保继刚-the discovery of tourism

In 1985, I sit in a classroom in Peking University, listening to Dewei Zhu, one of the best professor in the Math Department. I was 21 then. Professor Zhu talked about a somewhat difficult math method: hierarchy process analysis, and used an example in tourism to show how the method could help with decision making. The example made such a deep impression on me that it came back to me when I tried to decide what to do for my graduate thesis. I was keen to actually use the math I spent a lot of time studying—it was a time when Chinese geography students were heavily influenced by the quantitative revolution in the West, which meant that research not using math, especially advanced math, was not considered to be research. I decided that I could find a few issue in tourism studies to which to apply the math methods I had learned. I had not traveled much at the time, nor did I know whether tourism was worth studying. But I did feel that as a graduate student of geography, I would achieve something if I could use some math methods to solve a few real-world problems.

1985年，我坐在北京大学的教室里，听数学系朱德伟教授上课。我当时21岁。朱教授讲了一个有点难度的数学方法-层次结构分析，并且用了一个旅游实例表明这个方法如何来帮助做决策。这个实例印象深刻，当我试着决定毕业论文选题的时候又浮现了出来。我渴望学了那么久的数学能够派上用场——当时中国学地理的同学深受西方定量研究改革影响，这意味着研究不用到数学就谈不上做研究。我觉得我可以找到一些旅游研究的课题来运用我学到的数学方法。当时我很少旅游也不清楚旅游业是否值得研究。但我觉得作为一名地理学的毕业生，如果用一些数学方法来解决一些实际问题就会有收获。

Having read the few available books on tourism, I constructed a system of tourism, including in it the four aspects of tourism that interested me: tourism resource evaluation, demand forecasting, behavior in choosing a destination, and capacity, I collected a large amount of data on each aspect, analyzed it, and drew conclusions. For example, in order to find out how many tourists a destination can accommodate, I went to the Summer Palace in Beijing numerous time, took a lot of notes, counted the number of tourists at different times of the day, and finally was able to estimate the carrying capacity of this largest garden in China (290 hectares). In order to make the best use of my time, I would go into the Palace with two cans of preserved food early in the morning, and would not leave it until closing time. I still remember the unforgettable beauty of the Summer Palace in early morning, with only a few people doing tai chi by the lakeside, bird chirping in trees. I could not help thinking to myself that this setting had to be the best luxury the imperial family could have.

读了少有的能够看到的旅游书籍，我构成了一个旅游系统，包含了旅游的四个方面：旅游资源评估、需求预测、选择目的地的行为、总结结论。例如，为了算出旅游景区可以容纳多少游客，我去了很多次颐和园，做了许多笔记，计算了一天中不同时段的游客数量，最后终于可以估算出这个中国最大公园（290公顷）的可承载能力。为了更好利用时间，我早上去颐和园都带上两个罐头食物，一直到快关门时间才离开。我还记得颐和园早上那难以忘怀的景色，一小群人在湖边打太极，小鸟在树上鸣叫。我情不自禁地想，这样的环境之前可是皇族才能得到的奢侈品。

The result of my research included a model for evaluating tourism resources using hierarchy process analysis: a model for forecasting domestic tourists to Beijing using a gravity model and a behavior pattern of domestic tourists depending on the distance they have to travel. I also used the Summer Palace as an example for illustrating the optimal tourist capacity based on which I concluded that the Summer Palace was too crowded.

我的研究成果包含了一个模型-用结构分析来评估旅游资源-用引力模型和国内游客行为模型（按行程距离划分）来预测北京的国内游客量。我还以颐和园为例指出它太过拥挤，在此基础上解释了景区的最优承载量。

Looking back, the topic of my research was a little risky, because most of my fellow students worked on something that was more traditionally geographical in nature, such as urban geography or land use. In fact, when one professor heard about my topic, his response was not very encouraging, “Don’t you think that tourism is too narrow a topic for you for future research?” No one would have thought that in just a few years’ time, tourism would boom in China or that over the last 20 years, it would have developed on such a large scale. Although I was concerned whether research in tourism would get me anywhere, I was very excited about finding something as the carrier to apply the math methods I had learned. In fact, I was so focused on the four aspects of my research that interested me that I did not know the importance of my research after I finished the thesis. It was a few years after I graduated that I had the opportunity to read literature on tourism studies outside China. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the four aspects of tourism studies I researched were the central issues of the field of study. What was more, the analytical model I proposed based on fieldwork had never been done in China. Even after so many years of development in tourism studies, little has been done to add to the in-depth fieldwork I did in 1986. Recently, I asked my student assistants to collect new data to test the applicability of the tourist gravity model, and found that it worked in Guilin after minor modifications.

