A Comparative Study On The Image Cognition Of Tourism Destinations In China's Cultural Groups

The competition of Chinese tourism destination becomes more and more severe,Tourism destination image(TDI)marketing has been one of the most effective means to improve market competiveness.So,precise TDI marketing has been an important research topic.China is a country with the largest population,amazing cultural diversity and long story in the world,moreover,it has gone through major social change,there are different cultural groups in China society.However,little research focuses on TDI comparison between them.Therefore,this paper aims to compare the TDI between the different cultural groups in China,which can enrich the research content of TDI,and also,it can presents theoretical basis for TDI precision marketing.This paper defines the concept of "Inner Cultural Group"(ICG),which refers to the cultural groups that has "collective programming of mind" or "common thought"divided from the national culture;that means ICG must has common group sense and behavioral norms,and the group culture must be a part of national culture.According to the characters of ICG,this paper presents a classification system based on time dimension,space dimension and attribute dimension serves the TDI comparison between ICGs,and five generation cultural groups,three regional cultural groups,two gender cultural groups are choosen as the typical examples to compare their TDI cognition.Based on TDI theory,cultural determinism,environmental perceptionism and social cognitive theory,the paper takes a typical domestic TDI,Hangzhou,as a case,design questionnaire,obtain first-hand survey data,and select comparative research,with the help of ANOVA and T-test,the TDI factors of ICGs are compared,with the help of structural equation modeling,the TDI dimension structure of ICGs are compared,with the help of mathematics analysis and social network analysis,the TDI words of ICGs are compared.Three main conclusions are found in this study:Firstly,the TDI of Chinese ICG has significant differences,of which the difference between generation cultural groups is the maximum,followed by regional cultural groups,and the gender cultural groups is the minimum.As for generation cultural groups,the TDI difference among 1950s,1960s and 1970s cultural group is little.They give significantly higher evaluation of Hangzhou's TDI than 1990s and 1980s.The earlier the generation cultural group is,the higher the evaluation of TDI is.For the selected regional cultural group,the TDI differences between Beijing,Shanghai and Zhongyuan cultural group is diverse.Overall speaking,the evaluation of Hangzhou's TDI declines from Beijing cultural group to Zhongyuan cultural group,while Shanghai cultural group is in the middle position.For the gender cultural group,the difference of TDI is significant,the evaluation of male cultural group is higher than female cultural group,however,it is much fewer than generation and regional cultural group.Secondly,the TDI of Chinese ICGs consists of common and unique dimensions,which shows a construction as "hand model".In summary,the common dimensions of Chinese ICGs' TDI include "city image","tourism infrastructure and service" and"tourism attraction",which is also the palm of TDI's hand model.While the unique dimensions vary from different cultural characters of different ICGs,such as"destination atmosphere" to Beijing cultural group,"delicious food&tourism performing art" to 1990s cultural group,and "local culture" to female cultural group,etc,which are the fingers of TDI's hand model.Thirdly,culture is key factor that make ICGs' TDI difference.specifically,the regional culture factors like commercial culture and lifestyle;generation culture factors like family-country feeling,fulfilling,individuality,and international view;gender culture factors like focusing of economy and beauty,and sentimentality.The innovations of the paper reflected in three points.First of all,a new concept named "inner cultural group"(ICG)is put forward,and four criteria are given to indentify it;the paper also examines the theoretical and practical value by TDI comparative research.Secondly,the significant differences of TDI among ICGs are confirmed,and the rules how ICGs's TDI deviated from one another are summarized.Thirdly,the common and unique dimensions of TDI are clearly presented,and followed by a reduced model named "hand model" to describe the construction of TDI.