Abstract：The research on geography of tourism in the West can be traced back to 1920s, while it started in China in 1980s. So reviewing and understanding the whole development of the research on geography of tourism in the West are helpful to domestic tourism geography researches. Up to now, 80 years research experience on geography of tourism in the West can be divided into two phases:origination phase(1920s-1960s) and development phase(1970s to now). In this period, as the research achievement on tourism geography, a lot of academic writings and monographs have been published in academic periodicals or by publishing houses. Based on the review on the whole development course of tourism geography in the West, the paper elaborates the research methods, research contents and current research trends in geography of tourism. On the part of research methods, tourism geography research methods root in geography research methods, and at the same time, it absorbs the methods of tourism research. The research content mostly includes:conception, tourism attraction, tourist space bahavior, tourism effect, tourism space distribution and tourist destination development. At last, we sum up the experiences in the research on geography of tourism in the West, as follows:(1) The geography of tourism in the west has elementarily established its subject status and now develops towards mature phases. But because of insufficient theoretic contribution, there is a long way to go to arrive at mature phases. This might relates to its origin. Relatively, the theory basis of geography per se is weaker. At the same time, the tourism phenomenon are in fact too complex. If we want to understand its essence, we have a long way to go. But this is the thing to inspire researchers to study further.(2) The research on geography of tourism in the West appears along with the emergence of modern tourism phenomenon and develops along with the development of modern tourism. Despite of learned bias, the appearance of research on geography of tourism is later than the emergence of tourism phenomenon.(3) The fact that researchers of geography of tourism are divorced from geography department seriously affects the development of geography of tourism in the subject of geography. We must become aware of the trend.
金波, 蔡运龙. 西方国家旅游地理学进展[J]. 人文地理, 2002, 17(3): 34-39.
JIN Bo, CAI Yun-long. REVIEW ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM GEOGRAPHY IN THE WEST. HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, 2002, 17(3): 34-39.