往回看，我当时的研究选题还是有点冒险的，因为我大学同学的研究选题大多数都围绕更传统的自然地理，比如城市地理或土地利用。实际上，当时有个教授听到我的选题，他的反应是不支持的。难道你不觉得对于你往后的研究旅游这个选题太窄了？没有人会想到就在短短几年时间里，旅游业在中国急速发展，也没有想到在这20年里，旅游发展的规模会如此之大。尽管我也担心对旅游的研究是否会带领我前进（anywhere），但我十分兴奋，能够找到载体来应用我学到的数学方法。实际上，我专注于这份研究让我感兴趣的4个方面，到完成论文也不知道我这份研究的重要性。在我毕业之后的几年，我有机会可以读到一些关于旅游的国外文献。我发现我研究的旅游的4个方面居然是这个领域的核心课题。此外，我根据田野调查提出的分析模型在中国还没有。甚至在旅游研究发展了这么多年之后，我1986年做的详实的田野调查研究也没有什么新的内容添加进来。最近，我让我的学生去搜集新的数据来测试旅游引力模型的可适用性，发现经过小改动之后在桂林起作用。

With the solid research in the four aspects in geography of tourism, I was approached to write the first geographic tourism textbook, Geography of tourism (1993), for all universities in the country. It has become one of the nationally circulated textbook in different subjects recommended by the Ministry of Education. The second edition of Geography of Tourism (1999) was published in 1999. Up to 2008, the textbook was reprinted 24 times and around 100,000 copies had been sold.

This all started with my interest in math.

有了旅游地理4个方面的详实研究，我开始着手写《旅游地理》1993，第一本面向中国所有大学的旅游地理教科书。它被教育部推荐，成为在不同学科之间流通的教科书。旅游地理的第二版在1999年出版。截止到2008年，这本书已经重印了24次卖出了将近10万册。

这全部始于我对数学的兴趣。

说了好几次要把这本小册子翻译一下，为什么要做这个，也说不清。自己不是那种把事情想清楚事先规划的人，就是边做边想吧，就像保继刚一开始做旅游研究的时候，也只是想有个途径可以运用一下自己学到的数学方法。

既然开始了，就要做完哦，对自己说。

Longing to become a mathematician

渴望成为一名数学家

Though my research on tourism was accidental, my passion for math has always been there. I was born in Gejiu City in the southern part of Yunnan province. I first became interested in math after reading the story of a young man who solved a particular math problem after years of hard work. I dreamed of becoming a researcher for theoretical physics in which math is used a lot, as I was very impressed by the two overseas Chinese Nobel Prize winners, Chen Ning Yang and Tsung Dao Lee.

尽管我在旅游上的研究是个意外，但我对数学的热情是一直有的。我出生于云南省南部的一个小城——个旧。刚开始对数学感兴趣是因为一个故事，讲了一个年轻人通过多年的研究解决了一个数学难题。我就想着将来成为一名物理学的研究员，这样可以用到很多数学问题，也是因为受到两位获得诺贝尔奖的华裔物理学家——杨振宁与李政道的影响。

Unfortunately, I did not do very well in math in the National Entrance Exams, in spite of the fact that I frequently won prizes in various math contests in high school. Consequently, my hope of going to Peking University was shattered. What was worse, I was not admitted into the Department of Physics of Sun Yat-sen University either. Instead, I became freshman in the not-so-popular Department of Geography in Sun Yat-sen University.

很不幸，我的高考数学成绩不是很好，尽管我高中时期多次在各种数学竞赛中获胜。最终，我想去北京大学的愿望落空了。更糟的是，我没有被中山大学的物理系录取，而是去了没那么受欢迎的地理系。

I learned in due course that the Department of Geography was very strong in China. It was there that I learned to do research. The good training I received as an undergraduate enable me to enter Peking University for graduate study. It was at Peking University that I took courses by a number of great geographers, one being my supervisor, Chuankang Chen. I also got to know a group of young geographers. I began to examine tourism from a geographical perspective.

