Tourists’ Perception of Haze Pollution and the Potential Impacts on Travel: Reshaping the Features of Tourism Seasonality in Beijing, China

Sustainability

Aiping Zhang¹  Linsheng Zhong¹  Yong Xu¹  Hui Wang²  Lijuan Dang¹ 

[1] Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; E-Mails:;School of Tourism, Bohai University, Jinzhou 121000, China; E-Mail:

关键词: haze pollution;    potential impact;    perception;    tourism seasonality;    Beijing;   

DOI  :  10.3390/su7032397

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Haze pollution has worsened and has received close attention by news agencies in the past two years. This type of environmental pollution might have a great effect on tourism image and the entire tourism industry of a destination. This study aimed to reveal the potential impacts of haze pollution on the tourism industry. Based on a case study in Beijing using questionnaires for potential tourists, awareness of haze pollution, impacts of haze pollution on travel and attitudes toward the impacts were discussed. The results indicated that haze pollution has a considerable potential impact on travel, and there are distinct differences among travel elements and tourism market segments. Due to its impacts, haze pollution could be taken into account in tourists’ decision-making processes, causing a portion of potential tourists to cancel tourism plans. As a result, tourist arrivals to similar destinations could decrease by a small margin, but the most significant impact could be on the temporal distribution of tourist arrivals, namely tourism seasonality, due to tourists’ “avoiding” psychology.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.