旅游资源与旅游吸引物:含义、关系及适用性分析

Tourism Resources and Tourist Attraction:Analysis on Their Meaning,Relation and Applicability

旅游资源和旅游吸引物分别是汉语界和英语界经常使用的重要概念,然而学术界对这两个概念的理解和使用方式不但存在国别差异,还存在概念内涵与外延理解的深层次分歧。文章通过梳理这两个概念的界定方式、含义理解、翻译使用等方面的分歧,从概念产生背景、语词本意、逻辑规则、现实含义等角度,逐一进行辨析,指出旅游资源和旅游吸引物这两个概念是中英文学术界创造的具有旅游学科独特含义的专属概念,它们总体上被用来指称旅游活动的对象。旅游资源一词容易引发诸多理解歧义,而旅游吸引物一词在含义上更为清晰、准确,有更大的使用空间;而常被我们用来作为旅游资源英文对译词的tourism resources,其在英语中的实际含义并非如此,使用频率也不高。文章还将旅游资源和旅游吸引物的概念界定方式进行了分类,概括了其间的核心差异,疏解了歧义,辨析了合理性。在此基础上,对利珀(Leiper)的旅游吸引物系统论做出了新的解读。

It is widely known that the term ltiyou ziyuan （in Pinyin this means tourism resources） is an important concept in Chinese tourism theory and practice. In Chinese tourism textbooks, ltiyou zi yuan is generally regarded as the objective of tourism activities, and a full chapter is often devoted to it. The evaluation and development of luyou ziyuan is also an important part of China＇ s 10 years tourism plan, and dozens of definitions have been provided by scholars. A complication that led to the present study is that in Western countries, especially the English-speaking destinations, the objects of tourism activities are however usually translated as tourist attractions, instead of tourism resources, the corresponding translation of luyou ziyuan. Conversely, when translated into Chinese, the word attraction has sufficient ambiguity to allow it to be regarded variously as tourist attraction, tourism resource, scenic spot, and/or tourist area. Why does such divergence exist in the definition and understanding of the word that most often expresses the object of tourist activities？ What are the problems that exist in the current definition of the concept？ Which of these problems are important and which are not？ This paper provides comment on the above questions, but also points out that the concept of tourism resources in China is usually combined with the meaning of exploitation, to describe places yet to be developed for tourism. Sometimes it may also refers to scenic spots. In general though luyou ziyuan refers to objects appealing to tourists, and exploitation is usually only a problem for tourism in the early stages, not in the long term so may be disregarded for the purposes of understanding this concept. Most Chinese scholars agree that the connotation of tourism resources in China is equivalent to that of the term tourist attraction as used by Westerners, however they translate luyou ziyuan as tourism resources literally, and tourist attraction is generally used to describe a scenic spot. However, accuracy and reasonability have not been considered by most analysts. Studying the linguistic comprehension and application of these two phrases shows that the term tourism resources is rarely used as a proper noun. The term is actually used to better describe the totality of the available resources, facilities and services, and attractions, which is different from the concept of tourist attraction. Therefore, there is a divergent understanding of the terms tourism resources and tourist attraction. From the view of concept definition, attraction should not be limited to the idea of something with a physical boundary. As for the opinion proposed by Leiper （1990） that tourist attractions are a system consisting of attractions, tourists and signs, this study suggests that this is a logical fallacy. This study concludes that the terms tourism resources and tourist attractions are two exclusive concepts created by Chinese and English academic with special meaning for tourism--a point of view that is worth considering. They are frequently used interchangeably to describe the places and activities that are attractive to tourists, but this requires an agreement reached by Chinese and western academia. Attempts to understand the term ltiyou ziyuan may lead to ambiguity, but its advantage lies in the simplicity of Chinese word structure in respect of the structuring of new phrases. The term tourist attraction is more accurate than liiyou ziyuan in meaning and structure, making it more useful as a descriptor. It can refer to scenic spots, theme parks and festival activities at the same time, without leading to misunderstanding of the intrinsic properties of the attraction object （the resource）. However, its shortcomings lie in the long form of words required when it is translated into Chinese. Our work therefore suggests that the translation of luyou ziyuan and scenic spots into English should be unified as tourist attraction. Conversely, when translating the term tourist attraction into Chinese, this should be variously rendered as attractions, attractive forces, tourism resources, and/or scenic spots, based on the context for the translation, instead of limiting its meaning to attractions.