我刚好得知中山大学的地理系在中国是很强的，正是在这里我学习了如何做研究。良好的训练让我进入北京大学攻读硕士学位。在北京大学我选了很多大地理学家的课程，陈传康成了我的导师，也认识了一些年轻地理学家。我开始以地理学的视角来看旅游。

On the way to discovery: from math model to case studies

发现之路：从数学模型到实例研究

I would have used math models for my study in tourism if I had not had the great opportunity of taking field trips in the southwestern provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou with team of researchers from the Chinese Academy of Science in Beijing for the study of tourism resource development and strategy. The fieldtrips allowed me to see the beauty of nature as well as some destructive impacts on tourism resources due to poor tourism planning, either spoiling the beauty of nature or investing in the wrong place because of a poor understanding of tourist behaviors. These made me reconsider the research I did at school. I realized that although math models are objective and scientific, they could not solve problems in tourism development in a straightforward way.

我本来会在旅游研究中用上数学模型，如果我没有去云南、四川、贵州这些西南省份做田野调查的话。这些调查是为了研究中国旅游资源的发展战略，和中科院的一些研究员一起去的。这些旅游调查经历让我领略了自然之美也让我看到了不合理的旅游规划对旅游资源的破坏。因为对游客行为缺乏了解错误开发了景点反而对自然造成了破坏。这让我重新考虑我在学校做的研究。我意识到尽管数学模型是客观科学的，但是它不能直接解决旅游发展中遇到的问题。

I decided to drop the math models that fascinated me so much in my school days, and used case studies to examine the patterns of development for different kinds of tourism resources. Take Karst caves for example, which is a resource that is found in different parts of China. Tourists tend not to revisit such a destination. If a Karst cave is to be developed, the spatial relationship between the cave and other tourism resources has to be taken into consideration. Furthermore, only one cave can succeed in attracting enough tourists in a destination to be successful. In a similar way, I drew conclusions about other types of resources including beaches, Karst stone forest, mountain resorts, religious destinations, and white-water rafting. My focus of study was on how to successfully and effectively develop a resource. The research I did during this period led to a collection of papers on tourism development, Study on Tourism Development: Principles, Methods, and Practice (1996).

I am very aware that my research based on experience during the above period of time is not in accordance with the norms of research. However, when it comes to a field of study that develops rapidly and has more problems than theories can explain, it is more important to find out problems and look for solutions based on lessons learned than doing research following the norm in one’s study. It is worth going out of the norms if research to avoid massive loss resulting from unguided development.

我决定放弃在我求学期间令我痴迷的数学模型，而使用实例研究来检验不同旅游资源的的开发模式。以喀斯特为例，这是在中国多个地方可以看到的地貌。而游客不太愿意重游这样一个差不多的目的地。如果一处喀斯特地貌开发了，那么它和其他旅游资源的空间关系需要考虑在内。此外，只有一处喀斯特地貌能够吸引足够的游客来到目的地才算成功。其他的旅游资源（海滨、石林、山岳、宗教圣地、漂流）也遵循相同的规律。我研究的重点是如何成功有效开发旅游资源。这一时期的研究集成了一本有关旅游开发的论文集——《旅游开发研究的原理、方法与实践》。我很清楚这些研究是建立在我这段时期的经验之上，有悖于研究规范。但是当牵涉到一个领域发展迅速，该领域的理论研究已经无法解释现有问题的时候，利用所学知识去解决问题就比按照理论规范去做研究要重要。如果研究可以避免盲目的开发而导致的巨大损失，那么就值得去突破研究规范。

Such a perception was proved right for another case, years later. When I did tourism planning for Hubei province, a university professor working in one of its cities insisted on treating me to dinner. He was a well-respected intellectual to whom the local officials often turned for advice for tourism development. He would always consult my book on tourism planning and see whether there was a case study in it. He told me that this book has been most useful in helping him in advising the official, as it includes a wide range of cases of tourism-resource development.

