Research On Relevancy And Coupling Coordination Degree Of Chinese Inbound Tourist Flows Of Typical Western Regions

As one of the core issues of tourism study, tourist flows have attracted broad attention of scholars for years. Inbound tourism flows on spatial and temporal scale is also one of the most focus of the study of tourism geography. With the development of inbound tourism, the trend of imbalance in Eastern and Western China has been standing out and the spatial diffusion and flows of tourists have drawn more and more attention of the field. Recently, the disparities both exist of tourism development and economic development between Eastern and Western China, which has been increasing with each passing day. The 12 provinces (municipality/autonomous region) covers 72% area of China. It is rich in different tourism resources and share unique monopoly features, which combines human heritages with natural landscapes. However, the foreign tourist arrivals was only 17,026.5 thousand in 2010 in Western China which occupied only 16.7% in total China, and the international tourism receipt was$5.44 billion, which was only 10.4% of total. The phenomenon appeals theory discussions and practical thoughts.Based on the National Natural Science Foundation Project of China [The Study of the East-West Progressive and Evolutional Mechanism of Inbound Tourist Flows of Representative Regions in China (NO.40771058)], the doctoral dissertation make use of the first-hand statistics from state authorities to analyze the space relational degree and the rules of the three dimensions of interregional, within region, typical region of the representative regions of Western China:Yunnan and Guizhou, Sichuan and Chongqing, Xi'an and Surrounding regions, which is mainly concerned with the volume of tourist flow, the rate of tourist flowing out, the preference index of flow direction, the flow relational degree and coupling coordination degree. Targeting on the analysis and diagnosis of the problems of the tourism development of Western China from a whole view, the dissertation analyzed the relevancy degree of the inbound tourist route of typical Western China on the foundation of 7370 valid questionnaires from sample surveys of 13 hot inbound tourism markets of which the writer participated in 2008. It is found that the differences between the coupling coordination degree of inbound tourist flow system and the regional economic system, especially the differences of comprehensive development level of different regional economic systems are the main reason which result in the inadequate development of inbound tourism in Western China. At last, the dissertation proposed some revelations of the development of Western China and some segmented regulation strategies of tourist flow management.This dissertation draws conclusions and revelations as follows:(1) The differences between the coupling coordination degree of inbound tourist flow system and the regional economy system, especially the differences of comprehensive development level of different regional economic systems are one of the origins of the spatial difference of inbound tourist flow in China.(2) The major background of inbound tourism has experienced some qualitative changes:the three typical regions of Western China realized economic growth simultaneously, the development level of different regional economic systems has exceeded the development level of inbound tourist flow system, which makes the inadequate inbound tourism development region being formed. It is related closely with the achievement of Development of the Western Regions and this qualitative change offers a great opportunity for the western inbound tourism development, with the cornerstone of economic system, historical breakthrough of the development of western inbound tourism will be made.(3) The spatial diffusion of inbound tourist flows in China presents the development pattern and evolution trend of east to west and west to east. With the combined action of the two patterns, spatial diffusion of inbound tourist flows in China has actually formed a complex dynamic pace-time system of the east pushes the west while the west reacts on the east. From the point of the flow correlation degree, the west to east correlation degree has exceeded the one of east to west of the inbound tourist flow in China. The reaction of west on the east can not be neglected.(4) The disparities and differentiations of the development of inbound tourism of typical western region are remarkable gradually, from the aspects of volume of tourist flow, the rate of tourist flowing out, the preference index of flow direction, the flow relational degree and coupling coordination degree, the three typical regions-Yunnan and Guizhou, Sichuan and Chongqing, Xi'an and Surrounding regions, they all demonstrate some remarkable disparities and differentiations.(5) The differences between inbound tourism of typical Western and Eastern China are multidirectional. Great disparities exist in all aspects such as the volume of inbound tourist, the volume of transfer tourist, the role of route position and the comprehensive development level of economic system.(6) The development of inbound tourism in China shows notable tendencies of decentralization, diversification, multipolarization and conceptualization.This dissertation aims to make innovations on the following four aspects:(1) The innovative Measurement Model is proposed and measures the inbound tourist flow both from the macroscopic and microscopic aspects. Setting up the relevancy model of inbound travel route from the microscopic aspect, and a relevancy model of the diffusion of tourist flows from the macroscopic aspect. The establishment of the two models realized the separate and integrated measurement of the diffusion of tourist flows.(2) The unique study perspective. The dissertation analyzed the behavior of inbound tourists from a microscopic angle as well as to discuss the diffusion of the inbound tourist flows on a macroscopic view, which combined the two aspects together to prove and complement each other.(3) The construction of evaluation system of inbound tourist flows-coupling coordination degree of regional economic system. Based on the analysis of inbound tourist flow system and regional economic system, the dissertation proposed the model of inbound tourist flows-coupling coordination degree of regional economic system and build up the evaluation system, established the weight and measurement method, thus the measurement model of coupling coordination degree came into being.(4) The innovative methods. The dissertation analyzed the relevancy of the diffusion of inbound tourist flow and pointed out the limitation and direction of the relevancy and supported the point with empirical analysis based on the angle of typical region analysis. To analyze the inbound tourist flow, the dissertation utilize the method from spatial relevancy analysis and then tourist route analysis to coupling analysis, which shows a cumulative process of proceeding from the outside to the inside, from the effect to the cause.