中国户外旅游回顾与展望——基于外国学者视角（英文）

Outdoor tourism in China:A foreigner's 30-year retrospective

本文中我从一个外国学者的视角,透视了中国近30多年来户外旅游的成长与发展。虽然不懂中文,但在过去很多年中我屡次受中国科学院之邀,有幸探访了中国一些优秀的户外旅游目的地,观察到了其在社会、经济和环境方面发生的变化。外国学者的视角总会比中国学者有更大的局限性,但也仍然有可能提供一个有益的参照或者补充。我把中国的户外旅游划分为三个主要的历史阶段。第一个阶段是在20世纪80年代,当时大规模的国内旅游和入境旅游尚未在中国兴起。我在文中提供了一些有关此阶段的历史事件回顾,或许会对当时尚未出生的今日中国大学生们增进对此阶段的了解有所帮助。第二个阶段中国逐步开放国际入境旅游,并被全球旅游者列入最受青睐的旅游目的地。第三个阶段由两部分组成:一是中国国内旅游的巨大增长,但在很大程度上与国际旅游业存在文化与经济上的隔离;二是中国出境旅游的同步快速增长,并与国际旅游业产生了密切关联。中国目前不仅拥有非常巨大的国内户外旅游市场,而且具有规模虽相对较小但却很重要的国际入境旅游市场。前者包括参观风景名胜区、自然保护区、森林公园、传统文化遗址,自由漂流等中国专业探险活动,远足、爬山等国际上广泛流行的户外山地运动,以及冲浪和风筝冲浪等海滨户外活动。后者包括从北坡登顶珠峰,西藏、云南和四川的漂流,越野及骑行旅游,内河邮轮旅游等。从研究的角度来看,外国研究者遇到的关键问题是:很多中国学者可以阅读英文文献,而且很多国际出版物都有中文译本,但反过来看,却很少有国外学者熟悉汉语,因此也就对中文学术文献知之甚少。所以,从外国学者的角度来讲,与中国同行进行项目合作具有重要意义。关于户外旅游的研究主题,有三个方面对于未来研究可能是很重要的。第一,确保国际文献中创新性的思想、方法得以尽快在中国应用。换句话说,中国应该从国际最新研究成果中获益,同时也应该被纳入国际比较研究中,但后者只有当中国相关研究成果发表在国际化的学术期刊上时才可能实现。第二,既然中国已经成为全球旅游乃至世界经济和人口的重要组成部分,外国研究者也很有必要了解中国的研究发现。现在国外学者已经知道中国户外旅游的发展是受规模、历史和文化影响的,但尚未进一步深入了解这些因素如何影响中国国内旅游市场的快速变化。我们想更多地了解、更好地理解作为世界旅游市场重要部分的中国旅游,举一个很小的例子,中国目前也有冲浪旅游的细分市场,那它与国际冲浪产业契合的地方在哪里呢?第三,随着越来越多的中国户外旅游者走出国门,国际旅游企业提供的产品也许并不能完全满足文化背景不同的中国旅游者的期望,这样国际户外旅游产业就会逐渐受中国旅游者需求的影响而发生一些改变;而当中国海外旅游者返回中国后,或许也会带回一些在国外形成的经验与习惯,从而对中国的户外旅游业产生影响。旅游在此类文化交流和互动中的作用,为当前社会科学研究提供了极具吸引力的机会。我很幸运能够参与中国同行的合作研究,也衷心希望合作研究能继续并扩展到户外旅游之外的其他研究领域。

In this contribution I provide a foreigner＇s perspective on the growth and development of outdoor tourism in China over the past three decades or more. This is the perspective of someone who does not speak Chinese, but who has been privileged to visit some of China＇s outstanding outdoor tourism destinations over an extended period, and observe social, economic and environmental changes as they took place. A foreigner＇s perspective is always more limited than that of Chinese scholars, but it may still provide a useful counterpart. I describe three main historical phases. The first took place in the 1980 s, before the development of large scale domestic or inbound international tourism. I provide some historical anecdotes which may be of interest to Chinese university students. The second phase was the gradual opening of China to international inbound tourism, and its inclusion as a favoured destination by global tourists. The third phase has two components： the enormous growth of Chinese domestic tourism, largely in cultural and economic isolation from the international tourism industry; and the simultaneous growth of Chinese outbound tourism, closely linked to the international industry. China now has a very large domestic outdoor tourism sector, and a much smaller but nonetheless significant international inbound sector. The former includes： visits to scenic parks, nature reserves, forest reserves, and traditional cultural sites; specialist Chinese adventure activities such as piaoliuziyou; and internationally widespread outdoor mountain activities such as trekking and mountaineering, and outdoor coastal activities such as surfing and kiteboarding. The latter includes, e.g., climbing Mt. Everest from the northern side;rafting in Tibet, Yunnan and Szechuan; off- road and bicycle tours, and riverboat cruises. From a research perspective, the key issue for foreigners is that whilst many Chinese scholars can read English, and many International publications are translated to Chinese, the reverse does not apply： few foreigners are familiar with the Chinese language, and hence with the Chinese academic literature. From a foreign researcher＇s perspective,therefore, cooperative projects with Chinese colleagues are of enormous value. As regards research topics in outdoor tourism, there are three broad approaches which can perhaps prove valuable in future. The first is to ensure that innovations in the international literature are also applied in China, as immediately as possible. That is, China should benefit from global research, and China should be included in international comparative studies.That can only occur if relevant research in China is published in internationally accessible journals. The second is that since China now forms a very large component in global tourism, as well as in the world economy and population more broadly, it is critical for foreign researchers that they can gain access to Chinese research findings. Foreign researchers understand that outdoor tourism in China is influenced by scale, history and culture, but they are not yet in a position to follow how those factors influence the many rapid changes occurring within the Chinese domestic tourism sector. We would like to know more, and understand better. As just one example, China now has a surf tourism subsector. Where does that fit into the international surfing industry？ The third is that as more and more Chinese outdoor tourists travel overseas, their culturally driven expectations may not always match what international tourism enterprises provide. Chinese clients are influencing the outdoor tourism industry in other countries; and when they return home, they may also influence the outdoor tourism industry within China. The role of tourism in these cultural exchanges and interactions provides fascinating opportunities for social science research at present.