The Change Of Chinese National Tourism Image In Media Discourse

The national tourism image is a key issue in the field of tourism research,and it is also a key factor influencing the selection,evaluation,revisiting and referring willingness of international tourism destinations.At present,China's tourism industry is developing rapidly.However,the continuous decrease in the proportion of foreign tourists,the continued decline in the growth rate of inbound tourism arrivals,and the fierce competition from surrounding alternative tourism destination countries have put forward urgent demands for China to shape more representative,attractive and branded national tourism image.Under the condition that the "tourism trade" between China and the United States is constant out of balance,what kind of national tourism image of China has shaped by the mainstream media in the United States?How did this tourism image change over time?What is the inspiration to the optimization mechanism of China's inbound tourism development?These questions require immediate answers.Choosing "China tourism","Chinese tourism","Chinese tourist","China tour","Chinese tour","China travel","Chinese travel","China image","Chinese image",as the search words,in the LexisNexis Academic,an academic corpus,this study collected all the news discourses related to China and tourism in the New York Times during the period from January 1,1980 to January 1,2018 since the official establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States,building a special corpus of approximately 150,000 words.Based on this,this study explores the answers to the above questions by observing a special relationship structure in the corpus,which is "what properties as well as the factors makes China have what kind of tourism image".The study found that American media's perception of China s national tourism image has undergone three stages,namely high-speed growth phase,qualitative change growth phase,and great-leap-forward growth phase.In terms of tourism attributes,changes in the image are mainly reflected in economic development,tourism industry,tourism attractions,tourism accommodation,tourism food,tourism transportation,types of tourism,weather and hygiene,language environment,locals' characteristics,and tourism safety.The study found a drastic shift of the U.S.tourists' affective image of China as a destination from being favorable and positive in the early period to being unfavorable and negative in the recent period.On the basis of the gradual disappearance of cultural charm,identity superiority,and tourism privilege,issues such as ideological differences,international relations,citizenship behavior,and tourism environment security have further deepened the negative tourism image of American media on China.