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| AN EVOLUTION OF THE RESEARCH APPROACHES OF TOURISM RESOURCES ADOPTED BY FRENCH GEOGRAPHERS SINCE 1980 AND THE COMPARISON WITH WHICH OF CHINA |
| SHEN Shi-wei1,2, Violier Philippe2,3 |
1. Department of Tourism, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Communication, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China;
2. ESO-CARTA, University of Angers, Angers 49054, France;
3. UFR ITBS, University of Angers, Angers 49004, France |
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Abstract The main research approaches of tourism resources adopted by French geographers since 1980 can be categorized into three types which are the positivism, the phenomenology, and the theory of the strategic actors. The positivist approach, stresses the objectivize way to investigate, estimate and classify the tourism resources. The second more recent approach translates the influence of the phenomenology in the social sciences. Instead of admitting an objectivize vision of resources, it insists on the relativity and on the mental images or the representations when the individuals and the groups observe an object. The third approach, developed by the famous research team MIT is the most recent one. Based on the sociology of organization, it defines the tourism as a system of actors, practices and spaces which participate in the re-creation of the individuals by the movement and temporary living outside of the places of the daily life. Considering tourists as main actors of this system, it advocates combining the tourism resources with the practices of tourists. Using cases both in China and Europe to expound these three approaches, this paper outlines the evolution of the researches on tourism resources in France and concludes that this study can not be only focused on the resources themselves or some certain phenomena, but also the most important actors in tourism. The paper sorts through also the approaches adopted by Chinese experts and comes to conclusions as following: the positivist approach still dominates the researches on tourism resources in China.
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Received: 01 March 2010
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2010, Vol. 25 
