832, 0.825 and 0.877 respectively. That is, the Cronbach’s Alpha value of the extraction factors is between 0.751 and 0.910 (greater than 0.7), indicating that the questionnaire has good internal consistency.

4.3 Validity Analysis In order to verify whether the scale is suitable for factor analysis, KMO test and Bartlett’s test were used to check whether the collected questionnaire data are suitable for factor analysis. When the KMO value is not less than 0.5 and the chi-square value of Bartlett test is significant, it will be considered to be suitable for factor analysis. After verification, the KMO value is 0.877 and the Sig value is 0.000, indicating that the sample data is suitable for factor analysis.

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4.4 Factor Analysis In this paper, principal component analysis is used to extract factors. The purpose of factor analysis is to describe the relationship between multiple factors with fewer factors. With the factor analysis of residents’ perception attitudes towards Pro-poor tourism effect, a total of 3 main factors were extracted, which explained 68.321% of the variance. With the factor analysis of residents’ willingness to participate in Pro-poor tourism, 1 main factor was extracted, explaining a total of 73.194% of the variance. This indicates that these extracted four factors can reflect most of the information of the original data well. The factor loading of “tourism development prevents the deforestation and abuse of the forest resources and protects some species” and “tourism leads to an increase in garbage” is less than 0.6, so they were deleted. In the process of factor analysis, the maximum variance method was adopted for data rotation, which converged after 5 iterations. After removing some items, the factor loads of each potential variable measurement problem were all greater than 0.6, indicating a good discriminant validity of the questionnaire (Table 3). These four factors are named respectively. Factor 1 is the factor of “positive effect of economy, social culture and ecological environment”; Factor 2 is the factor of “negative social and cultural effect”; Factor 3 is the factor of “negative impact of economy and ecological environment”; Factor 4 is the factor of “participation willingness”. The A value of factor 1 is 0.915, indicating a very good reliability. The average value reached 2.06, which indicates the residents in the case have a stronger perception of the positive effects of Pro-poor tourism. In addition, the perception of the following three aspects is particularly prominent, namely, “Tourism promotes the development of regional economy”, “tourism improves local popularity”and “tourism promotes the exchange of information with the outside world”. The A value of factor 2 is 0.893, which is close to 0.9, also indicating that it’s reliability is good; the mean value is 3.62, which indicates the residents’ perception of the negative social and cultural effects of Pro-poor tourism is not obvious, but it has begun to appear. In particular, average value of the item “tourists’ visits disrupts the daily life of local residents” reached 3.34, showing that some residents have begun to think that tourism activities have caused disturbances in their daily lives. The A value of factor 3 is 0.873, which is still in a high level, indicating that its reliability is relatively good; mean value of this factor is 3.02, which is lower than that of factor 2, indicating that residents have a better perception of “positive and negative effects of economic and ecological environment” than “negative social and cultural effects”. Besides, the perceptions of “ Tourism widens the income gap among local residents “ and “tourism causes traffic congestion” has been particularly obvious. The reasons for this phenomenon may be that the negative effects of tourism in the economic and ecological environment are more externalized, which can be easily experienced by the residents. However, in the aspects of social environment, folk customs etc., the negative effects of social culture are not obvious.

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Table 3 Results of factor analysis Factor1

Items

Factor loading

Cronbach’s alpha

Cumulative variable %

Tourism promotes the development of regional economy

0.869

0.915

2.06

Tourism provides more job opportunities for residents

0.854

2.20

Tourism raises per capita income of residents

0.836

2.20

Tourism makes local produce more sell better

0.822

2.03

Tourism improves the quality of local residents

0.815

2.09

Tourism increase the popularity of the local place

0.797

1.85

Tourism protects and inherits local characteristics and traditional culture

0.779

2.10

Tourism promotes the exchange of information with the outside world

0.747

1.98

Tourism strengthens residents’ awareness of environmental protection

0.746

2.11

1.98

(continued)

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Table 3 (continued)

Factor2

Factor3

Items

Factor loading

Tourism improves local sanitation, water and power supply, transportation, entertainment and other infrastructures

0.741

Cronbach’s alpha

2.02

Tourism development prevents deforestation and abuse of forest resources and protects some species

0.447

2.15

The tourists’ visit disrupt the daily life of the local residents

0.839

Tourism worsens local security

0.839

3.59

Tourism increases gambling and illegal entertainment

0.782

3.92

Tourism increases waste and destroys the environment

0.451

Tourism causes traffic congestion

0.864

2.99

Tourism leads to daily necessities rise in price and increases the price of commodities

0.732

3.00

Tourism widens the income gap among local residents

0.695

3.10

0.893

0.873

Cumulative variable %

3.62

3.02

3.34

3.10

(continued)

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Table 3 (continued)

Factor4

Items

Factor loading

Tourism increases ambient noise

0.659

Cronbach’s alpha

Cumulative variable %

I am willing to take up a job related to tourism

0.908

I am willing to participate in tourism education and training

0.872

2.20

I think tourism is a good way to get rich

0.847

2.20

I support the development of tourism locally

0.791

2.03

2.92

0.877

2.017

1. 98

The A value of factor 4 is 0.877, which indicates it has a good reliability; the average value of 2.017 shows that the willingness of the residents to participate in the Pro-poor tourism is relatively strong and most of them are willing to participate. In particular, the average value of “I support the development of tourism in the local area” is 1.89, indicating that residents are strongly support the development of tourism locally.