在几年后，这样的看法在另一个实例中被证明是正确的。当我在做湖北省旅游规划的时候，当地的一位大学教授坚持要请我吃饭。他经常接到当地旅游规划的咨询，是一位备受当地官员尊敬的知识分子。他经常看我的书，看旅游规划方面是否有一些实例在里面。他说在接受当地官员咨询的时候，书起到了很多有用的帮助，因为里面包含了很多旅游资源开发的实例。

The importance of fieldwork

田野调查的重要性

Up to the time when I started working on my PhD dissertation, I always began research by locating a problem in an actual case. But I was no longer content with summing up experiences. I began to search for explanations at the theoretical level. In 1989, I returned to Sun Yat-sen University to be an assistant professor there and subsequently became a PhD candidate. At the time, something big in tourism caught my attention. In that year, the first theme park in China, Splendid China, was open and became an instant success. In contrast, a large number of other theme parks that opened after it lost money heavily. Such a big contrast of success and failure puzzled me and urged me to find an answer to it. After consulting my supervisor, I decided to focus my research on the requirements for a successful theme park.

当我开始准备我们的博士论文的时候，我习惯性地在真实案例中确定研究问题。但我不再满足于总结案例经验。我开始试图从理论层面去解释问题。1989年我回到中山大学当助教随后成为博士候选人。当时，旅游业的大事引起了我的关注。那一年，中国第一家主题公园-锦绣中华开业了并迅速获得成功。但相反的事，一大群在它之后开业的主题公园损失惨重。如此鲜明对照的成功与失败令我不解，促使我去解惑。咨询了我的导师之后，我决定研究主题公园成功运营的条件。

As a geographer, I believed in the importance of fieldwork. It so happened that I was asked to be a consultant to spend two months at the headquarters of Splendid China in Shenzhen in 1994. As a result, I not only collected all the materials needed for my research, but also learned from different employees about all aspects of the theme park. Soon, I came to know the park really well. Interestingly, the most effective means of communication for me in Splendid China was playing tennis. Tennis was just becoming popular at the time. As a good player among amateurs, I was invited to play by different people who told me a lot about the theme park while playing. Furthermore, they were very cooperative when I went to do my research in their departments. Such experience is the reason why I tend to tell students that developing one or two hobbies may prove to be useful for advancing for one’s work.

作为地理学家，我相信田野调查的重要性。1994年，碰巧我被要求到锦绣中华做顾问，在深圳总部呆2个月。结果我不仅得到了研究要用的所有材料，还从不同的员工那里学到了主题公园的方方面面。很快，我对主题公园了如指掌。有趣的是，在锦绣中国我最有效的沟通方式是打羽毛球。那时，羽毛球刚刚兴起，作为业余的高手，我被不同的同事邀请去打羽毛球，他们就会边打球边和我聊主题公园。此外，当我去他们的部门做调查的时候他们都十分配合。这也是我为什么和学生讲，培养一两个兴趣是有好处的，会帮助你工作的进展。

In the case of Splendid China theme park, one of its distinctive features was its admission fee structure: a high initial entrance fee, a low rate for a second visit. I also observed that the number of tourists rose to its peak shortly after the park was open. I worked out the characteristics of the life circle of theme parks based on the above pattern. Such features of life cycle are different from other types of destinations. I argued that such features mean investment for theme parks must meet the following requirements in order to make any profit. One requirement is the location a theme park must have to have the potential to draw enough to be able to afford the high entrance fee. Furthermore, the theme park must be compatible with the image of the city in which it is located, with the right climate for outdoor activities and good accessibility. My work based on Splendid China helped to bring reason to the overheating of theme park construction following the success of that early theme park.

在锦绣中华这个案例中，一个明显的特征是它的入园消费结构：门票高，重游低。我还观察到就在它开园不久，游客量就达到了峰值。在这些观察之上，我总结出主题公园生命周期的特征。这些特征有别于其他类型的旅游目的地。我认为这些特征意味着主题公园的投资必须满足以下条件才能盈利。主题公园的选址必须有潜力获得足够多的能负担得起高门票的人群。此外，主题公园必须体现所在城市的形象，并且天气良好适合户外活动，交通方便。我对锦绣中华的研究帮助解释了模仿早期主题公园的成功而引起的主题公园过热现象。

I was invited to a seminar on China’s theme parks in 1997 and was approached by the National Development and Reform Commission and the China National Tourism Administration for discussion on further theme park development. In 2003 and 2009, I was involved in the feasibility study meetings for theme parks such as Universal Studio and Disneyland. The benefit of my previous in-depth fieldwork in Splendid China enable me to give some insight to the potentials for theme park projects such as Yangtze River Amusement Park in Wuhan, Universal Studio in Beijing, and Disney Park in Shanghai.

