This opinion piece article discusses and evaluates various issues of China tourism research from the stance of an overseas Chinese tourism scholar on the basis of his personal scholarly experiences. The article is composed of three parts. Part One echoes McKercher’s recent discussions on the status of international tourism research and discusses the relevant issues pertaining to China tourism research based on the author’s personal thoughts. Part Two briefly talks about some frontier theoretical issues facing China tourism research. Part Three analyses the common problems authors based in mainland China face in publishing their research in international English language research journals and provides recommendations. It is recommended that the tourism research community in China should be more self-reflexive in their scholarly activities; they also need to take an international perspective and view angle to contribute more to the commonwealth of the world’s tourism knowledge.

Tourism researchers are generally concerned about issues such as lack of its own theory in the tourism field, the incomplete tourism theory system, and the difficulty of establishing an independent tourism discipline. Based on the theoretical phenomena in the development of management science and the evolution of management theory, this paper analyzes the sources, paths and possible ways of theoretical innovation of tourism theories from three aspects: concept innovation, practice orientation and inter-discipline. The ideas in this paper are expected to be helpful for tourism researchers to propose new tourism theories, construct theoretical systems and promote the development of the tourism discipline.

This research takes the restaurant named Dick’s Last Resort in Boston, the US. as a case study and discusses the source of attractions of the restaurant known for rude services. The research applies qualitative methods, based on the data collected from field work and from social network reviews, using the software Maxqda as an analysis tool. As a result, this research finds out that this restaurant builds up a field atmosphere of game and conducts the interactive comedy performance in this field and realizes an anti-structure game process. This process includes the interaction between servers and customers, and also the interaction between customers. Furthermore, this research explores the key phrases within this game process, including: (1) informing; (2) demonstration; (3) guiding; and (4) interaction. It also finds out the application of body language and oral language during different phases. Based on this, this research analyses the results of the game conducted in the restaurant and points out the main influencing factors, including: (1) the degree of participation of audiences (the characters and acceptance of audiences); (2) the existence of moral border and personal border; (3) the sensitivity of the performers detecting the borders of the audiences; (4) the influence of cultural background of the audiences; and (5) the fulfillment of the basic functions of the restaurant. In the end, this article tries to answer the final question regarding to the attraction of this unique restaurant, namely: how does good-humored teasing give pleasure? The answer to this question is reflected in the following theoretical logic: (1) the construction and informing of the border of a “game filed”; (2) the authenticity contained in rudeness; (3) the intelligence contained in humor. In general, regarding this unique service style which contradicts the traditional and regular service style in restaurant management, this research discovers a possible explanation of the phenomena, illustrates its implementation approach in practice, pointes out its main successes and existing/potential problems, intending to provide references for theoretical exploration and restaurant practice.

Based on the effect of film and television preference on premiums of tourist products, this study uses SEM model to deeply analyze the forming process of premiums of tourist products and reveal the inherent mechanism of multiple mediators (regional image and scenic spot image) and the modulating variable (popularity of superstars). The founding is as follow: (1) The degree of film and television preference plays an important role in influencing regional image, scenic spot image and premiums of tourist products. There is a significant positive correlation among them, the higher the degree of consumers’ preference of the drama, the higher the evaluation of the presented region image. (2) Regional image and scenic spot image respectively have a significant positive correlation with the premiums of tourist products. (3) This multiple intermediary model explains the willing to pay premiums of tourist products. Regional image and scenic spot image have a significant partial mediation effect. The intermediary effect and influence of regional image are significantly stronger than those of scenic spot image. (4) In the case of a high popularity of superstars, the attribution of individual tourists to the degree of film and television preference is more likely to be converted into enhancement of regional image and scenic spot image. It is thus possible to make a decision to implement premiums of tourist products. The popularity of superstars and the image of the region and scenic spots are important factors that affect tourists’ willingness to pay premiums of tourist products.

On the basis of systematically combing the related documents on the tourism development of historical blocks in China, this paper makes a systematic analysis of the related documents. This paper expounds the research origin and concept connotation of the historical district and summarizes the relevant contents of the material space transformation in the historical district. That is, the protection of tourism resources and the tourism development in historical blocks. From four aspects: the impact of tourist activities on residents, tourists' perception to the development of historical blocks, the coordination of the main body relationship in the tourism development of urban historical blocks and value reconstruction in the tourism development of historical blocks. We will further explore the impact of the development of historical blocks on social culture. This paper analyzes the shortcomings of the existing research, and puts forward some problems and prospects on the tourism development of historical blocks, including protecting the authenticity and function of historical blocks, perfecting the tourism development system of historical blocks, attaching importance to the socialization research of historical blocks, strengthening the management of software refinement in historical blocks, and promoting the features and brand competitiveness of historical blocks.