Asia Tourism Forum 2016 – The 12th Biennial Conference of Hospitality and Tourism Industry in Asia (ATF-16) The spread of Chinese tourism in France, the methodological contribution made by Tour-Operator’s brochure Marine L’Hostis Université d’Angers ESO Angers Laboratory Nantes, France [email protected] Abstract—this paper aims at presenting the exploratory methodology the author used to identify her fieldwork location, and the first findings about the factors affecting Chinese tourist’s mobility in France. Keywords—Chinese tourism; France; spread of Chinese tourism I. INTRODUCTION At a time when it is becoming globally important, 2. What are the social, professional and political Chinese tourism would appear to be a real characteristics of these tourists, and can we relate opportunity for destinations such as France which their activities to such influences? are hoping to reap the economic benefits. 3. What is the relationship between these tourists Despite the clear interest expressed by tourism and the space they occupy? (Their mental professionals, the media and public bodies in representations and activities) attracting these clients, there have been few scientifically-grounded studies devoted to it. My approach necessitates the use of concepts coming from different social sciences. Indeed, even The geography-orientated thesis which I am if my thesis is attached to geography as a discipline, undertaking itself appears unprecedented, with I also rely upon concepts inspired by sociology and regard to both its subject-matter as well as its area of psychology, such as the tourism capital 1 and the study and organization. In the absence of any other affordance2. in-depth scientific work on the subject, identifying my fieldwork location required the application of a With regard to the theoretical approach of my methodology based on the analysis of Chinese Tour- fieldwork, I have made the choice of an inductive Operators’ brochures. The purpose of this and qualitative process. I approach the fieldwork presentation is to set out this methodology, use its through the questionings I previously exposed, in results to outline what it has achieved and order to make generalizations based on the raw data potentially generate links to further areas of I collected. research. II. BRIEF PRESENTATION OF THE 1 « The whole of the resources accumulatd by an actor and THESIS AND THE THEORICAL FRAME enabling him to advantage, according to his strategy, of the use of the spatial dimension of society » Jacques Levy, Dictionnaire My thesis on Chinese tourism in France focuses on de la géographie édition 2013 three main points: 2 1. How has this tourism spread over the French «potentialities of actions, offered by the environment, to an territory? observer » Tamara Leonova L'approche écologique de la cognition sociale et son impact sur la conception des traits de personnalité. In: L'année psychologique. 2004 vol. 104, n°2. pp. 249-294 © 2016. The authors – Published by Atlantis Press 0477 Asia Tourism Forum 2016 – The 12th Biennial Conference of Hospitality and Tourism Industry in Asia (ATF-16) I am using a qualitative approach in order to get a it prove the presence of Chinese tourists?) and in-depth insight of the interviewees’ personal path, quantitative (number of articles) criteria. of their experience as tourists and of their representations about France and the places they I finally determined that Paris, Burgundy and visit. I’m also interested in the meaning they give to region PACA (south of France) had the highest their practices. In order to collect this kind of data, I number of articles, from a quantitative as well as interview Chinese tourists, since this methodology qualitative point of view. allows the interviewee to give developed responses I then studied the statistics published by the DGE and to revisit his or her personal, social and (Direction Générale des Entreprises). This professional experiences. This is why is of utter organisation is attached to the French ministry of importance for me to pick a fieldwork location economy, and publishes in-depth statistics about where I can meet tourists. several economic sectors: industry, cottage industry III. THE METHODOLOGY TO IDENTIFY and digital sector. My analysis of these statistics THE FIELDWORK LOCATION allowed me to confirm the domination of Paris. I also noticed that Burgundy had supplanted the The procedure I followed was guided by the PACA region and certain regions had their identification of places with an important presence frequentation increasing (especially Rhônes-Alpes, of Chinese tourists, in order to access to the biggest Alsace, Aquitaine and Région Centre). variety of profiles. In order to operate relevant comparisons, these areas of study have to highlight I finally cross-referenced the two former types of the phenomenon under many aspects, in terms of sources with a study of Chinese Tour-Operators tourists’ profiles, frequentation and types of catalogues. This analysis was carried out following practice. a precise methodology perfected by Philippe Violier3. It aims to determine those places deemed As explained in the introduction, when undertaking to be tourist-orientated around the world, while this exploratory search, I found there was a distinct skirting the definitional and methodological bias lack of in-depth scientific study with regard to which affects those studies conducted by the Chinese tourism in France. Knowledge of this UNWTO or national statistical agencies. It involves phenomenon is sparse, produced and distributed by systematically identifying the occurrence of those a range of sources, both official and unofficial, as cities where tourists spend the night and the well as often being poorly documented. In terms of occurrence of those cities where they undertake scientific publications, I relied primarily on a small daytime activities. Once this information has been selection of articles and master thesis, most of which mapped, we get a clear view of the sites the Tour- were produced at the University of Angers. Operators prefer to select on behalf of the tourists so that they may best enjoy their recreational I then cross-referenced three categories of source activities. material: the press, government statistics and the analysis of Chinese Tour-Operators’ brochures. Although this methodology does not provide tourist None of these sources is reliable, alone. They need numbers, and is limited to those tourists traveling to be cross-referenced in order to determine the with tour-groups, this method nevertheless provides places where Chinese are the most likely to go to. an idea of what the public perceives as being tourist-orientated. In fact, the tour-operators’ With regard to the French press (national and local brochures are put together by taking into account newspapers), it often echoes the breadth of Chinese the demands of, and the trends popular with, their tourism in France, it relays news related to it and customers. This method also allows me to position also initiatives taken locally, in order to attract this my analysis on a smaller scale than that of public to French regions. These sources represent administrative divisions (regions and counties) and an empirical approach of the phenomenon. They are thus more accurately determine which sites are often pervaded by sensationalism and associated with tourists’ recreational activities approximations, but they nonetheless informed me and/or their accommodation. about the tangibility of the phenomenon in French regions, through news, analysis and reports about local tourism industry’s performances. I obtained these newspaper articles through diverse 3Philippe Violier, "Les lieux du monde.", media: on-line newspapers, and local and national EspacesTemps.net, Travaux, 22.08.2011 newspapers websites. I collected a big quantity of http://www.espacestemps.net/articles/les-lieux-du- publications (more than 200), trying to be monde exhaustive. I then categorized the articles by region, according to qualitative (subject of the article, does © 2016. The authors – Published by Atlantis Press 0478 Asia Tourism Forum 2016 – The 12th Biennial Conference of Hospitality and Tourism Industry in Asia (ATF-16) I conducted my analytical work by examining the brochures suggest that this region is more likely to catalogues produced by 12 Chinese tour-operators be frequented for logistic reasons, than leisure (one and chosen from the list of the largest tourism overnight stay on the way between Paris and companies in China, published by CNTA (China Switzerland, and Paris and the south of France). National Tourism Administration) in 2010 and This observation was confirmed by a manager of 2011. I therefore looked at 342 programs divided the local tourism administration, who explained me into tours for groups, private individuals and cruises. that there was no real marketing strategy toward the This eventually resulted in a series of 5 maps which tour-groups, since they only stay for one night. not only allowed me to determine my choice of area Instead, the region prefers to focus on Chinese to study (Paris and the PACA region in the south- individual tourists and small groups. east of France), but also revealed various trends which Chinese tourism in France has followed. My study also aims at identifying the factors which influence the spread of Chinese tourism. At the moment, my fieldwork at the Louvre highlights the Figure 1. Day-time activities (tour-groups) fact that Chinese tourists’ intentionality