4.5 Hypothesis Testing For H1 and H2 hypotheses, non-parametric analysis technique was applied for validation with the use of Kruskal–Wallis test and the Jonckheere-Terpstra test approaches. The given significance level A is 0.05, as long as there is a test method with P value smaller than A, it is considered to have significant differences. H1: Significant differences exist in residents’ perception of the effect of Pro-poor tourism in different population structures. Non-parametric tests were carried out on the demographic characteristics of residents, such as their gender, age, educational background, income level and distance from their place of residence to scenic areas. The results show that residents of different ages (p = 0.023 < 0.05), different income level (p = 0.000 < 0.05) and different distance from their place of residence to scenic areas (p = 0.004 < 0.05) have significant differences in their perceptions of the effect of Pro-poor tourism. However, gender and educational background did not significantly affect residents’ perception of that. Huang Yanling (2016) [20] found in her research on gender and the effects of

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Pro-poor tourism development that both men and women have the same perceptions of the economic and social effects of Pro-poor tourism, but with different perception focuses. This paper studies whether there are significant differences in the overall perception of Pro-poor tourism effects among residents of different genders. In addition, the education level of residents is mainly concentrated in high school and below, the overall level is low, so the gender and education level have small differences in their impact on residents’ perception. H2: The relationship between residents and tourism is significantly related to their perception of the effect of Pro-poor tourism. Non-parametric tests were performed on the factors that reflect the relationship between residents and tourism. According to the results, residents’ perception of the effect of Pro-poor tourism is significantly affected by the following aspects: whether residents are engaged in tourism-related activities (p = 0.040 < 0.05), the degree of dependence on tourism (p = 0.019 < 0.05), whether they have the knowledge and skills to participate in tourism industry(p = 0.000 < 0.05), whether they have sufficient funds to participate in the tourism industry(p = 0.000 < 0.05) and whether they support the government(p = 0.000 < 0.05). That is, the relationship between residents and tourism will significantly affect residents’ perception of the effect of Pro-poor tourism. H3: Residents’ perception of the effect of Pro-poor tourism is significantly related to their participation willingness. As can be seen from Table 4, at a significant level of 0.01, there is a significant positive correlation between residents’ perception of positive effects of economy, social culture and ecological environment (P < 0.001 < 0.01) and their willingness to participate in this study. There is a significant negative correlation between residents’ perception of negative effects of economy and ecological environment (P = 0.002 < 0.01) and their willingness to participate. Residents’ perception of negative social and cultural effects was not significantly related to their willingness to participate (P = 0.572 > 0.01). From the perspective of correlation coefficients, the correlation coefficients of the positive effects of economy, social culture and ecological environment is larger, which indicates that its influence on participation willingness is greater than the negative effects of economy and ecological environment. In conclusion, H3A and H3B can be established while H3C is not. The survey found that the reason why the H3C was not established may be that the local residents did not agree with the negative effects of Pro-poor tourism on social culture. Table 4 Factorial analysis Factor 1 Factor 1

Factor 2

Factor 4

1.000

Factor 2

1.000

Factor 3 Factor 4

Factor 3

1.000 0.769**

−0.43

** was significantly correlated at the 0.01 level (bilateral)

−0.232**

1.000

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4.6 Case Comparison The results show that there are significant differences in residents’ perception of the effects of Pro-poor tourism in different cases (p = 0.000 < 0.05). The development of Wuduo Mountain scenic area was earlier and more mature, so the residents’ perception of various positive effects of tourism is more obvious. The lower mean value and the smaller standard deviation indicates that the perception difference among residents is small. However, the Waterfall Group scenic area has not been effectively developed for a long time, residents are more sensitive to the positive effects brought by the development. Comparatively, the perception difference between individuals is larger.

5 Conclusion and Suggestion 5.1 Conclusion With the improvement of people’s income level and the change of their life style, tourism has become an indispensable part of people’s life. The launch of the nationwide anti-poverty activities has brought the Pro-poor tourism back into people’s vision. Different from the traditional “transfusion-type poverty alleviation”, Pro-poor tourism is a type of “hematopoietic poverty alleviation”, which drives the employment and the development of industrial economy in poor areas. As the main recipients of Pro-poor tourism, residents’ perception of tourism and their participation willingness in poor areas have important impact on the smooth implementation of Pro-poor tourism work. Through the investigation and study on Wuduo Mountain scenic are and Waterfall Group scenic area, this paper finds that the development degree of the scenic areas will affect local residents’ perception of the effect of Pro-poor tourism. Demographic factors such as residents’ age, income level and distance to the scenic area will influence residents’ perception of the effect of tourism. The relationship between residents and tourism affects residents’ perception of the effect of Pro-poor tourism. Residents’ perceptions will also have an impact on their participation willingness and their behaviour. Residents’ perception of the positive effects of Pro-poor tourism on economy, social culture and ecological environment will directly increase their willingness to participate, and their perception of the negative effects will reduce the participation willingness accordingly.

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5.2 Suggestions In the process of questionnaire survey and interview, this study found some problems in the development of Pro-poor tourism in Nanzhao. Therefore, based on the findings of the study and the residents’ demands learned from the interviews, the following suggestions are proposed. Emphasis on government actions: Firstly, the government should formulate a more detailed tourism policy so as to enable the individual residents to get benefit from it. In the questionnaire survey, it was found that most people still felt that they had little or even no government support for their participation in the tourism industry. It was also found in the interview that the current policy of the government on Propoor tourism is more inclined to tourism companies and developers. In the view of this, the government should further improve the Pro-poor tourism policy, such as establishing corresponding tourism employment subsidy system for residents. The government is also supposed to strengthen the supervision of developers of all the scenic areas. According to the interview, it was learned that Tianrui Group, the developer of the Waterfall Group scenic area, failed to complete relevant development work after obtaining the development right, which leads to the scenic area stayed in a neglected state for many years. As a result, the development of the local employment and tourism market cannot be promoted. Because of this, some local residents hold a negative attitude towards the development of tourism. Therefore, the government should strengthen the supervision of the developers as well as their development process so that the development can be carried out strictly in accordance with the schedule. A penalty mechanism on developers’ default should also be established to avoid delays in later processes. In addition, the government is expected to increase financial support. Through empirical analysis and interviews, this study finds that whether residents have sufficient funds to participate in the tourism industry will affect their perception of the effect of tourism and their participation behaviour. For this reason, the government’s financial support is essential. It can be either a direct financial subsidy or an open the green channel for loans on Pro-poor tourism. More propaganda and training is needed at the same time. It was found in the interview that the early behavior of residents’ participating in Pro-poor tourism activities came from the government’s propaganda and encouragement. Besides, most residents want to receive more comprehensive and systematic training to make their service work more standardized. Government’s publicity work on the positive effects of Pro-poor tourism in the early stage can enable residents to have a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the benefits that brought by Pro-poor tourism, thereby increasing residents’ acceptance of tourism development and their participation willingness. The later training work can help the public improve their skills to participate as well as their service quality. Public’s service consciousness of the tourism industry can also be improved in this way. All of the above will lay a foundation for the sound development of Pro-poor tourism.

