PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2009, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (5): 723-734.doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2009.05.010

• Original Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Literature Analysis and Progress on Tourism Earthscience in China during the Period 1980-2008

PENG Yongxiang1,2, WU Chengji1, ZHANG Ling1   

  1. 1. Tourism & Environment College of Shaanxi Normal University| Xi’an 710062,China;
     2.Management Science & Engineering College, Shandong Institute of Business &Technology, Yantai 264005, China
  • Online:2009-09-25 Published:2009-09-25

Abstract:

The research towards tourism geological and geomorphological heritage in China has developed into a sub-discipline of geoscience, which was named tourism earthscience by CHEN Anze et al in 1984. In other countries though similar study exists, there isn’t a corresponding subject. Based on the analysis of 417 Chinese papers of the main core journals dealing with this field during the period 1980—2008, there obviously exists three different seedtimes during the evolution course of tourism earthscience, namely the slow start, conceptual and sporadic research development phase before 1988, the partial development and the subject foundation phase from 1988 to 1998, the fast growth and all-sided development phase after 1999. Coincidentally, geotourism, the one wing of the subject, keeping pace with the three phases, coming through germination, covered development and recent practice phase gradually becomes the core and the end-result of the relevant research. However, the other wing, dealing with geotourism resource, such as Danxia tourism landform etc., has developed to a certain depth forming what is called tourism geomorphology, is the scientific and landscape aesthetics support for tourism. Geopark, as the connecting node of the two wings, is the optimal practice platform of tourism earthscience and the study about it is still in the prescience phase. The research of tourism geoscience in the development is showing a specialization, integrated and cross-cutting, humanization, management, ecologization, and quantification trend.

Key words: China, geopark, geotourism, geotourism resources, progress and trend, tourism earthscience