CHANS-Net: The International Network of Research on Coupled Human and Natural Systems

Journal or Book Title: Tourism Tribune

Abstract: A tourism corridor refers to a linear space, which focuses on the integrated and coordinated development of knots, routes and regions. Its implementation can improve the systems of touristic destinations, accelerate the construction of holistic tourism and become an important break-through in the enhancement of both. Therefore, the development of holistic tourism requires research on tourism corridors to be strengthen. For this purpose, this paper first combs through prior research on this matter. Then, it analyses the features of tourism corridors and corridor-based tourism, as well as the relationship between both of them and touristic destinations. Finally, it predicts the future development trends of the tourism corridor related factors, so as to provide ideas and references for both holistic tourism construction projects and for the sound progress of a corridor-based tourism. Prior foreign research on the concept of tourism corridors have focused on topics such as ecological, historical and cultural protection; visual aesthetics; ideas and methods; user's experience, overall management and public policies, etc. Foreign research on tourism corridors has shifted its focus from the corridor design to other relevant features, such as the experience of tourists and the relationship between the management of corridors and the role of government institutions. Using the CiteSpace application for analysing domestic research trends, the following results were obtained: domestic research has mainly focused on space planning and design, the construction of a theoretical system, the protection and development of heritage corridors and on the construction of a green network, whereas the areas of user perceptions, the influence of the tourist destination and others have been much less explored. Then, the features of tourism corridors are analysed from three different perspectives: resources, space and function, while the features of corridor-based tourism are analysed from three different aspects: tourist demand, leisure and commodities. The relationship between a tourism corridor and a corridor-based tourism is thus clearly distinguished: a tourism corridor is a big tourist attraction, whereas a corridor-based tourism is a new touristic model that, relying on the tourism corridor, uses new methods to organize different activities and to appraise the traveller's experience. In the era of Internet plus and Tourism plus, it is important to analyse the impact of the corridor-based tourism activities on the residential, industrial and environmental protection systems. With the aim to contribute to the conclusions of previous works, this paper takes one step further on the research of a tourism corridor's development under the construction of holistic tourism as well as on new research trends, which include: strengthening regional cooperation and interconnection (spatial perspective); accelerating industrial concentration (industrial perspective); strengthening the connection and interaction of tourism-related elements while improving its utilization and efficiency (factor perspective); pleading for the dismissal of administrative boundaries which hinder the realization of a geographical unit-management approach (management perspective). On the future, research on tourism corridors must focus on the shift from the design of a tourism corridor to other relevant features and, while enhancing the research systems, the combination of natural and social sciences must be used to study methods and perspectives and to further investigate the mechanisms between the corridors and the natural and social ecological systems, so as to provide important references for the government institutions to conduct scientific policy-making.

Type of Publication: Journal article