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 Moderating Effect of the Ski Resort Environment on the Skier’s Travel Radius under the Restriction of Skill Consumption

Starting from the skill characteristics of ski tourism,this paper discusses the impact of consumer skill on travel decisions,and the moderating effect of the ski resort’s comprehensive leisure environment(including the ski resort sports environment and the regional cultural tourism environment),in order to both understand their impacts on the travel distance characteristics of skiers and attempt to provide necessary research support for the development of China’s ski industry and the construction of destinations.Based on the data from multi-period visitor surveys,this paper constructs the consumption skill-travel radius decision-making influence model under the moderating effect of the ski resort comprehensive leisure environment.The results show three main characteristics.(1)The travel radius obviously differs among skiers with different skill levels.The skill level of skiers has a significant positive effect on the larger travel radius,and a significant negative effect on the smaller travel radius.That is,skiers with a higher skill level are more inclined to undertake long-distance skiing travel,while skiers with a lower skill level are more inclined to undertake short-distance skiing travel.(2)The comprehensive leisure environment has a significant moderating effect on the skiers’travel radius,with a significant positive impact on enlarging the travel radius,while the influences on high-skill and low-skill skiers are significantly higher than on middle-skill skiers.(3)In the comprehensive leisure environment,there are differences in the moderating effect of the ski resort sports environment and the regional cultural tourism environment on the skiers travel radius,and the positive moderating effect of the ski resort sports environment on the high-skill skiers’travel radius is more obvious.While the regional cultural tourism environment has a more obvious positive moderating effect on the travel radius of non-skiers and junior skiers,it is more conducive to promoting domestic travel.In general,the skier skill level in China was generally lower,and the ski resort comprehensive leisure environment optimization is conducive to overcoming the limitation of the travel radius caused by the disadvantageous skill level of consumers.However,to promote the development of China’s ski industry in the long run,it is necessary to focus on improving the consumer’s ski skill level,but prevent the risk of losing high-skill consumers overseas.In the course of improving the level of domestic ski sports facilities,we should also focus on the domestic leisure cultural tourism environment to better enhance the attractiveness of domestic ski destinations.

AMUSEMENT PARK MANIA

International theme parks compete for a share of the budding Chinese market Confidence in the spending power and habits of Asian consumers is attracting international amusement parks to enter the burgeoning Chinese market.According to the IAAPA Global Theme and Amusement Park Outlook 2015-19,

A Widening Tourism Deficit

During the week-long National Day holiday(October 1-7),nearly 480 million tourist trips were made by Chinese people,a yearon-year increase of more than 10 percent,according to the latest survey from the China Tourist Academy.The figure 480 million represents a larger number than the populations of Germany,France,U.K.,Italy,Spain and Japan combined.