1997年，我受邀请去参加中国主题公园研讨会。会议由国家改革发展委员会和国家旅游局主办来探讨主题公园的进一步发展。在2003年和2009年，我参与了环球影城和迪士尼主题公园的可行性研究。受益于之前在锦绣中华扎实的田野调查，使我对一些主题公园的发展潜力有了一些洞见，比如武汉的扬子江主题公园，北京的环球影城以及上海的迪士尼。

To sum up, fieldwork and an emphasis on the process itself became the source of advice I tend to give my students. That is, only through inquiry into as many details in the progress of a project as possible can guarantee good research in tourism studies, in addition to reading statistics and literature.

总的来说，田野调查以及过程中产生的重点都成了我对学生讲课的内容来源。除了分析数据和文献，只有在项目过程中对尽可能多的细节进行调查才能保证一个有质量的旅游研究。

Field trip: 3,000 miles in US and Canada

旅程：在美国及加拿大的3000英里

Between August 1995 and January 1997, I spent time doing research in Canada and the United States. I think of it as an extension of my fieldwork method to other countries. I had a feeling that given the fact that China was behind these two countries in terms of economic development, what happened in tourism development there would happen in China some day. Therefore, I decided to see as much of the two countries as I could in the hope of taking advantages of what had been done there. I start to plan a 45-day trip around the United States and a few places in Southern Canada, which turned out to be the best thing I did during that period.

在1995年8月到1997年1月期间，我在加拿大及美国做了一些研究。我把这些研究作为我的田野调查方法在其他国家的拓展应用。考虑到中国在经济发展上落后于这两个国家，这里旅游发展的现象在未来的中国也会发生。因此，我决定尽可能多的观察这两个国家，希望能够借鉴他们已经成功完成的事。我计划在美国以及加拿大南部的一些区域进行为期45天的旅程，后来证明这是我在那段时间里做过的最有意义的事。

I collect four boxes of books about tourism, took courses, and participated in fieldtrips, seminars, and conferences that were related to tourism. In the meantime, I learned to drive, bought a used car, and hit the road with my wife. The trip turned out to be a kind of extended research project. We recorded our experiences and observations using the pen and the camera about what we saw in the United States and Canada. My focus was on parks, ports, national parks, the countryside, schools, restaurants, and residences of the well-known, universities, theme parks, and so on-trying to learn details of how the attractions or sites were designed, developed, and run from the perspective of tourism. My interest in photography since my undergraduate years paid off. Together with travelogues written by my wife, the pictures were published in Three Thousand Miles in the United States and Canada in 1998. A few years later, I pushed a collection of pictures: Across Three Continents.

我搜集了4箱有关旅游的书籍，参加旅游相关的课程、田野调查、研讨和会议。同时，我学了开车，买了辆二手车，和妻子一起开启旅程。这次旅程就是一次研究项目。我们用笔和相机记录了我们在美国及加拿大看到的、观察到的、所经历的事物。我主要关注公园、港口、国家公园、乡村、学校、饭店以及著名的居住地，大学、主题公园等等。我试着去了解细节，弄清楚这些景点是如何设计、发展，旅游上是如何运营的。自从我本科阶段就形成的摄影爱好终于发挥了用处。和我妻子写的游记一起，这些照片刊印在1998年出版的《穿越三千里：美国及加拿大》。几年之后，我出了一本摄影集《穿越三大洲》。

Getting research questions from practical work

从实践调查中得到研究问题

My horizon on research was very much widened from my time at the University of British Columbia and University of Waterloo in Canada, as well as at the State University of New York at Albany, and by the four boxes of books. When I came back to China in early 1997, I was frequently approached for tourism planning for different places, all of which were going through the adjustment period in tourism. Soon, I found myself embarking on the journey of taking my research team to work on problems encountered in tourism practice and on finding out ways to guide tourism practice.

