On Tourism Culture:With Perspective of Cultural Anthropology

The notion of Tourism Culturewas first proposed by Chinese scholars in the middle of 1980s.Since then,many scholars have discussed the definition of the notion with various new theories.However,without clearly defining the denotation and connotation of the term,these studies have not clearly identified the concept of Tourism Culture.In the meantime,many colleges in China have established courses on Tourism Culture Studyfor their students.To support the teaching,there are nearly forty textbooks ontourism culture studiesused by these colleges.Without clear and standardized definition,these textbooks have diverse interpretations of the terminology and applications of tourism culture.Some text books even confuseTourism Culturewith cultural tourism resources,though the two actually have different implications.The study on Tourism Culturein China has stayed the same over the years.Recent studies have seldom surpassed those of the 1990s and some related case studies have shown their poverty in obscuring our understanding because of the absurd notion of Tourism Culture.We owe the weakness of Tourism Culture studies of China to the lack of interdisciplinary perspectives and enough case studies.We believe that the introduction of a cultural anthropological perspective would help to solve these problems.From an anthropological perspective,we re-define the concept of Tourism Culture .Based on the newly-defined conception,we then compare Tourism Culturewith general culture in content,nature and function we think thatTourism Culturecan be one of the research objects of cultural anthropology.More importantly,ethnography as the main method of cultural anthropology gives strong and solid support for studying the cultural phenomena of tourism.Based on observed and measured phenomena and knowledge from participant observation rather than from theoretical discussion,the research method provides firsthand material with evident and valuable information.Many international scholars focus their research on detailed cases studies of touristic areas; they do not spend too much effort on discussing theoretical concepts.Their empirical data provides useful baseline research for developing the study of Tourism Culture.This enlightens us on the shift from the theoretical emphasis to the fieldwork-based interpretation,which can be achieved through the means of ethnography.Therefore,the perspective of cultural anthropology can be useful to relieve the embarrassing situation of Tourism Culturestudies in China.In sum,Tourism Cultureis the output of tourism activities.Related research includes various topics such as tourist behaviors,tourist expectation and experience,cultural production and reproduction,and the interactions between hosts and guests.These issues are deeply connected with the topic of cultural change,and even symbolize the degree of tourism development,which deserves further research.In our opinion,along with the support from solid case study research,the study of Tourism Culturecan thus help the theoretical development and study of Tourism Culturein a long run.