Tourists' Perceptions Research Based On Q Methodology-A Case Study Of Hangzhou "Three-Water" Tourism

As a domestic and international tourism highly developing city, Hangzhou takes the Qiantang River, the Grand Canal and West Lake Water as its core tourism resources. At present, the strategic objective of local government is to build Hangzhou into an international tourist city, and accelerate the cross-river development and renovation of canals. The urban development is shifting from "West Lake Times" to "Qiantang River era." Taking this as a favorable opportunity, relying on the "Three-Water", namely the Qiantang River, the Grand Canal and the West Lake, Hangzhou tourism gains a much more mature time to expand deeply the domestic and international tourists markets. How to fully utilize the advantages of the three water-tourism resources, develop and improve tourism products to make it a more popular tourist attraction, is a urgent problem to be solved. Therefore, studying tourists'perception to"Three-Water" tourism products and exploring innovative measures has important theoretical and practical significance.Based on extensive literatures and theoretical combing, this paper uses the Q methodology which explores human subjectivity as the main research method, selects 42 domestic and foreign tourists coming to Hangzhou for the investigation objects, and follow the main steps in Q methodology to launch the research; then uses the PQ Method software for statistical analysis which is used specially in Q methodology for empirical research and make an exploratory study on the subjective perception of tourists to "Three-Water" tourism products; At last, proposes some suggestions for developing and improving tourism products according to the research results This paper is divided into five chapters:Chapter I is introduction. This chapter first introduces the background and significance of the topic and then determines the research methods and ideas, clarify the difficulties of this study and innovation points.The chapter II is literature review. This chapter reviews predecessors'studies about Q methodology and tourists'perception and points out the research directions.Chapter III is the process of research conduction and data collection. This chapter first gives a general introduction of the Qiantang River, the Grand Canal and the West Lake, and then explains the Q methodology in details from the main body thought, the strengths and weaknesses, and difference from R means and major steps.Finally, describes the research process, including photo shoot and choice, the selection of research location and object, research procedure.Chapter IV is the perceptions study of tourists to Hangzhou"Three-Water". This chapter explains the process of data analysis and results, inducts 4 different types of tourists, and explains and compares in detail the difference between the subjective perception of the four types of tourists.Chapter V is the conclusion. This chapter summarizes the research findings and proposes some suggestions for developing and improving Hangzhou "Three-Water" tourism products. Meanwhile, points out rationally the problems and shortcomings of this research and studies the future research directions.