因为在加拿大英属哥伦比亚大学和滑铁卢大学以及美国奥尔巴尼纽约州立大学的经历，还有那4箱书，我做研究的视野拓宽了。在1997年初，当我回到中国后，我频繁参与不同地方的旅游规划项目，这些地方都经历着旅游发展的调整阶段。很快我就发现我已经踏上新的征程，带领我的研究团队研究旅游实践遇到的问题以及寻找方法来指导旅游实践。

As a result, my colleagues, students, and I identified problems in urban tourism while working on tourism planning for Zhuhai City; we detected problems in community tourism, small enterprises, and land use while working on tourism planning in Guilin City; we found problems related to the tourism economy while working on the plan for Hunan Province; we addressed problems in rural tourism while working on the Huangshan City plan. Without the in-depth fieldtrips made for the planning of the related places, we might not have spotted all these important issues for research; or, even if, we did identify such topics, we would not have been able to go deep into the research without the accessibility to documents provided by the different levels of government. By the same token, insights gained from fieldtrips and the right choices of research topics has given us a good understanding of the tourism development in the country. That probably explains why our research results have been well received.

结果，在珠海旅游规划项目中，我们团队（同事、学生和我）发现了城市旅游中的问题；在桂林旅游规划中，我们发现了社区旅游、小型私企和土地利用相关的问题；在湖南省旅游规划中，我们发现了旅游经济相关的问题；在黄山城市规划中，我们发现了乡村旅游中的问题。没有这些为了规划项目而做的深入的田野调查，我们可能不会提出这些重要的研究课题。就算能提出这些课题，如果我们得不到不同政府层级所提供的文件资料，我们也不可能进行深入的研究。同样的，田野调查中获得的洞见以及研究课题的正确选择也使我更好地理解国家的旅游发展。这也可能解释了为什么我们的研究结果能得到很好的认可。

Take, for example, the tourism planning for Zhuhai commissioned by its government in 1999. In the course of our investigation, we found a unique phenomenon in Zhuhai: a city that has few attractions managed to attract a million tourists a year. We set out to look into the reasons behind this and found that what draws tourists to Zhuhai is not any specific destination but, rather, its good weather and seaside environment. This finding led me and my team to address issues in urban tourism. More specifically, we studied the mechanism of urban tourism development in China, both in general and by examining different types of cases. We found that urban tourism accounted for a large percentage in China’s tourism market, while the reasons for urban tourism were different for different cities. Accordingly, we developed a typology for mechanisms for China’s tourism development. I tried to adopt in my planning projects the measures I learned abroad about how tourism was done through restricting and reviving an old town. I did research while working on the planning and explored a range of issues on urban tourism in China.

1999年，受珠海政府委托做了珠海市的旅游规划。以这次规划为例，在调查阶段我们就发现了一个特殊现象：一个拥有很少景点的城市每年成功吸引了百万游客过来。我们开始寻找其背后的原因。我们发现吸引游客来珠海的不是任何具体的景点，而是珠海的气候和滨海环境。这些发现让我和我的团队提出了城市旅游的研究主题。具体的说，我们研究中国城市旅游发展的机制，归纳其相似点，用不同类型的案例来检验。我们发现城市旅游占据了中国旅游市场中很大的比例，但是不同的城市，其城市旅游发展不一。相应地，我们提出了中国城市旅游发展的机制类型分类。我尝试在我的规划项目中应用我在国外学到的方法：在复兴和限定老城镇发展中旅游具体起到的作用。在规划项目中我做了研究并探索了一系列有关中国城市旅游的课题。

