UQ Business School tourism experts Professor Roy Ballantyne and Associate Professor Jan Packer have won the First Class Award from the Chinese National Tourism Administration (CNTA) for their co-authored paper in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism.
The article ‘Effective Environmental Interpretation at Chinese Natural Attractions: The Need for an Aesthetic Approach’, was published in 2012 in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism; a highly regarded publication subscribed to by practitioners, academics and institutions from all continents and all major tourism destinations.
Professor Ballantyne and Associate Professor Packer collaborated on the research project and paper with Dr. Xu Honggang and Dr Cui Qingming, from the School of Tourism Management at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Research undertaken in the Danxia Shan National Natural Reserve and Geo-Park demonstrated that self-guided interpretation using the ‘western’ scientific approach with signage is ineffective and ignored by the majority of visitors.
Interpretation that employs an ‘aesthetic’ approach, using stories, art and poetry to emotionally engage visitors with the landscape, appear more appropriate, culturally relevant and therefore effective with Chinese visitors.
Professor Ballantyne said this recent achievement has further enriched the strong existing partnership between the UQ Business School’s tourism cluster and the academics from Sun Yat-sen University.
“The paper is one of the first to question whether the ‘scientific’ approach used in the development of environmental interpretation in Chinese natural areas meets the needs of Chinese tourists,” he said.
UQ Business School PhD graduate, Dr Jiangsu Ma, also received the 2013 CNTA Best Paper Award for her paper, ‘Customer delight derived from theme park experiences: The antecedents of delight based on cognitive appraisal theory’, published in the Annals of Tourism Research.
Read Professor Ballantyne and Associate Professor Packer’s article here - http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09669582.2012.681787#.VzwADGPPDlI
Read Dr Jiangsu Ma’s article here - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160738313000406
