What is special tourism?

Special tourism is an emerging form of tourism. It is an improvement on conventional tourism such as sightseeing tourism and vacation tourism. It is a development and deepening of traditional conventional tourism forms, so it is a A higher form of special tourism activity products. The concept of "special tourism" is also often called "thematic tourism", "special tourism", "specialty tourism", etc. The special tourism mentioned here refers to a special thematic tourism activity developed and organized in order to meet the special interests and needs of tourists in certain aspects. Judging from the nature of special tourism development and practical operation experience, it is compared with sightseeing tourism and vacation tourism.

1. In terms of tourism consumption value orientation, special tourists focus on autonomy, personalization, and purpose, while sightseeing tourism focuses on the perception of external landscapes, and vacation tourism focuses on leisure and enjoyment. .

2. The experience method of special tourism emphasizes mental and physical factors. Tourists perceive the external world during exercise and get spiritual satisfaction from taking risks or facing new environments. Tourists themselves are more interested in the itinerary. Organizations have higher autonomy and initiative.

3. The means and methods of special tourism are the use of human operations (hiking, hunting, mountain climbing, camel caravans, bicycle tours) and self-driving motor vehicle operations (cars, motorcycles, other motorized transportation vehicles).

4. The routes and areas of special tourism have great particularity. Continuous tourism spans a long time and is a prominent feature of special tourism. The natural environment and cultural environment of special tourism have strong primitive nature. The areas traveled through are usually border (frontier), ancient (with long history of civilization), desert (desert, inaccessible places), and strange (with strange things). Topographic and landform characteristics), dangerous (high mountains, steep mountains, dangerous lands, bad water), and sparse (inhabited by ethnic minorities) areas. The tourist routes and projects thus formed are fresh, exciting and adventurous for tourists.

5. Tourists who participate in special tourism activities generally have an adventurous spirit and a body that can withstand harsh conditions, and generally choose like-minded people as travel companions. There are different cultural norms within it.

6. The product connotation of special tourism will change with time, and the special aesthetic taste and characteristics of special tourism during development will gradually appear. Its connotation also varies depending on the conditions of each country. For example, car tourism is quite common in Europe.

7. According to China's national conditions, special tourism generally uses unconventional forms of transportation and travel, and sometimes has to pass through non-open areas. Therefore, it is a product that requires special approval in terms of policy.

As a category of tourism, special tourism not only has the same characteristics as sightseeing tourism and vacation tourism in providing tourists with food, accommodation, transportation and travel services, but its most important Materiality is to participate in travel together with tourists, provide services during participation, and use their professional knowledge to guide tourists to achieve their travel goals. This kind of tourism activities covers a large area, often involves remote and rarely visited areas, and the methods of tourism activities are unusual and extremely difficult. As far as the actual situation in our country is concerned, travel with large regional spans, using cars, bicycles, and motorcycles as tourist means of transportation, and non-competition sports travel such as skiing, rock climbing, rafting, hot air ballooning, and gliding; traveling to mountains, canyons, deserts, caves, Adventure travel in inaccessible areas, as well as short-term viewing, reconnaissance, and scientific research tourism of natural and cultural landscapes as the main forms of tourism can be included in the scope of special tourism.

Special Tourism

Characteristics of Special Tourism

my country has entered the stage of large-scale development of sightseeing tourism products. Vacation tourism products are in a stage of active development. Special Tourism It is just in the early stages of development. From the perspective of practical operation or theoretical analysis, the main characteristics of special tourism that are different from conventional tourism projects such as sightseeing tourism and vacation tourism lie in the original nature of its tourism ecological environment and cultural environment, and the novel adventure of tourism projects and routes. sex, autonomous participation in tourism forms.

