以理性思维构建旅游学科

文章从对旅游学科尴尬处境的分析入手,讨论了如何以理性思维构建旅游学科问题.文章回顾了国内外旅游学术研究历程,提出并分析了旅游学科得以建立的三大基础,即文献基础、理论基础、人才基础以及各自的内容和特点.文章认为,旅游学科的文献基础包括学术研究文献、旅游实业界经营管理运作文献和政府的政策法规文献,以学术研究文献为核心和重点.最后,文章讨论了旅游学科的理论框架和研究方法论问题,认为旅游学科的理论框架由基础理论、专业理论和应用理论三个层面构成,最能体现旅游研究特点的方法论是跨文化比较研究.

A Rationalist Construction of Tourism as a Discipline

Departing from the dilemma of tourism as a field of education and research,this article addresses the construction of tourism as a discipline from a rationalist perspective.The discussion begins with the fact that,despite its research being undertaken for more than 30 years in China,tourism studies has never been able to achieve an independent disciplinary status,and has instead been subordinated to traditional disciplines such as economics or business.The article reviews the history of tourism research in China and abroad,and observes a big difference in that foreign scholars are more interested in the research problem per se,whereas Chinese researchers have a higher concern about the status and position of tourism in the overall disciplinary system.This study proposes literature,theory,and human capital as three fundamentals upon which tourism can be constructed as an independent discipline;the substance and characteristics of each of these fundamentals were also discussed.It is articulated that the literature base of tourism being a discipline should incorporate academic literature,industry’s management and operation literature,as well as government’s policy and regulation literature,where academic literature should form the nuclei.In addition,theoretical frameworks and methodologies are also discussed in pertinence to tourism as a discipline.For tourism to be a discipline,the author proposes that its theoretical framework should encompass three layers of basic/fundamental theories,specialization theories,and application theories.Accordingly,basic/fundamental theories should consist of basic principles of tourism,history of tourism development,and history of tourism studies;specialization theories should include tourism economics,macro management of tourism,tourism law,sociology of tourism,anthropology of tourism,environments and ecology of tourism,and tourist culture and art theories;application theories should incorporate theories in pertinence to travel agency management,hotel management,and attraction/destination management.Methodologically,the author suggests that cross-cultural comparative studies are most viable approaches to tourism studies.Notably,cross-cultural comparative studies should allow both homogeneity and heterogeneity of tourism to be elucidated,facilitate the discovery of principles of tourism,and serve as effective solutions to practical problems in tourism development.