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Attaching importance to the operational management and development of scenic areas: Scenic spots must pay attention to basic development and seek development on this basis. Comparing the cases in this study, it is clear that mature tourism products will attract more tourists, which provides more potential consumers for local tourism’s development, expands the local tourism market and creates more jobs. On this basis, a good job in the promotion of tourism products is needed. The better the tourism publicity and promotion in place, the more tourists can be attracted, which is a win–win choice for both developers and local residents. In the daily operation of the scenic area, attention should be paid to maintaining the relationship with local residents and avoid any conflicts. In the case of this study, there is a contradiction between Wuduo Mountain scenic area and the local residents in the use of forest trees, which has harmed the interests of local residents and caused residents’ distrust of the scenic area. As a result, normal operation and work of this scenic area was affected. In the context that the developer of the scenic area harms the interests of local residents, the scenic area, as a party with vested interests, should provide certain subsidies to the residents to achieve a win–win situation.

References 1. Bennett, O., Roe, D., Ashley, C.: Sustainable tourism and poverty elimination study. Overseas Development Institute (1999) 2. Witt, S.F.: Economic impact of tourism on Wales. Tour. Manage. 8(4), 306–316 (1987) 3. Mathieson, A., Wall, G.: Tourism, economic, physical and social impacts. Geograph. Rev. 73(4), 466 (1982) 4. Scheyvens, R.: Tourism for development: empowering communities. Prentice Hall (2002) 5. Li, J., Jingbo, H.: A study on the perception and attitude of residents in the poverty alleviation effect of tourism in Luoxiao mountain area—a case study of Jiulongjiang district, Rucheng national forest park, Hunan province. Reg. Res. Dev. 34(4), 99–104 (2015) 6. Yunnan Deng, X., An analysis on the poverty alleviation effect of tourism in the county of Wumeng Mountain in province. Ecol. Econ. 31(2), 134–138 (2015) 7. Bao, J., Yan, J.: A study on the Pro-poor tourism effect based on the perception of villagers— taking Longwan village as an example. China Agric. Sci. Bull. 31(6), 278–283 (2015) 8. Feng, C.: A study on the causes and norms of cultural change in poverty-stricken tourist areas. Spec. Econ. Zone 5, 200–201 (2006) 9. Blake, A., et al.: Tourism and poverty relief. Ann. Tour. Res. 35(1), 107–126 (2008) 10. Taylor, J.E.: Tourism to the Cook Islands: retrospective and prospective. Cornell Hotel Restaur. Admin. Q. 42(2):70–81 (2001) 11. Zhang, W., Zhang, J., Wei, H.: Pro-poor tourism effect assessment based on the development of the poor population—a case study of Tongluozhai scenic spot in Anhui province. J. Tour. 20(5), 43–49 (2005) 12. Li, H., Li, X., Hou, L.: A study on Pro-poor tourism effect in vulnerable areas of loess plateau eco-environment—a case study of Gu Tsui village, Luochuan county, Shaanxi province. Tour. Res. 4(3), 1–6 (2012) 13. Schellhorn, M.: Development for whom? Social justice and the business of ecotourism. J. Sustain. Tour. 18(1), 115–135 (2010) 14. Liu, J.C., Var, T.: Resident attitudes toward tourism impacts in Hawaii. Ann. Tour. Res. 13(2), 193–214 (1986)

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15. Ritchie, J.R.B.: Consensus policy formulation in tourism. Measuring resident views via survey research. Tour. Manage. 9(3), 199–212 (1988) 16. Teye, V., Sönmez, S.F., Sirakaya, E.: Residents’ attitudes toward tourism development. Ann. Tour. Res. 29(3), 668–688 (2002) 17. Murphy, P.E.: Tourism: a community approach. Routledge (2014) 18. Pizam, A., Milman, A., King, B.: The perceptions of tourism employees and their families towards tourism: a cross-cultural comparison. Tour. Manag. 15(1), 53–61 (1994) 19. Ap, J.: Residents’ perceptions on tourism impacts. Ann. Tour. Res.19(4), 665–690 (1992) 20. Huang, Y., Li, L., Luo, S.: Research on the effectiveness of Pro-poor tourism and development in ethnic villages based on gender differences. J. Guangxi Univ. Financ. Econ. 29(5), 1–8 (2016)

Tourism Islanding Effect: A Conceptual Framework Li Tian, Wei Pu, and Liang Liu

Abstract Based on the study of previous theoretical literature and the practical phenomena related to the tourism islanding effect, this paper tries to establish a conceptual framework for a systematic analysis of tourism island phenomena including its concepts, categories, characteristics, forming causes etc. The paper considers that a tourism island refers to some specific geographic areas that are dominated by the tourism industry and developed in isolation from surrounding communities. According to the study, the tourism islanding effect can be divided into four specific categories. The paper also finds out that the tourism islanding effect exhibits some features which can be described as monopoly, spatial closure, self-circulation and exclusion/extrusion. The paper also discusses the impact of the islanding effect and gives some suggestions for regulations. Keywords Tourism islanding effect · Isolated development · Tourist enclaves · Concepts · Categories · Characteristics

