Evaluation of kindness tourism adopted from Chinese philosophy and its impact on sustainable tourism.

Abstract

The importance of tourism has been well recognised and a range of far-reaching impacts come with the booming trends of the tourism industry. Except for the widely recognised positive effects such as economic booms, tax revenues and increases in employment rates, unfortunately, there are lots of negative effects in terms of environmental and social development, including environmental degradation and pollution, increases in the costs of living, costs for additional infrastructure, etc. Tourists, as the initiators and one of the most important participating groups, become the target for blame. Some researchers have already realised that tourists are the “heart of the matter” and tourists should be seen as part of a solution to achieve sustainable development in the tourism destination rather than a problem. Although some existing new types of tourism aim to make tourism activities more sustainable by changing the behaviour of tourists positively, there is a glaring paradox: the self-discipline implications of codes of conduct are obviously in conflict with the original intention of tourists to escape, relax and gain relief from physical and mental tension; so tourists may be reluctant to conform to behavioural codes because their freedom is constrained. At the same time, the benefits brought by tourists are not considered carefully enough. Therefore a tourist-based solution is needed. It should, effectively, help to change tourists’ behaviour positively while taking into account the benefits of tourists. The Chinese philosophy-based concept “Kindness Tourism” (KT) is possibly one such solution. Since the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) 60th Anniversary & Conference in 2011, Kindness Tourism has received significant attention from many Chinese researchers. The Chinese philosophy of heaven and human in harmony provides a theoretical foundation for the framework of Kindness Tourism. Focusing on the development on tourists, Kindness Tourism aims to promote positive tourist behaviour changes to achieve sustainable development goals: environmental conservation, social-cultural development and local economic development, as well as improvement in the physical and mental wellbeing of tourists. As a relatively new concept, however, the research on Kindness Tourism is still in its early stages: the definition of Kindness Tourism is still not well defined, which leads to a lack of consensus of the distinctiveness of Kindness Tourism and the extent to which it differs from other forms of tourism. To bring Chinese philosophy into the practice of Kindness Tourism, an interpretation of the core values of Chinese philosophy is needed to form behaviour guidance for tourists, and the working mechanism of Kindness Tourism is needed to make it clear that how dose Kindness Tourism promote tourists behaviour change. Besides these, the factors contributing to Kindness Tourism need to be identified and the benefits of Kindness Tourism need to be valued. This research aims to provide a conceptualisation of Kindness Tourism and to analysis if Kindness Tourism is of benefit to sustainable tourism. Firstly, the definition of Kindness Tourism is discussed through summary of the existing and various definitions and analysis of Chinese philosophies; then, the different focuses of new types of tourism and their effects on sustainable tourism are summarised by way of reference for the study of Kindness Tourism. A pre-and post-visit questionnaire is used to achieve first hand data. Through data analysis, the factors of Kindness Tourism are identified, and the benefits of Kindness Tourism on tourists’ behaviour and its impacts on sustainable tourism are also analysed. Later, other issues, including tourists’ satisfaction in relation to Kindness Tourism and the differences in tourists’ behaviour changes within different social demographic groups are identified. Finally, the study gives some suggestions about how to promote Kindness Tourism and which stakeholder in destinations should implement it. By way of explanatory research, this study contributes a small amount of knowledge to the field of sustainable tourism. In terms of theoretical research, it brings to the fore a new concept of Kindness Tourism which has been born out of Chinese philosophy, contributes to the literature and identifies the benefits of Kindness Tourism for sustainable tourism. Besides this, it adds to knowledge of the focuses of and relationships between existing sustainability-oriented concepts such as eco-tourism, low carbon tourism and pro-poor tourism. In practice, the research gives some suggestions to local organisations about how to develop Kindness Tourism to achieve sustainable development.