A Comparative Analysis of Domestic and International Tourism Spatial Distribution: Trends and Impacts

As one of the most important economic sectors in China, tourism must be supported in a way that will encourage balanced regional economic development. The spatial distribution of tourism should be evaluated to assess the role of growing tourism in regional economic inequality. Unlike previous studies that focus on international tourism, this paper compares the spatial distributions of international and domestic tourism by using the Mean Log Deviation decomposition method, within and between China’s three economic regions over the period from 1997 to 2010. The results show that, compared with regional economic distribution, imbalance in the spatial distribution of tourism is more pronounced. However, from a dynamic and comparative perspective, this paper asserts that tourism, especially domestic tourism, is a more effective instrument for China’s balanced regional economic development than international tourism.

[1]  Raesa Oktavia,et al.  UPAYA UNITED NATIONS WORLD TOURISM ORGANIZATION (UNWTO) MENANGANI SEX TOURISM DI THAILAND (2009-2013) , 2015 .

[2]  Wang Qun,et al.  Exploratory Space–time Analysis of Inbound Tourism Flows to China Cities , 2014 .

[3]  M. Chou,et al.  Does tourism development promote economic growth in transition countries? A panel data analysis , 2013 .

[4]  Yang Yang,et al.  Spatial Distribution of Tourist Flows to China's Cities , 2013 .

[5]  Kevin K. F. Wong,et al.  A Spatial Econometric Approach to Model Spillover Effects in Tourism Flows , 2012 .

[6]  H. Zhang,et al.  The Facilitating and Inhibiting Factors in Cooperative Tourism Development of the Greater Pearl River Delta (GPRD), China , 2009 .

[7]  J. Wen,et al.  The Spatial Distribution of Tourism in China: Trends and Impacts , 2009 .

[8]  Sara Proença,et al.  Tourism as an Economic Growth Factor: A Case Study for Southern European Countries , 2008 .

[9]  Sara Proença,et al.  Tourism as an alternative source of regional growth in Portugal: a panel data analysis at NUTS II and III levels , 2008 .

[10]  Mimi Li,et al.  Tourism development of World Heritage Sites in China: A geographic perspective , 2008 .

[11]  R. Scheyvens.  Poor cousins no more , 2007 .

[12]  J. Bowden.  Pro-poor tourism and the Chinese experience , 2005 .

[13]  J. Higham,et al.  A Spatial Analysis of Commercial Ecotourism Businesses in New Zealand: A c 1999 Benchmarking Exercise Using GIS , 2005 .

[14]  S. Cornelissen.  Tourism impact, distribution and development: The spatial structure of tourism in the Western Cape province of South Africa , 2005 .

[15]  Zhang Jie Li Na Liang Yue-lin Liu Ze-hua Zhang Jin-he.  An analysis on spatial field effect of domestic tourist flows in China , 2005 .

[16]  Eric Neumayer,et al.  The Impact of Political Violence on Tourism , 2004 .

[17]  Hailin Qu,et al.  A comparison study of Chinese domestic tourism: China vs the USA , 2004 .

[18]  Konstantinos Drakos,et al.  Regional Effects of Terrorism on Tourism in Three Mediterranean Countries , 2003 .

[19]  Yüksel Öztürk,et al.  Tourism Growth, National Development and Regional Inequality in Turkey , 2003, Journal of Sustainable Tourism.

[20]  Takahiro Akita,et al.  Decomposing regional income inequality in China and Indonesia using two-stage nested Theil decomposition method , 2003 .

[21]  J. Bowden.  A cross-national analysis of international tourist flows in China , 2003 .

[22]  Ş. Baloğlu,et al.  Nonhost Community Resident Reactions to the 2002 Winter Olympics: The Spillover Impacts , 2002 .

[23]  Jacint Balaguer,et al.  Tourism as a long-run economic growth factor: the Spanish case , 2002 .

[24]  Astrid Seckelmann.  Domestic tourism—a chance for regional development in Turkey? , 2002 .

[25]  Bo Hu,et al.  Domestic tourism demand in China’s urban centres: Empirical analyses and marketing implications , 2002 .

[26]  Cevat Tosun,et al.  Challenges of sustainable tourism development in the developing world: the case of Turkey , 2001 .

[27]  R. L. Ivy.  Geographical variation in alternative tourism and recreation establishments , 2001 .

[28]  Bihu Wu,et al.  Trends in China’s domestic tourism development at the turn of the century , 2000 .

[29]  H. Zhang,et al.  An analysis of tourism policy development in modern China , 1999 .

[30]  H. Barrett.  Regional Inequalities in the Peruvian Tourist Industry , 1999 .

[31]  Daniel M. Spotts.  Regional Analysis of Tourism Resources for Marketing Purposes , 1997 .

[32]  C. Tisdell,et al.  Spatial Distribution of Tourism in China: Economic and other Influences , 1996 .

[33]  D. Pearce,et al.  Domestic Tourist Travel in Sweden: A Regional Analysis , 1996 .

[34]  D. Gillmor.  Evolving air-charter tourism patterns: Change in outbound traffic from the Republic of Ireland , 1996 .

[35]  M. Jansen-Verbeke,et al.  A Regional Analysis of Tourist Flows within Europe , 1995 .

[36]  Thesia I. Garner,et al.  Consumer Expenditures and Inequality: An Analysis Based on Decomposition of the Gini Coefficient , 1993 .

[37]  R. Millman.  Pleasure seeking v the ‘greening’ of world tourism , 1989 .

[38]  Allan M. Williams,et al.  Tourism and economic development : Western European experiences , 1989 .

[39]  Barry O'Rourke,et al.  TOURISM TODAY: A GEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS , 1987 .

[40]  Fan Li-li.  RESEARCH ON SPATIAL STRUCTURE OF DOMESTIC TOURISM SOURCE MARKETS OF JIANGSU , 2010 .

[41]  Zhoug Qiang.  Spatial Pattern of Domestic Traveling of Rural Residents in China , 2009 .

[42]  Lisa Ruhanen,et al.  Volunteering tourism knowledge: A case from the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) , 2008 .

[43]  Dai Bin,et al.  A comparative study of the spatial distribution of hotels in China. , 2006 .

[44]  Bihu Wu,et al.  Spatial modeling: suburban leisure in Shanghai. , 2006 .

[45]  Jean-Louis Combes,et al.  Are There Spillover Effects between Coastal and Non-Coastal Regions in China? , 2002 .

[46]  Dai Guang-quan.  The Evolvement of Spatial Structure and the Significance of Guilin's Domestic Tourist Origins , 2002 .

[47]  C. Tisdell,et al.  Regional inequality and tourism distribution in China. , 1997 .

[48]  Nirmala D. Kumar.  Tourism and economic development , 1996 .

[49]  A. Lockwood,et al.  Geographical patterns of tourism in Europe. , 1994 .

[50]  M. Oppermann.  Intranational tourist flows in Malaysia , 1992 .

[51]  P. E. Lovingood,et al.  A regional analysis of South Carolina tourism , 1989 .

[52]  D. Pearce,et al.  Spatial patterns of package tourism in Europe. , 1987 .

[53]  Stephen L. J. Smith,et al.  Regional analysis of tourism resources , 1987 .