Understanding Chinese tourists’ landscape perceptions and meaning making at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park

With the rise of Asian middle class and ease of long-haul travel, the act of travel has become more embodied, hybrid, performative, and culturally inclusive (Larsen, 2014; Perkins & Thorns, 2001). Travellers can visit exotic and remote destinations which differ markedly from their home environments. This is particularly evident in the Chinese market, where a rising interest in independent overseas travel has been observed. This steady increase in Chinese independent outbound tourists has led researchers and practitioners to question how these emerging markets interact with, and make sense of, landscapes and experiences that differ significantly from those found in China.Individuals perceive, understand, and react to a landscape in different ways depending on their social and cultural backgrounds. Chinese outbound visitors hold unique worldviews and ideologies and may therefore find it challenging to perceive and connect with foreign landscapes. Studies have identified several philosophical, cultural, and literary factors that influence how Chinese domestic tourists perceive landscapes in China. Yet, research into the way Chinese tourists interact with environments in non-Chinese settings is rare. Much of the existing landscape research and tourism interpretation literature are guided by hegemonic Eurocentric principles developed for Western tourists. This body of knowledge may not be suitable to explain the nuances of the Chinese market or other non-Western cultural phenomenon. This thesis addresses these issues by exploring how Chinese visitors construct meaning in a foreign and exotic tourist landscape – Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park in Australia.A qualitative ethnographic approach guided by the constructivism paradigm was employed. Multiple techniques were adopted, including visitor employed photography, accompanied walk, interviews and reflexive diaries. A purposive sample consisting of 53 first-time Chinese travellers in small groups of two to four people was recruited at Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park, Australia. The research process involved a recorded researcher accompanied leisure walk and an immediate semi-structured interview. Visitor photographs taken during the walk were collected in the interview, and researcher notes were taken to complement field observations. A research protocol was used in conducting fieldwork to ensure consistency.A thematic content analysis (TA), five lines of inquiry image analysis and conversational analysis (CA) were used in tandem to analyse both visual and textual data. Both manual coding and QSR-Nvivo 12 were used to manage the analysis. The analysis revealed five broad dimensions that characterise Chinese visitors’ landscape perception, namely, sensory interaction, spatial and temporal perception, affective engagement, symbolic imagination, and (inter)subjective and social construction. Grounded in social and cultural contexts, the findings indicate that Chinese perceive the world in a humanistic way through the lens of relationship and morality, with the goal of establishing personal relevance, via analogies, imaginations, unlearning and introspections. Fundamentally, Chinese visitors’ landscape perception is guided by a paradoxical “both-and” principle that accepts opposing views co-exist and strive for individual and collective balance.Analysis also illustrates that popular culture, hedonic consumerism, new interpretations of philosophical knowledge, meaningful storytelling, (digital) social capital, and the state-orchestrated historical memories influence Chinese tourists’ landscape meaning-making. Traditional philosophy and cultural influences are still present but are less obvious. The findings further reveal that the social and cultural contexts in China facilitate personal growth, and self- and social transformations. Based on these understandings, recommendations for tailoring on-site interpretation for Chinese tourists are provided.This thesis responds to the Euro-centric criticism in landscape research and proposes a multi-faceted visitor landscape perception framework. This framework synthesises and advances our fragmented knowledge of how outbound Chinese visitors perceive ‘foreign’ tourism landscapes. As one of the pioneering attempts to uncover landscape perception through the lived tourism encounters, this research unveils the unique and complex ways Chinese visitors ‘make sense of’ landscapes, and questions whether Eurocentric approaches to interpreting landscapes are likely to resonate with non-Western audiences. Practical recommendations on the design of meaningful site interpretation for Chinese tourists are provided. The limitations of this thesis and agenda for future research opportunities are discussed.