Tourism research in and about Tibet: Employing a system for reviewing regional tourism studies

Abstract

This study reviews tourism research in and about Tibet, China. The work uses a bibliometric approach and seeks to compare domestic tourism research with a Tibetan focus to the overall Chinese efforts in tourism study. International scholarly activities pertaining to Tibet were also considered. The approach follows Hsu et al. (2010) and offers a model for assessing tourism studies in many developing regions and destinations. Key topics for analysis included such factors as time lines, disciplinary approaches, study themes, data collection techniques, tools of analysis, and authorship patterns. In the Tibetan case a pragmatic, macro-level and applied approach to research was identified. Opportunities exist for more small-scale studies of tourism businesses, further analysis of the politics inherent in tourism strategies, more work on the tourism issues in the main destination of Lhasa, better national and international cooperation and the application of more refined statistical and interpretive techniques.