Dark Touristic Perception: Motivation, Experience and Benefits Interpreted from the Visit to Seismic Memorial Sites in Sichuan Province

This study investigates the motivations of Chinese domestic tourists visiting seismic memorial sites after the great Wenchuan earthquake of 2008, and examines their interpretation of experiences and benefits of the visits. Recent research on dark tourism has raised the possibility that people are attracted to death and memorial sites in ways different from other tourist attractions. The study used an empirical research design employing questionnaires to collect data from 255 Chinese domestic visitors at seismic memorial sites in west Sichuan. Analysis revealed that the obligation of commemoration mixed with curiosity represents a different set of travel motivation in dark tourism settings than in other kinds of tourism. In addition, the empirical evidence also suggests an interrelated pattern between motivations, experiences and benefits. This study implies that Chinese domestic tourists were attracted in ways different from other tourist attractions both because they tended to fulfill their obligation of commemoration and were interested in destruction; and visitor experiences played an important mediating role between travel motivations and benefits gained.

The Governance of Rural Tourism Destination under the Eco-bank Model-A Case Study of Jukou Township in Fujian Province

Rural tourism is an important means of comprehensively promoting the rural revitalisation of industry andpractising the concept of“two mountains theory”.Rural tourism transforms the resource advantages of rural areasinto economic advantages,but its development entails problems such as the unfair distribution of benefits,uncleardistribution mechanisms,and the non-standardised compensation of benefits.Therefore,finding a mode of governance of rural tourism that can effectively achieve sustainable development is an urgent issue that warrants attention.Taking Jukou Township in Fujian Province as a case,this study constructs a logical framework linking theEco-bank model and rural tourism governance and reveals the practicality and sustainability of rural tourism governance under the Eco-bank model.The study shows the following.(1)As a kind of innovative mechanism forachieving the transformation of resource value through the participation of multiple subjects,the Eco-bank modelsolves the development dilemma of rural tourism through the integration of decentralised resource managementrights,the establishment of property rights constraints and supervision mechanisms for the coordination of stakeholder interests,and the linkage and development of internal and external resources of the countryside.(2)JukouTownship has built a resource operation platform for“ancient house Eco-bank”based on ancient house resourcesand ecological tourism resources.The construction of a rural governance mechanism that combines village collectives,new township elites,villagers,high-end art operation units,and multiple institutional governance entities effectively converts idle ancient houses and high-quality ecological tourism resources into assets and funds to promote the development and growth of the rural collective economy while effectively promoting the stable and sustainable development of the cultural tourism industry in Jukou Township.