Researches On Drive Tourism And Its Development In China

Drive tourism is a newly emerged form of tourism in China during the past several years. With deep social and economical reasons for its rise, drive tourism is accepted and favored by tourists because of its freedom, versatility and individuation. As the population of drive tourists grows, the market for drive tourism has already established its scope. As a result, more and more travel agencies, automobile clubs and car rental companies start joining in the exploration of this market. Currently, relevant theories and marketing experiences about drive tourism are still limited in China, so that most explorers just copy directly the foreign business modes, and a proper exploration procedures and mode for the development of drive tourism in China is still yet to be established. Current market and product exploration still remains in the junior level. Based on this background and baring in mind the specific situation in China, this article tends to make some fundamental studies such as characteristics of drive tourism in China and the inherent reason for its development, with an emphasis in the characteristic behaviors of drive tourists and a systematic description of drive tourists' motivations, the modes for their time and place selection, consumption habits, etc., and the resulted market demand and product supplies.This article mainly contains the following contents: fundamental theoretical studies of drive tourism, studies of the behaviors of drive tourists, studies of the drive tourism market and product exploration, and the foundation of the insurance system of drive tourism. The innovations of this article are: 1) The in depth discussion about drive tourism from the phenomena to the essence based on a systematic and objective analysis, and the build up of the study framework for drive tourism. 2) Introduction of the mode for the behaviors of drive tourists and the first in depth analysis, based on the information from a survey about tourist behaviors with a large population of participants, of the values of drive tourists, the mode for their time and place selections in destination, their impression of and interest in different destinations, and the nation wide spatial partition of drive tourism market. 3) Accompanied with a tourist behavior survey in North America, a first comparison is made between China and foreign countries about the history of and reasons for the development of drive tourism, and the behaviors of drive tourists. A conclusion is drawn and an exploration design for drive tourism markets and products is made from China's specific perspective. 4) The first to introduce the responsibility mode for drive tourism and the insurance system for the development of...