| By the year of2012, the total volume of inbound foreigner market has been forecast to reach27.19million person-times, including16.62million person-times Asian tourists and5.93million person-times European tourists. As the China’s top two biggest foreigner market, the total share of Asian market and European market account for more than80%China’s inbound foreigner market. However, with regard to China’s inbound tourism market, inbound foreigner market share accounts for less than20%for years, which means that expanding inbound foreigner market has become a vital task for China’s inbound tourism market development. Asian tourist market is a short-distance tourism market, while European tourist market is a long-distance tourism market. From the perspective of the comparison of this two, conducting the comparative research on structural characteristics of inbound Asian and European tourist flows is of great practical significance to further expand inbound foreigner market and promote the sustainable development of China’s inbound tourism market.On the basis of the official statistics and first-hand survey data, holistic analysis has been conducted in terms of the demographic features, tourist behaviors, and the structure of source countries. Adopting relative index of measuring the temporal variation of tourist flows, the annual variation and seasonal distribution of Asian and European tourist flows are analyzed respectively. By using the map analysis method, the characteristics of spatial distribution and transference of Asian and European tourist flows are depicted comparatively. Through constructing the tourist flows network, the social network analysis method are used to calculate the individual index, overall structural index and strong cliques of the inbound Asian and European tourist flows network. Based on comparative research of structural characteristics, the formation mechanism of spatial distribution of tourist flows is revealed. According to research conclusion, the specific countermeasures and suggestions are proposed.The conclusions of the research are as follows:(1) There are both similarities and differences between inbound Asian market and European market. They are similar in following aspects:gender composition, age composition, education background composition, organization forms, and the way getting tourism information; The differences are in following aspects:occupational structure, the times of visiting China, duration of stay, tourism purpose. In addition, Asian countries are major source countries for China, while the development potential of European source countries is larger.(2) The yearly variation trend of inbound Asian and European tourist flows are similar, which are easily affected by crisis in and outside China. Considering the seasonal variation of tourist flows, seasonal fluctuation of European tourist flows is more obvious, while Asian tourist flows are relatively balanced. Asian tourist flows’ off season appears in January and February, and its peak season appears in August and October. European tourist flows’ off season appears in February, while its peak season appears appears in July, August and October.(3)The spatial distribution of inbound Asian and European tourist flows are both unbalanced in China. However, there are significant differences in their distribution patterns. European tourist flows are more widely distributed and, based on six major cities (Beijing, Xi’an, Chengdu, Guilin, Shanghai, Hong Kong), its overall spatial distribution formed a "Main Triangle" and four "Subordinate Triangles". Differently, the inbound Asian tourist flows distribute mainly around Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Guilin, and frequent flowing appears in Yangtze River Delta.(4)There is no significant difference in first transference between inbound Asian tourist flows and European tourist flows when entering from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The inbound Asian and European tourist flows entering from Beijing are middle and long distance oriented. With widest scope of transfer, the amount of tourists, entering from Beijing and traveling to different cities, are in different quantities. The inbound Asian and European tourist flows entering from Shanghai and Guangzhou are short and middle distance oriented. With less amount of transfer, the tourist flows are evenly distributed when flowing to the next city. High share of unidirectional Asian flowing are proven to appear between the cities in Yangtze River Delta, and high share of unidirectional European flowing are proven to be trans-regional. Bidirectional flowing are both turned to appear in the city pairs which are comprised of port cities and other destinations.(5)Different nodes take different responsibilities in tourist flows network. The same node play different roles in different tourist flows network, which leads to the difference in structural characteristics, and the formation mechanism of spatial distribution of tourist flows is revealed. (6) The countermeasures for inbound Asian tourist market are as follows: Improve tourism service and increase tourism satisfaction; Consolidate ethnic Chinese market and expand non-ethnic Chinese market.(7) The countermeasures for inbound European tourist market are as follows:Aim at target market and develop customised market; Strengthen the marketing of the destination tourism image and improve international visibility; Accelerate the construction of transport infrastructure and improve the accessibility of international aviation; Enhance cooperation with Hong Kong and develop featured tourism routes. |
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