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| AN ANALYSIS ON SPATIAL CENTRALIZATION AND DECENTRALIZATION OF DOMESTIC TOURIST FLOWS IN LATE MING DYNASTY |
| WEI Xiang-dong, ZHU Mei |
| Tourism Management Department, Suzhou University, Suzhou 215021, China |
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Abstract Compared with current tourist flows, tourist flows in history were special: they were gradually formed in a very long period, and they were not industrial or systematic, but abiogenetic and scattered. As a result, research on tourist flows in history is comparatively difficult. Based on literators' travel notes in Late Ming Dynasty written in Sikuquanshu, Sikuquanshucunmucongshu, Sikuquanshucunmucongshububian, Sikujinhuishucongkan and Sikuweishoushujikan, this paper analyzes centralization and decentralization of domestic tourist flows in Late Ming Dynasty of China through statistical software SPSS. Firstly, a database which shows directions and quantities of domestic tourist flows in Late Ming Dynasty is established, including 17 tourist generating places and 21 tourist destinations. Covering most of the territory in Late Ming Dynasty, this database can generally reflect the state of tourist flows in Late Ming Dynasty. Secondly, this paper finds out that four domestic tourist flows influx fields and three domestic tourist flows effusion fields were formed in Late Ming Dynasty by using factor analysis, namely Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Beijing, Shandong tourist flows influx fields and Zhejiang, Suhui, Min'e tourist flows effusion fields. Thirdly, this paper compartmentalizes hierarchical structure of tourist destinations and tourist generating places on the basis of cluster analysis. To be more specific, the first-class tourist destination is Zhejiang, the sub-first-class tourist destinations are Jiangsu and Beijing, the second-class tourist destination is Shandong, and the third-class tourist destinations are the other 17 places. While the first-class tourist generating place is Zhejiang, the sub-first-class tourist generating place is Jiangsu, the second-class tourist generating place is Fujian, the sub-second-class tourist generating places are Anhui and Hubei, and the third-class tourist generating places are the other 12 places. Finally, it draws five conclusions: 1) the generation of main tourist generating places in Late Ming Dynasty was chiefly driven by economic booms, while the generation of main tourist destinations in that period was chiefly driven by magnetic tourist resources; 2) tourist generating places and destinations included in the database cover most of the provinces in Late Ming Dynasty, while the main generating places and destinations separately concentrate on only four or five provinces; 3) Zhejiang and Jiangsu gathered and spread the most powerful domestic tourist flows in Late Ming Dynasty; 4) distance was a quite important factor that influenced tourists' choice of destinations in Late Ming Dynasty, so tourists in that period tended to take short distance trips; 5) the coastal area in the east of China was both the main tourist generating places and destinations in Late Ming Dynasty, and it was superior to the inland area in the west of China.
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Received: 06 August 2007
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2008, Vol. 23 