The original nature of the tourism ecological environment and cultural environment includes three aspects: First, it refers to the unique natural ecological scenery of the tourist area where tourists visit, and the relatively sparse population. Due to the degree of impact of industrialization, It is lower, preserving the relatively original state of the ecological environment; second, it means that the population in this area has historical and realistic cultural uniqueness, and the pure natural original state of its lifestyle and cultural model is preserved relatively systematically, which is important for Tourists are psychologically and culturally attractive. Because the most common psychological characteristics that make tourists choose to travel to a certain place are understanding, observing, and experiencing a different culture that is different from their own cultural model; third, it refers to special tourism designed on the basis of the above two contents. Projects and routes must reflect the relatively concentrated characteristics of specific tourism ecological environments and the harmonious coexistence of natural geographical conditions and humanistic conditions. Projects and routes can enable tourists to experience psychological feelings they have never experienced in the past.

The second characteristic of special tourism is the novelty and adventure of tourism projects and routes. The so-called novelty refers to the project and route design, which has an ingenious conception that combines a sense of history and reality, has a novel perspective, and can highlight one or two themes with unique characteristics.

Even if there are similar projects or lines in other countries or regions, the design must have the relatively concentrated advantages of the natural ecological environment and humanistic characteristics of the region, and this should be demonstrated at every point and every program arrangement of the specific projects and lines. The uniqueness and novelty make tourists feel that there are unexpected contents appearing every day. The so-called adventure means that tourism projects and routes have a certain degree of adventure elements. For tourists, their requirements for material enjoyment are relatively low, but they pay attention to the spiritual or psychological satisfaction of testing their abilities. Adventure projects and routes should have relatively sufficient content to allow tourists to demonstrate their abilities, including physical strength, endurance, the ability to cope with emergencies, and psychological quality. Generally speaking, many special tourism projects and routes are arranged in mountain canyons, grassland lakes, and desert Gobi areas where the natural environment conditions are relatively difficult, and transportation, communication and food and accommodation conditions are not ideal. There is a universal human psychological factor at play here, that is, the desire to explore, seek differences and conquer natural environments of various forms. In particular, the exploration of natural mysteries and the desire to conquer nature are the strongest and most common. The design of special tourism projects and routes should satisfy this psychological desire. Of course, whether it is novelty or adventure, it must have a reliable safety factor to ensure that tourists can experience the adventure factors contained in the project and route to the maximum extent, and to maximize the possibility of reception, tour guide and liaison operations. To ensure the safety of tourists, the two must be unified.

The third characteristic of special tourism is the independent participation of its tourism form. This is mainly because, on the one hand, many of the projects designed should provide tourists with the most complete services possible; on the other hand, they should leave a lot of room for tourists to participate independently. For example, within the permitted scope, overseas tourism agencies can put forward requirements for adding or reducing content to projects or routes based on the special needs of tourists; during the implementation of projects and routes, some content that tourists are willing to participate in should be carefully arranged, Such as providing your own transportation, setting up and dismantling tents, participating in meal preparation, organizing entertainment activities, and even participating in eliminating pre-arranged "dangerous situations" or occasional "dangerous" situations, and making requests to change certain specific contents. At this point, organizers must fully understand the cultural psychology of tourists and try their best to meet their reasonable requirements in this regard. The independent participation of tourists in the process of participating in special tourism has changed their role and psychological passivity in regular tourism in a sense, giving tourists a feeling that special tourism is a way to fully realize their own potential. , opportunities to display their talents, allowing them to experience and appreciate the natural scenery and cultural customs while enjoying the joy of having their potential and talents reflected in the adventure. The above three characteristics and connotations of special tourism constitute the basic elements that distinguish it from conventional tourism, and also determine the many characteristics that are different from conventional tourism in the specific operation process.

Special tourism development and management

1. Concept

Special tourism corresponds to traditional tourism and conventional tourism such as sightseeing tourism, vacation tourism and business tourism. An emerging tourism method that adapts to market demand and meets the special preferences of tourists, as well as emerging tourism products developed accordingly. Special tourism focuses on personalization, strong purpose, and emphasis on participation. Its continuous tourism span is large and long-term, the tourist destination has obvious complex characteristics, and the environment it relies on is highly primitive, natural, and ecological.