| dc.description.abstract | Along with economic development, people emphasized much more on recreational activities, resulting in the bloom of international tourist in the past few decades. China has ancient history, diverse culture and landscape which make it one of the most popular tourist attractions. The purpose of World Heritage is to preserve the cultural and natural heritage around the world. Country which has World Heritage List can attract a lot of travelers overseas and prosper its tourism industry, however the over visiting will also cause damage to the World Heritage properties. This thesis aims to analyze the determinants of the international tourist arrivals in China, especially how the World Heritage List influence the tourism demand. Utilizing the dataset of National Bureau of Statistics of China to construct a panel data over the 2000-2005 period and employing the technique of the gravity model. The empirical results can be summarized as follow:
First, the results strongly suggest that income in the original country, tourism infrastructure, political stability, and tourist attractions in the destination are key determinants of travel to China.
Second, the World Heritage List is not the key determinant of travel to China, but they are significant in explaining the demand for China as a tourism destination.
Third, the different culture background indeed makes the tourist behavior different. Besides, the different countries have the variant determinants of travel to China. | en_US |