1 Introduction After 40 years of rapid development, China has become the country with the largest tourism industry in the world. Underpinning this achievement are the processes associated with the development of salient aspects of tourism, including attractions, resorts, and destinations, for which China’s tourism industry has made a huge progress which is reflected in strengthening attractiveness, enhancing competitiveness and increasing revenue. However, the rapid growth of the tourism industry has also caused problems which are generally characterized by the emergence of alienation, conflict and contradictory relationships which mainly derive from the specific tourism areas that became isolated from the surrounding communities, and it is these specific areas that can be considered to be suffering from the tourism islanding effect. Correspondingly, the tourism activities organized in these specific areas are islanding tourism products. For example, it is generally accepted that the high L. Tian (B) · W. Pu · L. Liu School of Business and Tourism Management, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 Y. Luo et al. (eds.), Tourism Product Development in China, Asian and European Countries, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4447-7_15

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concentration degree of the tourism industry in Sanya of Hainan Province causes the region’s tourism economy to form a pattern, whereby, Sanya remains strong and stable but its surrounding environs stay weak. This scenario serves to illustrate that Sanya has the possibility of transforming into a so-called tourism economic island, where economic isolation exists between tourism areas and surrounding communities. Likewise, the tourism development of the Old Town of Lijiang has brought about the gradual loss of its original culture whilst at the same time catalyzing the development of new commercial and leisure cultures which have effectively transformed the Old Town of Lijiang into a tourism cultural island. Judging from the particular juncture in regional growth, tourism island is to a certain extent, necessary stage for tourism areas to develop through to maturity. At the beginning of its formation, it often has positive roles, including attracting inflows of investment, talents, and driving economic development. However, with the continuous rapid growth of tourism areas, the trend of isolated development can eventually lead to a crowding out effect inside, and a deprivation effect outside, resulting in the various problems in regional economic growth such as more fragile development inside and slower growth outside. The widespread phenomena and negative impact of tourism island in social practice surely justifies a scientific response from theoretical research in order to make any real sense of their existence. Therefore, through investigating the relevant literature as well as using the Puzhehei scenic spot in China, as a typical case study, this paper aims to establish a systematical conceptual framework to fill gaps in the current research.

2 Literature Review By reviewing the research literature on the tourism islanding effect over the past 20 years, the core content of related research has mainly focused on three major issues including concepts, types and the characteristics of tourism island. However, the studies on these issues have only occurred in case studies, and consequentially, the formation mechanism, evolution pattern, influence measurement and regulation management of tourism island have not yet received sufficient attention from theoretical research.

2.1 Tourism Island Concepts Academic investigations into the isolated relationships between tourism areas and their surrounding communities, that emerged during the process of tourism development, have to date resulted in the precipitation of two concept systems. The first of which is based on tourism island. Jin-he et al. regard the islanding effect in the development of the tourism economy in scenic spots as “the phenomena of developing

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independently to form an economic highland owing to the lack of ritual connections and interactions between scenic spots and surrounding hinterland [1]”. Li et al. further point out that tourism attractions island refers to the significant differences and the lack of mutual connection between tourism attractions and the surrounding communities, forming tourism phenomena of isolated development, and the tourism attractions islanding effect refers to the various influence of isolated phenomena [2]. The second concept system is based on tourist enclaves. Saarinen defines tourist enclaves as those planning spaces that are exclusive and have all or most facilities and services needed by tourists so that they no longer have the possibility or desire to leave the enclaves [3]. Ai-li et al. claim that enclaves tourism have the following four characteristics: first, the tourism facilities are controlled by foreign capital; second, the tourists are mainly from developed countries, and the travel modes of tourists are highly oriented; third, tourists rarely make contact with local residents; fourth, local community residents have fewer opportunities and lower levels of employment [4]. According to Qin, although tourism or leisure activities rely on local resources, they have a weak role in driving economic growth and little relevance to local economy, and tourism consumption materials and middle and high-level personnel mainly come from outside; furthermore, the proportion of local residents is very small. Tourists only carry out excursions in tourism areas, while catering, accommodation, entertainment, shopping and other consumer activities are conducted outside [5]. Overall, although there are differences in the way of expression, the basic connotations of tourism island and tourist enclaves are relatively consistent. However, the gaps such as unclear definition and incompleteness of the basic conceptual connotations of related expressions still exist. There are essentially two differences between tourism island and tourist enclaves. Firstly, tourism island is endogenously derived from tourism development, but tourist enclaves are exogenously generalized by external influence. Secondly, tourism island normally focuses on both small-scaled attractions and much larger regions even with small economies, whilst tourist enclaves are more confined to attractions or resorts.

2.2 Tourism Island Types The research on classification of types of tourism island mainly appears in the form of tourist enclaves. Cohen and Neal’s “A Middle Eastern Muslim Tourist enclave in Bangkok” on Tourism Geographies provides the most comprehensive introduction to the alternative categories of tourist enclaves. Based on a systematic review of previous studies, they divide tourist enclaves into four types, namely resort enclaves, backpacker enclaves, urban tourist enclaves and religious tourist enclaves as described in Table 1. It is worth mentioning that among these four kinds of tourist enclaves, the resort enclaves have attracted the most attention from scholars. Cohen and Neal also compare various tourist enclaves and analyze their characteristics [6]. It is also worth noting that the research on the types of tourism island or tourist enclaves are divided according to regional classification, however, this method of

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Table 1 Different kinds of tourist enclaves and their characteristics Kinds

Characteristics

Scholars

Resort enclaves

Relevant research focuses on seaside “resort enclaves” created by poor and backward rural areas in developing countries for wealthy foreign tourists; most of these enclaves have large-scale resort facilities and are spatially isolated

Butler (1992), Pearce (1992), Freitag (1994), Edenson (1998), Shaw and Shaw (1999), Mbaiwa (2005), Torres and Momsen (2005)

Backpacker enclaves

This kind of tourist enclave mainly attracts young and low-spending tourists; small backpacker enclaves emerge in remote, underdeveloped areas, and large backpacker enclaves emerge in popular urban tourist destinations; a typical backpacker enclave has a large number of small hotels or similar low-cost accommodation services, and its exclusivity is not as obvious as a resort enclave

Westerhausen and Macbeth (2003), Ateljevic and Doorne (2004), Cohen (2006), Malam (2008), Wilson et al. (2008), Wongkerd (2011)

Urban tourist enclaves

Urban tourist enclaves have developed rapidly since the 1980s; compared with resort enclaves, the spatial boundaries of urban tourism enclaves are not clear

Judd (2003)

Religious tourist enclaves

Religious tourist enclaves are based on the preferences and religious needs of observant tourists and emerge in urban and nonurban settings

Brown (1996), Jewish Telegraph (2009), Maoz and Bekerman (2010)

Source Assorted by author according to “A Middle Eastern Muslim Tourist enclave in Bangkok”

division runs into difficulties when it tries to fully clarify the various phenomena that occur in the practices of tourism island development.

