西藏区域旅游线路组织优化研究

青藏铁路通车带来了拉萨市场的"井喷"现象,也是重塑西藏区域旅游线路的重要动力.本文运用区域科学原理,分析了旅游经济增长和区域游线优化组织之间的互动与制约关系,说明现阶段研究和提升西藏区域游线组织结构已成为推动西藏旅游发展的重要内容.铁路通车后西藏区域游线形成了以拉萨为中心的放射性格局,大部分游线都是原路返回,这是区域游线组织处在初级阶段上的表现.西藏旅游业发展迫切要求西藏区域游线组织进行总体布局上的提升,而发展环线是优化区域游线网络的必经阶段.本文从前瞻的视角出发提出了构建西藏区域旅游环线要遵循依托首府城市、连接相邻热线等5项原则,并以南(小)环线为案例探讨了西藏区域旅游线路发展在区域旅游生产力布局中具有的共性和雪域高原上的个性特征,对西藏区域游线组织的优化具有指导意义.     

The Qinghai–Tibet railway and Tibetan tourism: Travelers' perspectives

The Qinghai–Tibet railway opened in July 2006 and boosted Tibetan tourism markedly due to the increased accessibility and affordability of travel to Tibet. This study evaluates the impacts of the increased accessibility on tourists' travel decisions for, and experiences in, Tibet from travelers' perspectives. The relative importance of the train journey in comparison with the destination experience in Tibet is also examined. A survey of 187 travelers, 82 for the pre-visit and 105 for the post-visit samples, was used to collect travelers' perceptions. Important destination choice factors for Tibet are identified. The importance of the railway to tourists' destination choice of Tibet and in their overall travel experience of Tibet is confirmed.     

Media effects on image: The Case of Tibet

Using media effects research as a theoretical framework, this paper examines empirically the impact of media representations—such as movies, guidebooks, and magazines—on destination image. Past research has focused on either representations or image, but rarely on both. Based on a systematic comparison of the former with the latter, it is argued that the impact of media representations on image falls between a strong and negotiated influence. The analysis is based on data collected from tourists in Lhasa, Tibet. The paper documents tourism issues in a renowned but little studied destination.     

世俗的朝圣:西藏旅游体验研究

西藏正成为越来越重要的旅游目的地,然而对西藏旅游体验具体的微观研究却相对缺乏。文章通过对西藏旅游者的深度访谈,来探讨他们的旅游体验。游客往往将西藏想象成一种神圣之地,西藏的旅游体验对于游客而言也具有神圣的意义,主要体现在游客对自然、宗教和藏族人的体验上。西藏纯净的自然可以净化游客的心灵,让他们联想到远离喧嚣的生活。西藏的寺庙和朝拜的信徒营造出一种虔诚而神圣的氛围,让游客内心备受震动。看到藏民的执着和虔诚,游客心中会产生一种满足感。而藏民淳朴的为人处世的方式更让游客感到一种自己社会所缺失了的真实。西藏的神圣不在于游客对其宗教的信仰上,而在于其社会文化意义,西藏提供了游客日常生活所缺失的自然与人文,满足了游客的精神需求。西藏的旅游体验与其说是宗教朝圣,毋宁说是一种世俗的朝圣。     

Tourism and agricultural development in thailand

The adoption of tourism by agricultural communities may increase or decrease environmental degradation by affecting the frequency of cultivation or perceived value of soil conservation. Research undertaken in a prominent “hill tribe” village in northern Thailand indicated that tourism was only adopted by those with available cash and labor, and did not present a viable alternative to agriculture. However, households which did adopt tourism increased frequency of cultivation by hiring agricultural labor and dividing land within families to maximize use of land. Tourism has, therefore, been unavailable to the poorest small landowners who most need a new source of income, but it has generally increased frequency of cultivation among those who have adopted it.     

MARKET POSITIONING ANALYSIS: A Hybrid Approach

This research introduces a hybrid approach including correspondence analysis and logit modeling to contrast the relative market position of Virginia with eight other eastern US states and the District of Columbia. The data obtained from a series of telephone surveys are analyzed. In a competitive analysis, the study areas are described by youth/mature and culture/nature dimensions relating to activity images as well as by beach/mountain and urban/country dimensions in connection with attraction images. Pennsylvania appears to be an immediate competitor of Virginia in regard to provision of leisure activities. The study concludes with discussions on critical findings along with marketing implications.     