Tourism planning not only gave us cases for research but also helped us use our findings to solve practical issues. Tourism has been developing rapidly in China, while problems appeared frequently. Because our research has been on problems detected in different cases, it would not be of much significance if it could not serve to help tourism practitioners. Based on such understanding, I decided to introduce my research findings through cohosting conferences with city governments that belong to places that are important tourist destinations. We have organized six of such conferences. Among them, five conferences co-held by Sun Yat-sen University, commission on the geography of tourism of the Geographical Society of China, commission on the geography of tourism, leisure and global change of international geographical union, University of Northern Arizona, and the different local governments. The six international conferences were “International Conference on Urban Tourism” in Zhuhai in 1999; “International Conference on Tourism Planning and Development for Developing Countries” in Guilin in 2001; “International Conference on Event Tourism and the Management of Tourism Destinations” in Yichang in 2003; “International Conference on Border Tourism and Community-based Tourism” in Xishuangbanna in 2005; “International Conference on Heritage and Tourism” in Guangzhou in 2007; and “International Conference on Sustainable and Alternative Tourism” in Yangshuo in 2009. Having the local government involved in such a conference drew more attention from people researching similar issues and the research findings reached more government officials that, in turn, help to guide tourism practice.

旅游规划不仅给我们研究提供了案例，还帮助我们用研究成果去解决实际问题。旅游在中国发展迅猛，而问题出现的也多。正因为我们的研究建立在不同案例中遇到的问题，如果这些研究没有帮助到旅游从业者，那它们就没有太多价值。基于这个领悟，我决定和那些拥有重要旅游景点的地方政府联合举行会议来介绍我的研究成果。我们已经组织了6次这样的会议。其中5次是和中山大学、中国旅游地理学会、国际旅游地理学会、北亚利桑那大学和不同的地方政府联合举办的。这6次国际会议分别是：1999年在珠海举办的“城市旅游国际会议”；2001年在桂林举办的“发展中国家的旅游规划及发展国际会议”；2003年在宜昌举办的“事件旅游和旅游景区管理国际会议”；2005年在西双版纳举办的“边境旅游和社区旅游国际会议”；2007年在广州举办的“遗产旅游国际会议”；2009年在阳朔举办的“可持续旅游及非大众旅游国际会议”。有当地政府的参与吸引了正在研究相关课题的学者，会议上提出的研究成果也触及到更多的地方官员，从而更好地推动旅游发展。

Change of orientation: from efficiency to equity

转变：从效率到公平

As I came to know more about tourism in China, my research orientation began to change. Initially, I was worried that good tourism resources failed to be tapped in the right way, that investment would not pay off. However, what happened has been that local residents did not benefit much from tourism development in the area. Instead, conflicts were frequent. This was not what I consider to be the way tourism should go. I began to look into what was behind such phenomena and what could be done about them.

越来越深入了解中国旅游的发展，我的研究方向开始变化。最初，我担心好的旅游资源没有得到合理的开发，投资得不到效益。但是实际发生的是，当地居民在旅游发展中获益很少，反而冲突频发。我没想到旅游发展会变成这样。我开始关注这些现象背后的原因以及解决方法。

One thing I found while working on the tourism planning of Shangri-La, Xishuangbanna, and Hunan Province, is that investors from wealthy provinces in eastern China took advantage of the fact that the central and western parts of China needed to develop tourism but did not have the money. As a result, they purchased land-use rights at low prices in areas where there are tourism resources, and made profit by running resorts, hotels, and restaurants there. Consequently, most of the income generated from tourism went to investors from outside the destinations, while the lives of local residents did not improve much. Furthermore, they had to suffer the consequence of inflation and deteriorating environment following the influx of tourists.

在香格里拉、西双版纳和湖南省旅游规划项目中，我发现了一个规律。来自中国东部强省的投资者掌握了中西部地区开发旅游带来的有利因素。结果，他们以低价购买旅游资源所在的土地使用权来经营景点、酒店、饭店，从而获利。旅游产生的绝大部分收益给了这个外来的投资者，而当地居民的生活没有明显的改善。甚至，当地居然还要遭受游客大量涌入所带来的通货膨胀和环境恶化。

Such undesirable facts made me decide to approach issues of tourism development from the perspective of the local residents. I asked my students to examine the patterns of income redistribution from tourism in different departments and to analyze what groups of people took most of the profit. We found that “institutional opportunistic behavior” was common in the tourism development of less-developed areas. The only way to avoid it is to establish powerful regulations.

