AN ANALYSIS OF TOURIST COGNITION FEATURES OF INTERVENING OPPORTUNITIES OF TOURIST DESTINATIONS
PAN Li-li1,2
1. College of Tourism and City Management, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou 310018, China;
2. Center for Tourism Development and Planning Research, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, Chin
Abstract Intervening opportunity is an important factor in spatial interaction, and has very important impacts on adjacent destinations in a region. Obviously, one tourism destination with intervening opportunities is prior to the others. This article, taking Damingshan Resort in Zhejiang province as a case study, aims to find out tourists attitudes towards intervening opportunities of destinations by tourists questionnaires, deep interviews and field observation. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are all used in this research. Located between Huangshan Resort——the world mixed heritage site and Hangzhou city——the main tourist market in China, Damingshan Resort has similar attractions to Huangshan, and convenient transportation with a shorter spatial distance to Hangzhou than Huangshan. The results of this article show that intervening opportunities are very important to Damingshan Resort. Damingshan obtains a part of tourists of Huangshan owing to its similar attractions to Huangshan and the advantageous spatial distance. But the intervening opportunities in Damingshan are different from those in caves, beaches and spas. Damingshan is not the perpetual substitute of Huangshan. The case study shows that the tourists in Damingshan are cognizant of intervening opportunities. They are aware of the differences between Damingshan and Huangshan. Damingshan is a substitute for Huangshan owing to its advantages in attractions, spatial location, promotion, price and so on. Before going to Damingshan Resort, the tourists have known that it is different from Huangshan. As Huangshan Resort has advantages in tourism resources, destination image and brand, and tourists will visit Huangshan if they have no restrict in leisure time, traffic, income and family. The case in this article shows that tourists make relatively rational decisions based on comprehensive consideration of time, traffic, distance, personal issues and alternative degree in resorts. Only when there are some given conditions can they use the spatial intervening opportunities to replace another famous destination. And spatial intervening opportunities will change as destinations attractions develop.
2009, Vol. 24 