Virtual destination image a new measurement approach

This study utilized enabling internet and computerized content analysis technologies to measure destination image from a phenomenographic post-positivist perspective. In an online survey, respondents were asked to describe their image of one of seven case study destinations that they had never visited before, in a narrative format. The large amount of qualitative data was content analyzed using artificial neural network software. The results produce a vivid three-dimensional picture of the differences and commonalities among the images of selected destinations. It is concluded that an interactive narrative approach presents an alternative measurement technique that can contribute significantly to future image research.     

Stated preferences for two Cretan heritage attractions

The paper utilizes discrete choice modeling methodology to evaluate preferences of tourists for hypothetical managerial initiatives for two heritage attractions in Crete, Greece. The results show that they are willing to contribute a significant amount of money for improvements in the quality of information for both sites. Receiving information will substantially improve their satisfaction and thus their chances of visiting. Tourists also make reference to demand management issues, arguing that deterioration in congestion levels in both attractions will negatively affect satisfaction levels. The paper draws attention to future policies designed to improve the quality of the heritage experience, such as the introduction of audiovisual material to complement the presentation of exhibits.     

Tourists to Lhasa,Tibet: How Local Youth Classify,Understand and Respond to Different Types of Travelers

Local residents in tourism communities are observers of those who gaze at them. This research extends host gaze studies using an emic approach. It explores how tourists are viewed in three different settings in the context of Lhasa, Tibet. The young Tibetans viewing tourists in these three different settings have different economic and social backgrounds. They also have different degrees of exposure to tourists. The study offers baseline information on how tourists are differently understood within Tibet across nationality differences. It was demonstrated that three different groups of young Tibetans variously use ethnic origins, travel and transport arrangement, and how tourists are hosted to develop their different classifications. Tolerance towards most types of tourists is high, though it varies subtly for different groups. These core perspectives can be helpful in establishing not only how Tibetan tourism is viewed but also how it can be managed and developed in the future.     

Tourists and retailers' perceptions of services

This paper describes a study which measures tourist and retailers' perceptions of service levels in a tourism destination. A service quality model was used to develop survey items and interpret the results. The service dimensions used to evaluate a tourism experience included reliability, responsive, assurance, and access. The results indicate tourists evaluate tourism services based on “who” delivers as opposed to the nature of the services (as outlined in the Service Quality model). This has implications for those who create and service tourism destinations, such as city planners and leaders, tourism convention and visitor bureaus, and retailers.     

A Himalayan triptych: narratives of traders,pilgrims and resistance in a landscape of movements

ABSTRACT

For centuries, if not millennia, the north–south valley systems of Nepal’s Himalayas have acted as a capillary network for communication, exchange, veneration, discriminating cultural difference and measuring out (early-)state power. One valley, in particular, the Kali Gandaki in Mustang, is a palimpsest overlaid with complex socialized and politicized movement. Drawing on the work of those affiliated with post-phenomenological thinking and using a mix of archaeological, archival and ethnographic data, this article disentangles and narrates five travels that emanate from this linear trail: the pilgrim, the salt trader, the resistance fighter, the explorer and the trekker. We start with the Buddhist pilgrim visiting the 2000-year-old Muktinath temple complex, for whom the route is a spiritual path. With each new vista unfolds a landscape of miracles and magic, the dusty road itself a medium for acquisition in the mysterious economy of merit. We then turn to the caravan traders who have plied their wares between gusty mountain passes and lowland jungle, exchanging Tibetan salt for Indian grains in a tradition of centuries. For them the trail is an exercise in risk management: when to move to fix the best price, navigating precipitous tracks, calculating how many animals to sell or to keep. Later this trade route would become a frontier zone when, in 1950, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army invaded Tibet. In the decades that followed, a Tibetan guerilla-fighting unit led by a former monk, Bapa Yeshe, mounted assaults from Mustang over the border into Tibet before ultimately being abandoned by their American Central Intelligence Agency supporters. Theirs was a receding trail, looking out over a dissolving field of cultural memories, their movement a heaving final resistance against a red tide of Mao’s intruders. Then there are the explorers – or nomadic cultural collectors – for whom the Annapurnas are a cornucopia of novelty. Each dusty step for them is further penetration into a landscape of alterity from which pieces of the other can be added to the collector’s satchel. Finally, we come to present-day trekkers, who dream of pristine nature and for whom the trail leads to escape, clarity of mind, the past or the edge of security. As they retrace the same routes and pathways to which of these historical narratives, if any, do they bear witness?     