这些糟糕的现状让我决定从当地居民的视角来看待旅游发展。我让学生调查各部门获得的旅游收入并分析得出哪一群人获利最多。我们发现在不发达地区的旅游发展中，“制度性机会主义行为”很常见。避免这一行为的唯一办法就是建立强制规定。

Our research shows that unfair distribution of profit in tourism development is the key factor for the conflicts among stakeholders. Research findings reveal that development in less-developed areas has limitations and, therefore, local residents needed to take practical measures to prevent the above from happening, instead of believing in the “miracle of tourism.”

我们的研究指出了在旅游开发中不公平的利润分配是造成利益相关者冲突的主要原因。在不发达地区进行旅游开发是要有限制的，因此，当地居民需要可行的措施来防止以上冲突的发生，而不是相信“旅游神话”。

When I worked on tourism planning in Guilin in 2000, something happened and made me very aware of the problem of profit distribution. I found that there were strong disagreements between the local residents and the local government. Such conflict was strongest in an area where there is a beautiful stretch of a terrace field. Companies that made use of it made a lot of money while the peasants who owned the field made nothing. One of the peasants was so angry that he destroyed the part of the field that belonged to his family and opened a convenience store so as to take advantage of tourism and to protest against the unfair distribution of profit. This result in spoiling the beautiful terrace field. Similar conflicts had been seen elsewhere in Guilin. We had suggested some measures that were frequently ignored by the departments concerned until the conflicts became intensified to the point of physical violence that had a negative impact to tourism development.

2000年当我做桂林旅游规划的时候，一些事件让我清醒的意识到利益分配的问题。我发现当地居民和当地政府有严重的分歧。类似冲突在一处梯田景观开发中特别明显。开发梯田景观的公司获利不少而拥有这些梯田的农民却一无所获。有一位农民就把属于自己的部分田地给毁了来建造一个便利店，以此来获得旅游开发的好处，反抗之前不公平的利益分配。这些行为破坏了美丽的梯田景观。类型的冲突也发生在桂林其他地方。我们已经向有关部门提了一些解决措施，但这些建议被不断的忽视，冲突越演越烈，最后发生了对旅游业有负面影响的暴力事件。

Accordingly, my recent focus of research shifted from efficiency to equity. The challenge of equity is, in fact, more complicated than that if efficiency and, therefore, more difficult for a researcher. So far, we have investigated income from tourism, community involvement, and the research is still ongoing.

相应地，我近来的研究重点从效率转向了公平。实际上，公平问题远比效率问题复杂，对研究者来说也是更难的课题。目前我们调查了旅游业的收入，社区参与，相关研究仍在继续。

The fun of doing research

做研究的乐趣

Looking back over the last two decades of my research, I realized that I have increasingly paid attention to the essence of a problem rather than the form in which it appears. What interest me most are problems that are of significance on both practical and theoretical levels. This is probably why my research tends to be well accepted by the society and contributes to the development of tourism theory. I would work on the most pressing problem and the projects I conducted in tourism planning provided me with accessibility to finding the solution through fieldwork. After 20 years of study, my understanding of tourism evolved from the four aspects in the system I developed to the broader understanding from the perspective of sociology, economics, business management, anthropology, among other disciplines. The more I study, the more I am convinced that tourism research cannot be simply explained by mathematical models, nor can it be explained thoroughly by just the theories of geography, economics, or other social sciences. Instead, it requires the collaboration of a number of disciplines.

回头来看我这二十年来的研究，我越来越关注问题的本质而非表象。我最感兴趣的是实践和理论层面都具有意义的问题。这可能解释了我的研究既得到社会很好的认可，也为旅游理论的发展有所贡献。我研究旅游规划中最紧迫的问题和课题，帮助我在田野调查中找到解决方法。经过这20年的研究生涯，我对旅游的理解从系统四元素演变到跨越社会学、经济学、管理学、人类学以及其他学科的交叉学科。研究得越多，我越来越相信旅游不能仅仅通过数学方法来解释，也不能仅仅通过地理学、经济学或其他社会科学的理论来解释。它需要多种学科的结合。

Students often asked me questions such as whether tourism research has brought me happiness. I would say that I am in constant pleasure of getting results from the inquiry into issues; such discovery is like a wonderful journey during which one can find truth around a certain corner.

学生们经常问我这样一个问题：旅游给你带来幸福么。我说我一直很满足能够把调研的结果带进研究课题，类似的发现就像一段美妙的旅程，在某个角落你会找到真理。