2.3 Tourism Island Characteristics Generally, tourism island and tourist enclaves have some significant characteristics that are manifested through economy, society, culture, management, landscape and other dimensions. Xu-ke and Jian emphasize in their research on the phenomena of urban scenic spots that the essence of this issue is that such scenic spots have fallen

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into isolated development, showing features such as functional island, management island, economic island, cultural island, landscape island, and other morphological characteristics which are incompatible with the surrounding environment and urban communities [7]. Yun-cai and Li-ying focus on the fragmentation of cultural landscapes in a case study of Luzhi Town, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, and illustrate that traditional regional cultural landscapes “islanding” has two characteristics: “formal island” and “functional island". The former is mainly characterized by the spatial discontinuities and “islandization” patterns of land property and geomorphology. The latter is manifested as a single industrial function, loss of production, life, ecology, culture and other functions [8]. Li et al. propose that the tourism attractions islanding effect contains three major characteristics, namely the separation of economic revenue, the extrusion of social culture and the fragmentation of landscape ecology [2]. In addition, according to Hong-jie, enclaving trends in tourism attractions include four aspects of territorial space, tourism development decisions, tourism industry chain and the economic revenue distribution [9]. Relevant research explains the characteristics of tourism island from the impact of these phenomena, focusing on the external performance in terms of space, economy, culture, ecology, etc., while the depth of these works on the essential characteristics is still insufficient.

3 Methodology The purpose of this paper is to establish a conceptual framework for theoretical analysis of the tourism island phenomenon in the practice. This framework includes concepts, types, characteristics, causes and regulations (see Fig. 1). Given that the tourism island phenomena have counterparts in tourism development practice, this paper takes a specific tourism area as a case study, namely Puzhehei scenic spot in Tourism Islanding Effect Framework

Concepts

Tourism island Tourism islanding effect

Categories

Characteristics

Influence dimensions

Resource monopoly

Isolation extent

Spatial closure

Spatial scope

Self-circulation

Regional classification

Exclusion/extrusion

Fig.1 Tourism islanding effect framework

Causes

Polarization effect Closure effect Siphon effect

Regulations

aggregating decentralized development Boundaries removing and de-ticketization Equal opportunity and compensation

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Yunnan Province. By sorting out various isolated phenomena during the development of Puzhehei scenic spot, this paper abstract general theoretical concepts. The tourism area of Puzhehei scenic spot is located in Qiubei County, Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan Province. In recent years, due to the broadcast of the popular TV show of To the Sky Kingdom, and the opening of the high-speed railway, the tourism industry in Puzhehei scenic spot has rapidly developed. Qiubei County is currently making great efforts to transform this tourism area into a national 5A-grade scenic spot. However, in this process, the relationships between this tourism area and its surrounding communities have become more complicated and are constantly evolving. From a morphological point of view, they show out the typical isolated relationships. The authors have carried out continuous observation and investigation into the Puzhehei scenic spot for nearly ten years, witnessing its growth and evolution. Meanwhile, since 2018, the authors began to focus on the islanding characteristics of this tourism area within the development process under the foundation of the Chinese National Social Science Foundation Project, and has conducted many field investigations which also yielded a number of interesting findings. Despite the significant achievements as shown in the tourism economic indicators associated with the Puzhehei scenic spot, the findings also point to prominent revenue conflicts, insufficient community participation, and an unbalanced ecological environment because of the conflicting demands from different stakeholders such as government, enterprises, and community residents. These problems are typical manifestations of the tourism islanding effect in reality.

4 Conceptual Framework 4.1 Concepts This paper abstracts various forms of tourism island phenomena and extracts rational thinking objects to clearly define the two core concepts of tourism island and tourism islanding effect. In the development practice of Puzhehei scenic spot, its islanding characteristics appeared in the middle and late stages. Moreover, with the entry of professional investment, operation and management institutions, the internal development of Puzhehei scenic spot has been continuously improved, but the channels for residents of surrounding communities to participate in tourism have continued to decrease. By abstracting these specific phenomena, the concepts of tourism island can be established. These are discussed in the following sections.

4.1.1

Tourism Island

Many scholars have described and defined tourism island from different perspectives. However, as a complete concept, tourism island still needs to be more strictly defined.

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Based on the summary of the foregoing definitions and the phenomena of Puzhehei scenic spot, the tourism island in this paper refers to specific areas that are dominated by the tourism industry and developed in isolation from surrounding communities. Specifically, the definition contains the following meanings. Firstly, tourism is the leading industry in these specific areas. Among industrial conglomerates, tourism is a core industry and other industries develop around tourism. In this specific area, capital, labor and other production factors continue to flow into the tourism industry. The rapid development of the tourism industry inhibits and constrains other industries, resulting in a single development pattern. This pattern focuses solely on the tourism industry while ignores overall economic development, which eventually triggers the tourism islanding effect. Secondly, specific areas have different forms of existence. From the perspective of spatial scope, the specific area can be a small-scale resort area with a tourism attraction, a medium-scale tourism area and a large-scale tourism city and tourism destination, etc. Thirdly, specific areas are isolated from the surrounding communities. The isolation of a specific area from its surrounding communities is a combination of physical isolation (space, ecology, landscape, and structures, etc.) and invisible isolation (economy, society, culture, and management, etc.) [10]. Fourthly, there are differences in the extent of isolation. The isolation extent between the tourism areas and the surrounding communities is divided into three varieties according to the level of confrontational extent, namely differential isolation with lower confrontational extent, blocking isolation with medium confrontational extent, and the oppositional isolation with higher confrontational extent.

