China Tourism

This introductory essay explores some of the commonalities and differences that emerge from this thematic issue on religion and tourism in China and India. Economic growth has led to an explosion in domestic tourism activity in both countries, and the respective states are deeply involved in this development. The Indian state sees tourism as a means to create jobs, revenue and regional development. While this is also true for the Chinese state, the latter further treats tourism as a means to control and manage religion. In both countries, official tourism development can lead to complete makeovers of particular sites as beautification projects and tight regulation drives out informal economies and change the religious dynamics on the ground. The local management, be it formal or informal, affects not only where the money flows, but also how temples are visited and gods worshiped.
Buddhism related tourism plays a peculiar role in India, where the government employs it as a vehicle for articulating pan-Asian and even global aspirations. Asian Buddhists visit Indian Buddhist destinations in growing numbers. At the same time, Buddhist sites attract a steady stream of Western tourists who are most comfortable labelling themselves as spiritual travellers. For these travellers, the notion of ‘tourism’ threatens sources of authentic spirituality.
In China, tourism is contributing to a revival of religion, sometimes providing means for temple institutions to legitimate their religious activities. Self-professed secular domestic tourists in China routinely engage in short acts of veneration at Buddhist places of pilgrimage. In this respect, Han Chinese tourists appear not so different from their Hindu counterpart in India. Increasingly, Hindu visitors at sites of pilgrimage opt for short acts of worship, rather than long rituals. Travel guidebooks, however, paint different pictures: Chinese tourists are given practical advice and encouragement on the performance of rituals, and their representation of religion recalls orientalist tropes of Western guidebooks. Indian guidebooks, on their part, retain elements of traditional Hindu pilgrimage literature assuming that the reader has the required know-how of religious practices. The tourist imaginaries of the Global North, as expressed in English language guidebooks, still rest on Orientalist underpinnings when it comes to both India and China.

Key Words: India and China, Asia, religion and tourism, heritage, guidebooks

ABSTRACT China’s exhibition industry has experienced considerable growth over the past decade; however, recent studies have identified a number of issues bioecting its future growth, including an inability to retain customers. Customer relationship management (CRM) offers a potential solution to this problem. Although anecdotal evidence suggests that CRM has been widely adopted in China’s exhibition industry, there is a lack of empirical research focused on factors critical to its successful implementation. Consequently, the aim of this article is to explore the drivers and inhibitors of CRM implementation in China’s exhibition industry. Reporting on the findings from a series of semi-structured interviews with 18 senior managers from exhibition organizing companies in China, this article identifies a series of underlying drivers to successful CRM implementation, including top management commitment and support, user awareness and training programs, and providing necessary resources and funds. This research also uncovered a number of factors that inhibit CRM implementation, including path dependency, organizational structure, and institutional factors, as well as poor data quality and quantity. Future research on CRM in the exhibition industry should focus on developing a conceptual model of the facilitators and inhibitors for testing in different geographic and organizational contexts. Keywords: Customer, relationship, management, exhibition, China, facilitators, inhibitors

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to present initial findings from a vulnerability assessment based on the perceptions of practitioners working in four tourism and hospitality sectors in Wuhan and Hubei Province, namely, cruise lines, hotels, travel agencies and touristic attractions. Design/methodology/approach-The research note focuses on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak from January to March 2020. Using the destination sustainability framework and an "interpretation" mixed methods research design, the authors analyze phone interviews (n = 151) and subsequent online surveys (n = 370) to assess sector-specific perceptions of exposure, sensitivity and system adaptiveness. Findings-Overall, findings paint a grim picture of each sector in the short-term. All respondents reported an immediate economic loss due to COVID-19, as well as recovery concerns and uncertainties. Immediate actions for addressing these issues centered on internal cost control and governmental subsidies, while anticipated next steps focused on product adjustment, a transformation of business structures and seeking governmental guidance and policies in restoring market confidence. Findings also allude to future strategies/directions. Research limitations/implications-This study is limited in its focus on practitioner views in the immediate COVID-19 outbreak. Implications highlight a crucial strategic dependence of each sector on effective government/managerial communication and support, with smaller, local businesses needing particular attention in crisis situations. Originality/value-To the authors' knowledge, this research note is the first comprehensive study presenting vital information pertaining to the impact of COVID-19 on tourism and hospitality businesses from a large group of business leaders in the site of the initial outbreak (i.e. Wuhan and Hubei Province). With the highly infectious COVID-19 representing an ongoing threat for populations worldwide, this paper hopes this research note provides valuable insights for practitioners in other vulnerable regions, as well as for researchers examining strategies for resilience against this and future disasters.

