Changing Trends in Tourism Planning

Hello welcome back. In last class, we talk something about how to make tourism facility support system and how to make the planning implemented. Today, we will go to the future. The changing trends in tourism planning. We are in the time that the world changes very rapidly, very quickly. Because technology and the behaviors, consumer behavior and also many political systems change a lot after the World War Ⅱ. Today, we will talk something about the future of tourism or tourism planning. All the tourism industry depends on the mass tourism because people all are involved in tourism. Most people want to go outside in their holiday, in their weekends not only for sightseeing but also for other things.

So before we talk about the future, let us turn back what we have experienced in mass tourism evolution. Before the majority of the society goes to take part in tourism, we have a long history of elite tourism. That means only very limited people like the emperor, the royal family, the high rise of the officers of the government and the army could move quite free in the country or even across the board. So elite tourism has a long history but few people. After World War Ⅱ, more people or the majority of the society take part in tourism. So, we have the mass sightseeing.

After that period, or the stage people or urban people in the city very often go to their suburban area for short distance entertainment, leisure. For example, in Sichuan we play majiang very often in the weekend. So it’s the near distance, short distance entertainment and as a mass excursions. But after that people have income growth, more people go close to the beach and to the hot spring for a mass holiday tour or quite far away, maybe even to another international destination. The final stage for me that we turn to the future is the destination lifestyle. This is the last stage up to now. So in the future we have those new changes more individualized customers-oriented planning is needed.

For example, because we have a new generation and the grow up with the online socialization, they are not only trained in the high school, in the family, but they have their own community online. So they’re quite different from the generation before and this generation more concerned on experience. And to all this new generation, we have some, to me, I think some don’t like packaged tours any more, they want to go by themselves even there are some returning back to their ancestor’s lifestyle like naked food travel. For example, Professor Sekino Yoshihoru from Japan, he is an anthropologist.

He traveled from the remote area of South America and then went on foot through the North America, and then went straight to China and went back to Africa. This is just another way that humankind originated from Africa, and then expanded to the Middle East to China, to Russia to North America. So, Mr. Sekino took another direction to reexperience humankinds’ expansion. So, I think it’s very interesting I think there are more people like to do after his way of traveling. And also some people would be sent to the space, outer pace. I think in the future space tourism will go to the moon, even to the Mars, maybe it is to be realized in the future.

I don’t know when, but I believe with the help of the satellite by Musk. And also we have the new change helped or driven by tourism technology. In China it’s very popular even in the rural areas, senior people use WeChat or Pay-online system by Alipay or WeChat-pay system. When you take a taxi when you buy an egg or even buy a very small thing, wherever you go, you can pay for your parking by your mobile phone. So in the future AI or artificial intelligence will change tourism industry, change tourism planning very much. I don’t know what we could do. Maybe the tourism planner will disappeare. All things do by artificial intelligent. I don’t know.

At least I know that one humankind played chess with machine, human failed. So maybe in the future the people who stand here to teach in the MOOCs is not me, but artificial tiger. I don’t know. So, ITC or information technology and communication will change tourism and tourism behavior and tourism planning a lot. So I think the last but not least important thing is green tourism planning and the responsible tourism, because we want to treat the fragile, ecosystem, the fragile, the minor population or minor nationalities culture we want to show the authentic culture and long history and also some very fragile wooden or clay made building in China in East Asian country like Japan, North Korea, China.

All the historical buildings are made by clay and wood. It’s not like the one made by a stone in Italy, in Grece, in the UK, in France. So, the principle, the technology, and the measurement is quite different. And also with very fast development of industry, many air pollution and water quality has got negative results. So we want to change this. We take more attention, pour more money to clear the air, clear the water and to educate tourists to treat their nationality, treat their national park and natural resources, wildlife like a family member of humankind. So green tourism, I think in the future will be very popular.

I think this is what I predict of the future tourism and tourism planning in the future. It is driven by IT, by the belief of green tourism, and also the more individualized behavior or preference by tourists. Thank you.