4.1.2

Tourism Islanding Effect

In the field of tourism research, although some scholars have dedicated a lot of effort to its theoretical study, they still fail to agree on the concept of tourism islanding effect. For the purpose of clarity, this paper defines the tourism islanding effect to be the impact of the isolated development of tourism areas from surrounding communities. Specifically, the definition of the tourism islanding effect includes the following explanations. Firstly, the impact of isolation is widespread. Among the wide-ranging impact of isolation, the economy, society, culture, ecology and management are more significant. Due to the lack of connections with surrounding communities in these fields, tourism areas gradually become relatively closed systems. Secondly, the impact of isolation is transmitted by functional and physical space. With regards to the functional transmission path, the continuous accumulation of the tourism industry driven by capital and policies will generate siphon effect, which exclude other industries in both tourism areas and the surroundings. For the physical transmission path, specific areas have development advantages due to the influx of production factors, thus creating internal circulation, and finally triggering spatial self-closing [11].

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Thirdly, the development of isolation triggers an island crisis. The isolation extent of the island is divided into differential isolation, blocking isolation and oppositional isolation. When the isolation extent develops from differential isolation to blocking isolation, and then to oppositional isolation, it results in confrontational contradictions in the economy, society, culture, ecology, management and other aspects.

4.2 Categories The complexity and diversity of the tourism islanding effect phenomenon can be put into regular relationships. Therefore, the tourism islanding effect can be classified according to the influence dimensions, the isolation extent, the spatial scope and the regional categories. Correspondingly, Puzhehei scenic spot has multiple attributes of economic island, social island, cultural island, ecological island and management island according to influence dimensions. In addition, Puzhehei scenic spot also has other characteristics of specific types, including oppositional tourism island, local tourism island and tourism attractions island.

4.2.1

Influence Dimensions

The tourism islanding effect can be divided into five influence dimension types that include tourism economic island, tourism social island, tourism cultural island, tourism ecologic island, and tourism management island. These five types are described as follows: Tourism economic island refers to the phenomena of economic isolation between tourism areas and surrounding communities owing to the development of tourism within specific areas. Due to the fragmented economic relationships between tourism areas and surrounding communities, the tourism areas have become relatively closed economic systems [12], which generate significant development differences and severe polarization, and weaken economic diffusion between tourism areas and surrounding communities. Tourism social island refers to the phenomena of social isolation between tourism areas and surrounding communities due to the development of tourism within specific areas. The social relationships between the tourism areas and the surrounding communities is split, and a relatively closed social system is formed. An isolated social system will prevent community residents from participating in the tourism industry, sharing tourism resources, and eventually triggering various social disputes, conflicts, and confrontations [13]. Tourism cultural island refers to the phenomena of cultural isolation between tourism areas and surrounding communities owing to the development of tourism within specific areas. The cultural exchange between the tourism areas and the surrounding communities is blocked, and a special heterogeneous culture thus emerges.

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Consequently, the foreign culture is incompatible with the local culture, which leads to the variation of the local culture and the malformation of the consumer culture. Tourism ecological island refers to the phenomena of ecological isolation between tourism areas and surrounding communities because of the development of tourism within specific areas. The extreme development of tourism areas makes the internal ecosystem of tourism areas incompatible with the surrounding communities, leading to the migration of a large number of alien species, the disruption of the natural connections of the ecosystem, the fragmentation of the ecosystem landscape and the destruction of the ecological network pattern. Tourism management island refers to the phenomena of management isolation between tourism areas and surrounding communities due to the development of tourism within specific areas. Due to the existence of different management subjects, there are huge differences in the management modes between tourism areas and surrounding communities, which ultimately leads to differences and conflicts between the two parties in terms of management goals, management priorities, management methods and management policies.

4.2.2

Isolation Extent

The tourism islanding effect can be divided into three separate isolation extent types which include: differential tourism island, blocking tourism island, and oppositional tourism island. These three types are outlined as follows: Differential tourism island refers to tourism areas that differ significantly from the development of surrounding communities within specific areas. Differential tourism island belongs to tourism areas with low confrontational extent and is a necessary stage in the development of regional tourism, and the goal of this unbalanced growth of tourism areas is to achieve higher levels of development [14]. Blocking tourism island refers to tourism areas that are separated from the surrounding communities and developed in separation within specific areas. Blocking tourism island belongs to tourism areas with moderate confrontational extent. On the one hand, this form has the internal demands of tourism development. On the other hand, it also needs to achieve the dual goals of consolidating the advantages and strengthening the management of tourism areas. Under the effect of these demands, blocking tourism island will make for an increasingly unbalanced development between tourism areas and surrounding communities. Oppositional tourism island refers to tourism areas that have antagonistic relationships with surrounding communities due to isolation within specific areas. Oppositional tourism island belongs to tourism areas with a relatively high degree of confrontation, and oppositional effects will negatively affect the economy, society, culture, ecology, management and other aspects, and effective measures need to be taken for regulation.

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Spatial Scope

The tourism islanding effect can be divided into three categories, namely global tourism island, regional tourism island and local tourism island according to spatial scope. These three categories are details as follows: Global tourism island refers to tourism areas with large spatial scope and isolated development. From a spatial perspective, global tourism island can be an area of tens to thousands of square kilometers, or even on a country/continent basis, such as Spain, Greece, Italy in Europe, Thailand, Maldives in Asia, and Hainan Province, Yunnan Province in China, etc. Regional tourism island refers to tourism areas with medium spatial scope and isolated development. From a spatial perspective, regional tourism island can be an entire tourism destination, a tourism city, i.e. Lijiang City in Yunnan Province, Zhangjiajie City in Hunan Province, etc. Local tourism island refers to tourism areas with small spatial scope and isolated development. From a spatial perspective, local tourism island can be a smallscale tourism attraction, such as the Emeishan Scenic spot and the Ancient Town of Fenghuang.

