The Study On Gender Differences Of Destination Image Cognition Of Inbound Tourists

With the increasing development and advance of economic society, the family role and social status of female is changing and even improving. More spare time permits, traveling number of female is strikingly increasing. The traveling market of female is becoming one of the activist and hottest markets. There are gender differences on traveling behavior, traveling interest and traveling experience among inbound tourists, as well as the destination image cognition. However, what the differences are is an important topic needed studying from the perspectives of theoretical and practical. From the theoretical aspect, the gender differences of traveling image cognition of tourists required exploring; from the practical aspect, as the third largest tourist destination in the world, the number of female travelers who come to China is increasing. Therefore, how to improve the market occupation ratio of female travelers and promote the satisfaction rate of traveling and experiment request motivates needs are problems worthy of exploring.Under the theoretical direction of tourism, sociology and psychology, and with the documents of traveling market survey managed by the author and the statistic data of the national authorities, the present research, whose object is gender differences of destination image cognition, using mathematical analysis, quality analysis and comparative analysis, etc., systematically studies gender differences of image cognition of Xi'an. First, the research analyzes the yearly national authority statistic data and describes the historic changes of inbound tourists'gender differences of destination image cognition, i.e., diachronic study. Secondly, Xi'an is selected as samples. It tries to analyze gender differences of destination image cognition by questionnaire and interview, i.e., synchronic study. Thirdly, it starts with demographic characteristic and travel behavior of inbound tourist to explore the main factors of inbound tourists'gender differences of destination image cognition. Finally, the study aims to probe into questions occurred in the process.The conclusions are as follows:(1) The gender differences of inbound tourists'consuming behavior diverse obviously. As for expenses, male's is more than female's; as for retention period, male's is longer than female's; regard to the number of visited cities, male's is more than female's and concerning the revisit ratio, male's is higher than female's. From 1990 to 2009, the number of female inbound tourists increases, which shows a slow rising trend in the total inbound tourists, while the ratio is fluctuating between 30% to 36%. (2)The evaluation of destination image cognition of female inbound tourists is a little higher than male inbound tourists. The gender differences of Xi'an traveling image cognition are significant. The inbound tourists sampling of national tourist administration shows that the evaluation of female inbound tourists toward traveling facility and service quality is a little higher than male's.(3)The focus of pre-traveling cognition of female inbound tourists changes with different scales of destination. The pre-traveling impression of female inbound tourists has different dimensions on different scales. The pre-traveling cognition of Terra Cotta Warriors has something to do with reputation; however, the pre-traveling impression of Xi'an is related to traveling attractions and traveling atmosphere but has nothing to do with the prestige of this city. It can be seen that the pre-traveling impression of female inbound tourists changes with the differences of the category of sightseeing places, and the focuses increase with the increases of types and ranges of sightseeing places.(4) Culture, the social and economic status, the nature of destination and the feature of traveling behaviors are main factors of influencing gender differences of image cognition. Culture is the macro factor of influencing gender differences of inbound tourists'image cognition. It represents in two aspects:on the one hand, patriarchy cultural system constructs the gender differences of inbound tourists' image cognition; on the other hand, the regional culture causes the regional differences of inbound tourists'image cognition. The social and economic status of inbound tourists restricts the orientation of destination image cognition. The nature of tourist destination is the inductive factor which influences the gender differences of inbound tourists'image cognition. The feature of traveling behavior is the stimulating factor which influences the gender differences of inbound tourists'image cognition.The present study tries to make breakthroughs as following aspects:(1) It is shown by empirical cases and the authoritative document analysis of national tourism administration that it is a customary error that the evaluation of image cognition of female inbound tourists is lower than males', which needs to recognize the characteristics of female tourists'image cognition again.(2) Research found that consuming behaviors of different genders inbound tourists have sharp differences. Male's is more than female's on expenses; as for retention period, male's is longer than female's; regard to the number of visited cities, male's is more than female's and concerning the revisit ratio, male's is higher than female's.(3) Research advanced the main factors of influencing gender differences of image cognition; they are culture, the social economic status, the nature of traveling destination and the feature of traveling behaviors, which mainly influences gender differences of sightseeing places. Culture is the macro-factor which influences gender differences of sightseeing places of inbound tourists; social economic status confines the orientation of the image of sightseeing places; the nature of traveling destination is the inducing factor of influencing gender differences of sightseeing places of inbound tourists; the feature of traveling behaviors is the stimulating factor of influencing gender differences of sightseeing places of inbound tourists.(4) The creativity of research perspective. The present research first introduces social gender perspective into the study of tourist destination image cognition to analyze the gender differences of inbound tourist destination image cognition. It emphasizes the study of female inbound tourist.