This article describes a research agenda for investigating the relationship between tourism and the Chinese Dream, informed by the G20 First East-West Dialogue on Tourism and the Chinese Dream held in late 2014 on Australia’s Gold Coast. Six themes comprise this agenda, including (1) clarification of the “Chinese Dream” construct, (2) connections between the Dream, tourism and consumers, (3) geopolitical considerations, (4) conventional Triple Bottom Line sustainability considerations, (5) tourism and nontourism systems as open states, and (6) hybrid research perspectives. All themes are permeated by an implicit seventh theme of rapid change.

The cruise industry is the fastest growing category within the leisure market. Asia is a large market and a potential growth area for the cruise industry. Within Asia, the Taiwanese cruise market has grown substantially since 1997. The involvement construct is an important psychographic facet of consumer behavior. Involvement is defined as a person's perceived relevance of the object based on inherent needs, values, and interests. Past research has linked the level of involvement to travel motivation for leisure choices, including travel. Cluster analysis is a classic market segmentation approach that has been extensively used in the tourism literature. The cluster approach has been used to understand travel motivations, satisfaction, dining choices, etc. However, no studies have presented a comparison of the two methods.There are only a few research studies on cruise vacations. Furthermore, no studies have identified the involvement levels of Taiwanese cruisers and segmented the Taiwanese cruise market to offer valuable marketing insights. This study aims at filling these gaps in the literature. Data were collected from 352 Taiwanese cruisers. The questionnaire was developed in English and translated into Chinese. This study found only two distinct categories of high and medium involvement cruisers. The cluster segmentation approach resulted in two distinct clusters, each with its own characteristics. Analysis showed that cluster segmentation provided a more nuanced definition of the segments in the context of Taiwanese cruisers. 1997     352

Despite the emergence of ecotourism in both practice and academic literature in China during recent decades, relatively little is known about the role of ecotourism site, especially in relation to tourist attitude and further behavioural change. This article seeks to address the deficit on the role of ecotourism site in Chinese domestic tourist attitude change and further adaptation of sustainable behaviour. Using a qualitative research approach with 28 interviews, the authors show that Chinese domestic tourists have become more environmentally conscious after visiting ecotourism sites and further reveals the influence of the perceived health benefits, and the ecological value of unity of nature and human beings on Chinese domestic tourists attitude change. The findings offer important implications for both tourism practitioners and academics.

“Chineseness” may be linked to the Chinese garden and ancient Chinese poetry. This article presents a study set in a Chinese garden in Dunedin, New Zealand. This scholar's garden is marketed as being authentic in that it was designed in China, constructed using traditional materials imported from China, and built according to traditional principles by Chinese artisans. In this article we critique the use of the term authentic in this setting and argue that it is the visitors' experiences of the garden that act to authenticate authenticity, or otherwise, depending on their personal characteristics. In addition, we argue that ancient Chinese poetry is a suitable and important medium through which to offer visitors opportunities to engage with the garden and with Chineseness.“中国特色”和中国古典园林及中国古代诗词是很有关联的。本文的研究基于大洋彼岸的新西兰的但尼丁中国园林探讨这一关联。但尼丁中国园林的设计在中国完成，实际建筑使用了中国传统的原材料，并在中国加工后运输到新西兰再由中国建筑工人进行组建。因此但尼丁中国园林被宣传为“真实的”。在本文中我们对此情况下使用“真实的”提出批判，提出游客在园中的体验起到“真实化真实性”的作用，并在一些情况下取决于游客本身的特性。同时，我们认为中国古代诗词作为一个适要的媒介可以为游客提供更好的机会参与到中国园林的空间体验及对“中国特色”的理解。