4.2.4

Regional Classifications

Regional classifications further divide the tourism islanding effect into five types, namely tourism attractions island, tourism resorts island, urban tourism island, rural tourism island, and protected area tourism island. These five types are outlined as follows: Tourism attractions island refers to tourism attractions that have significant differences from surrounding communities. Due to the development of the tourism industry, the tourism attractions are isolated from the surrounding communities and in a completely closed management state. Specifically, the ecological landscape, operational management and consumer groups of tourism attractions have no relationships with the surrounding communities [1]. Tourism resorts island refers to resorts that have significant differences from surrounding communities. Due to the development of the tourism industry, tourism resorts are incompatible with the surrounding communities in terms of markets, facilities, functional configuration and operational management, and completely isolated from the surrounding communities. Urban tourism island refers to tourism cities that have functional differences from surrounding cities. The urban economy is dominated by the tourism industry and the development of other industries depends on the leading role of the tourism industry. Specifically, the urban spatial layout, facilities configuration and image creation are all subject to the tourism development. Rural tourism island refers to tourism villages with dominant tourism industries compared with surrounding villages. Tourism villages adopt tourism as the key industry because of the more significant economic, social and ecological benefits it

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can generate compared to such benefits derived from local agriculture. In addition, tourism will become a high-added value industry through relying on agricultural production activities, landscapes, and tools [15]. Protected areas tourism island refers to protected areas that are clearly separated from surrounding areas. The dual purpose of tourism development and environmental protection makes the protected area significantly different from the surrounding area. However, it should be emphasized that tourism development in the protected areas is subject to environmental protection. National parks, heritage sites, etc. are typical protected areas tourism island.

4.3 Characteristics The tourism islanding effect has four characteristics that are different from other tourism phenomena, namely resource monopoly, spatial closure, self-circulation, and exclusion/extrusion. For Puzhehei scenic spot, the specific manifestation is that the scenic spot monopolizes the core resources with high landscape value, and control its accessibility through physical barriers. At the same time, shopping, dining and other activities are distributed inside the scenic spot, which can meet the basic needs of tourists. In addition, the scenic area’s labor demand from surrounding communities has gradually been weakened, and the community residents have been isolated from tourism development by banning external carriages and organizing internal cruise ships.

4.3.1

Resource Monopoly in Strength

The resource monopoly of the tourism islanding effect is mainly reflected in the monopoly of resources, production factors and tourists within tourism areas. To put it simply, under the combined effect of physical and invisible isolation, tourism areas gradually gather more high-quality resources to form a monopoly. As for the monopoly of production factors, due to the low impact of the tourism industry on the environment and the great driving force for related industries, regional government departments promulgate various preferential policies to attract investment. Based on the resource’s monopoly of tourism areas, capital, technology and other factors gradually flow into tourism areas, which eventually makes tourism areas monopolize the production factors. Under the dual role of resource and factor monopoly, tourism areas eventually become islanding areas isolated from the surrounding communities, thereby realizing a monopoly in tourism supply. The monopoly of tourism supply enables tourism areas to grasp the right to organize tourism activities, plan tourism routes and develop tourism products, making tourism areas more attractive than the surrounding areas, and ultimately achieving a monopoly on tourists.

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Spatial Closure in Management

The spatial closure of the tourism islanding effect is mainly reflected in the management, consumption, revenue and scene closure of tourism areas. In terms of management, there is duality in the management between tourism areas and surrounding communities, including dual management goals and modes. Tourism areas monopolize various preferential policies and eventually form a management closure. With regard to consumption closure, the tourism areas become high-consumption areas due to high-quality facilities, better services and various products, which generate significant gaps in consumption with surrounding communities. Relying on the monopoly of resources, tourism areas gradually transform into closed places in terms of revenue. Specifically, tourism areas where tourism industries obtain most of the tourism revenue, also hinders the sharing relationships between tourism areas and surrounding communities. In addition, due to differences in organizational forms and system functions between the tourism areas and surrounding communities, scenes closure in landscape, facilities and consumption also emerge [3].

4.3.3

Self-circulation in Operation

The self-circulation of the tourism islanding effect is mainly reflected in the independent supply, demand and operation of tourism areas. In tourism areas, tourism and its related industries are centered at this point, presenting a pattern of the whole industry’s chain of development. Under the support of various industrial functions, tourism areas basically achieve self-sufficiency and can meet the basic consumption demand of tourists. At the same time, with the rapid development of the tourism industry, tourism areas have stable channels to acquire capital, technology, and labor without relying on surrounding communities [16]. Under the influence of the tourism islanding effect, there are no independent and systematic subsystems inside and outside the region to interact with the tourism areas, and the diffusion effect of tourism areas are consequently hindered.

4.3.4

Exclusion/Extrusion in Revenue

The exclusion of the tourism islanding effect is mainly reflected in the exclusion of revenue, extrusion of industry and a single labor force structure in tourism areas. Under the dual management structure, residents of surrounding communities are excluded from tourism revenue because of failing to effectively participate in the management of tourism activities such as accommodation, catering, and entertainment. Driven by capital and policies force, tourism areas gradually emerge into a functional growth pole triggering the siphon effect which crowding out other industries. It is generally known that the tourism industry has obvious social benefits for the large numbers of employment opportunities it can generate. However, any human

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resources organization structure reliant on tourism areas will be affected by these benefits, including single labor selection, training and employment.

4.4 Causes There are many reasons for the formation of the tourism islanding effect, among which polarization, closure, and siphon effect are the main factors. In the development of Puzhehei scenic spot, the differential impact appeared at its initial stage due to the existence of the polarization effect. When the polarization evolves to a certain degree, the isolation effect comes into play and the blocking impact begins to produce. Finally, under the function of the siphon effect, the oppositional impact is formed.