Market shares analysis: The Case of French Tourism Demand

This paper examines the magnitudes and determinants of changes in destinations’ shares of a major tourist origin market. The Almost Ideal Demand System model is used to quantify the responsiveness of French tourism demand in Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom to changes in relative prices, exchange rates, tourists’ expenditure budget, and external events. The results indicate that effective price competitiveness is a key variable driving changes in market shares. Policymakers who wish to maintain their shares of the French market should pay particular attention to tourism pricing policies, as well as to improving the tourism offer.     

Analysis of tourism trends in Spain

This paper studies the evolution of the international tourism demand for Spain in order to forecast its trends. The analysis is carried out within the framework of structural time series models that are formulated in terms of unobserved components stochastically specified. A measure of the underlying rate of growth of the international demand is derived in order to evaluate whether the sector is in a period of expansion or recession. The empirical results show that the worst period of the crisis suffered at the end of the 80s by the industry is over now and the future prospects are optimistic in the short run.     

Decomposing seasonal concentration

The main purpose of this article is to analyze seasonal concentration in tourism demand series in three Spanish Mediterranean destinations by means of the Gini index, decomposing it into inequality between and within seasons. This method is applied to the monthly series of hotel nights, covering the period 1980–2001. The results suggest that the “between” seasons component is the most significant one. In the most mature destination this component is stabilized around 90% of the annual Gini index. In contrast, in the destination with the smallest Gini index, which offers a more diversified tourism product, the between component only rises to the 70% and is still decreasing.     

Tourist perception of environmental impact

This study investigated the relationship between measured environmental impact and tourists' perception of it, at ten sites in Central Australia. A positive relationship between annual visitation to a site and measurable impact was found, despite the small amount of tourism impact in the area. Tourists' perception of impact varied in degree. A majority identified relevant environmental threats (tourism or introduced species), while a smaller proportion suggested management options to address track spreading, the major impact identified by this study. Overall, environmental conditions were rated lower at sites with a higher intensity of impacts, reflecting some tourists' ability to distinguish impacts.     

Female tourists and beach boys: Romance or Sex Tourism?

Previous studies of female tourists and beach boys in the Caribbean have defined these relationships as involving either sex or romance tourism. The objective of this study was to determine which of these definitions was more applicable to relationships in the Dominican Republic. Male and female tourists as well as beach boys and female sex workers were interviewed. Romance and sex tourism were conceptualized as the two ends of a continuum of motivations rather than as distinct categories. Although there was some gender overlap in the continuum of romance/sex motivations, more of the female tourists were located toward the romance end and more of the male tourists toward the sex end of the continuum.     

Actors, power, and discourses of growth limits

Interventions in a public debate about government policies to limit tourism growth in Malta are evaluated from an actor perspective on political economy. Attempts to influence growth policies are examined for their discourses, knowledge frameworks, and relative influence on the government. Government-related organizations led one intervention advocating sustainable development, but actually it was much affected by business considerations and technical rationality. A second effort by a heritage organization emphasized environmental concerns, but this lacked power to influence official policies. While a trade association had more direct influence on government, its call to halt hotel construction appears more influenced by concerns about profitability than conservation.     

The resort lifecycle theory: Generating Processes and Estimation

One of the most discussed paradigms in the literature on destination development is the lifecycle model. Although varieties of lifecycle paths have been described, they have been drawn up without consideration of the underlying generation processes. This article examines the time path of tourist growth patterns that could give rise to such a cycle and in doing so, permits the exact demarcation of the five stages of the lifecycle. The model is tested using long run time series and the overall conclusion is that the restrictions imposed by the aggregation process limit the resort cycle paradigm, in a quantitative context, to being no more than a statistical caricature of the real world.     

Tourism development: Assessing Social Gains and Losses

Resident attitudes toward tourism, and perceptions of its impacts, are often diverse, with development often generating gains for some and losses for others. The net effect has been discussed conceptually for many years. This study illustrates an empirical evaluation of it, as well as of gains to tourists. Survey responses to hypothetical ski resort development in Åre, Sweden, indicate that some residents gain from such an expansion while others lose; the net effect on the community is negative over the range of slopes evaluated. Tourists gain from expansion, but their gains are not great enough to outweigh the net losses for residents, such that the welfare change for society as a whole is negative.     

20年来中国旅游研究进展——国家自然、社科基金旅游项目反映的学术态势

本文以国家自然科学基金委员会历年资助项目和全国哲学社会科学规划办公室历年资助项目为资料来源,检索1987-2007年批准的旅游项目,统计分析这些项目的时空分布、单位和个人、研究内容和学科类别、存在问题及研究展望等方面情况,反映20年来中国旅游研究的学术态势,同时为旅游研究工作者研究选题及申请相关基金项目提供参考.