A Preliminary Research On The Theoretical Basis And Empirical Analysis Of "Host-guest Interaction"

As one of the most significant motivations for tourists, Host -guest Interaction constitutes a core proposition in tourism research and contributes a lot to the supplementation of man-land relationship theory. At present, most scholars and experts in this field are from sociology, anthropology, and geography. Researches from developed countries present characteristics of multi-angle viewing and Multi-discipline participation. Both qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis are intensive. In comparison, national researches are deficient, still remaining at the starting stage on the whole, simply introducing advance theories from abroad, and is devoid of studies that fit China's situation .This article takes host-guest interaction in a certain mainstream culture context as an object, and intensively analyzes attitudes and perceptions, behaviors and processes on a microcosmic and surface level, as well as influences and trends on a macroscopical and deep-seated level. On the basis of sociometry, conjoint analysis and system dynamics are introduced in this paper to discuss host-guest interaction qualitatively and quantitatively. This paper consists of three parts, theoretical research,empirical analysis and conclusions.On the basis of correlative achievement, this article discusses the main role of tourism interaction--host and guest from three aspect, the culture, the division and the attitude.The article explores to establish a basic theory system that associates with the host-guest interaction in the framework of the behavior and the psychology, the present situation and the development both macroscopically and microscopically. The aspects of the behavior and the process, the attitude and the sensation, the influence and the tendency are involved in this part.The main innovations include: The process of host-guest interaction is refined both macroscopically and microscopically. Seven driving patterns of host-guest interaction are proposed ; the process model of the influences to the host which caused by the guest is refined, and the communication barrier, the stimulation barrier, the cultural barrier, the fusion barrier in the process of the interaction are differentiated.This article chooses Zhouzhuang (an ancient town in Jiangsu province) as a case study. Through the on-the-spot investigation in Zhouzhuang, this article validates the theories which proposed in theoretical research, studies present situation and tendency of host-guest interaction. The main innovations include: Combined with interaction scene, quality, intensity, desire, the appraisal model is established to measure the host-guest interaction extent; The conjoint analysis experiment was designed to manipulate the nationality, age, cost, time in resorts and type of tourist (independent backpacker versus arranged tours), to determine which of these factors is most important to the host community in tourist preferences determination. The tourist preferences of the behavior and culture are also tested in this part. Conjoint analysis is also designed to test which factors is most important to the guest in the host preferences determination.To conclude, this article gives some advice and countermeasures to the problem of excessive commercialization, the contact process, the contact extent, and the contact preferences. Also, it points out the shortage of this paper in terms of methods, conclusions, as well as the probable areas which worth paying attention to in future study.