4.4.1

Polarization Effect

The heterogeneity of tourism resources and the contingency of historical opportunities will lead to the differentiated development of tourism areas. In this context, some regions will absorb the production factors in surroundings and quickly become a tourism growth pole. The developed tourism growth pole and the backward surrounding areas form the two extremes of tourism economic development, resulting in polarization effect of tourism development [17]. Tourism polarization is the fundamental reason for the formation of the tourism islanding effect. It is precisely because of the existence of tourism resources that it has promoted the development of tourism areas and formed significant differences from surroundings, and has grown into a regional tourism growth pole. This difference is the primary state of the tourism islanding effect.

4.4.2

Closure Effect

Tourism island has obvious spatial property, that is, closed isolation in spatial relationships. The closure separates the tourism areas from the surroundings and blocks economic communication and interaction between inside and outside. The stable revenue brought by tourism resources leads to the occurrence of monopoly, which is realized through the spatial isolation. As a concomitant consumption of tourism resources, tourism consumption is restricted to occur within specific tourism spaces. Under the effect of non-production mode of consumer services that attracts tourists to a specific space for consumption through tourism resources, the economy of the tourism areas realizes self-circulation and does not spread outwards, forming a blocking development.

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Siphon Effect

There is a siphon effect in the process of the tourism islanding effect, that is, the oneway transfer of various factors from the surroundings to the tourism areas, resulting in the development opportunities and space of the surrounding areas being “deprived”. Eventually, there will be rivalries between the monopolizing side and the monopolized side. At the same time, under the effect of the dualized management model, the contradiction between the tourism areas and the surroundings has been exacerbated. Therefore, the advantages deprivation, revenue exclusion and management duality caused by the siphon effect are the main reasons for the evolution of the tourism islanding effect into the oppositional state.

4.5 Regulation According to the formation causes of different impact of the tourism islanding effect, three regulatory paths can be constructed accordingly. Differential performance can be regulated by aggregating decentralized development paths. Blocking performance can be controlled by the removal of boundaries and de-ticketization. Oppositional performance can be managed through equalization of opportunity and compensation. These paths can be applied to the negative impact regulation of the Puzhehei scenic spot development. First, new tourism growth poles at the edges of the tourism area can be built to achieve balanced regional development. Second, the physical spatial barrier can be removed to increase the revenue through secondary consumption. Third, equal development opportunities and compensation to the surrounding communities can be given to realize the common benefits from tourism development.

4.5.1

Aggregating Decentralized Development

The “aggregating decentralized” development theory proposed by Rodwin states that it is practicable to create new economic growth centers in the fringe areas while promoting the development of the original growth pole in the region [18]. This strategy is also applicable to the regulation of tourism islanding effect. On the one hand, it is necessary to continue to strengthen the original tourism growth pole to promote its spatial diffusion function. On the other hand, regional management departments should guide the excavation of new tourism resources and establishment of new tourism attractions in edges to reduce the differences in regional development.

4.5.2

Boundaries Removing and De-ticketization

Spatial closure is a key factor in the formation of the tourism islanding effect. The reason why the tourism islanding effect shows a special unbalanced development is

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that the organization of tourism activities show the characteristics of visible spatial confinement. This kind of closure, while increasing tourism revenue, has greatly reduced the vitality of the regional economy. To eliminate the negative effects of tourism island, it is necessary to break the closed boundaries as much as possible. The most important thing is to break the ticket model and reduce the government’s dependence on the tourism “ticket economy.”

4.5.3

Opportunity Equalizing and Compensation

The siphon effect of the tourism islanding effect causes the one-way transfer of production factors from the surroundings to the tourism areas, which directly leads to the deprivation of development opportunities and space in the surrounding areas. Aiming at these problems, the main solutions include equal opportunities and compensation. Regarding equal opportunities, the local management departments need to ensure that the residents of the communities enjoy equal development rights to jointly benefit from the tourism development. At the same time, it is necessary to break the regional isolation boundaries and policy barriers so that the surroundings can be driven by the diffusion power of the tourism areas. When opportunities equalizing cannot play a role, local management departments need to provide economic subsidies to vulnerable groups in the community through compensation. It should be noted that opportunity equalizing is the main means to solve the development imbalance, and the compensation method is essentially a remedy.

5 Conclusion On the basis of summarizing the various characteristics of Puzhehei scenic spot as an island-type tourism product, this paper abstracts an analytical framework with universal applicability, which can theoretically explain the various tourism island phenomena that occur in other regions. Generally speaking, this paper is an exploratory study to explain the isolation phenomena in the practice of tourism development. Therefore, related research needs to be further deepened, and future research can be focus on four important issues of formation mechanisms, evolution patterns, influence measurement and regulation mechanisms. The formation mechanism of the tourism islanding effect can clearly indicate the mechanism of action, influence factors and function routines. In general, the formation of the tourism islanding effect is the result of the superimposition of resource ownership, asset operation rights and usufructuary monopoly rights. The evolution patterns of the tourism islanding effect can dynamically show the vigorous mechanism, evolution stage and evolutionary outcome. The driving mechanism of the tourism islanding effect is the entanglement of both the polarization effect and the diffusion effect. The former promotes the formation of islanding and strengthens the effect, while the latter slows islanding development and weakens the effect.

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The influence measurement of tourism islanding effect can accurately determine its extent, performance and characteristics. When tourism areas are isolated from surrounding communities, it will exert an interconnected and interactive impact on the economy, society, culture, ecology and management of tourism areas. The regulation mechanism of the tourism islanding effect can effectively suppress negative effects and strengthen positive effects. The regulation mechanism is a systematic framework based on formation mechanism, evolution patterns, formation cause and influence. Implementing regulatory measurements requires the establishment of an overall regulatory system view, determination of regulatory pathways for core issues and provision of practicable regulatory countermeasures. Acknowledgements This paper is the study advancement of the project “Research on the Measurement and Regulation Mechanism of Tourism Islanding Effect” funded by Chinese national social science foundation.

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