关键词: 旅游, 市场域, 国内生产总值, 主营业务收入, 中国

Abstract:

Lots of theoretical and empirical studies dealing with market area and distance decay model in economic geography have been carried out. According to the theory of market, the main elements that determine market scale are population and economic development level. Tourism firms are often discussed in economic geography because their market area and distance decay rule are clearer than many other kinds of firms. This paper mainly analyzes the relationship between regional economy and performance of China's listed typical tourism firms. Unlike the previous studies, we construct the market area not only from distance but also from its constitutes: population and economic development. In China, different provinces often present differences in economic development level, culture, consumer behaviors, etc. So we take province as the basic unit for analysis, and divide market areas into three levels by distance: the province where the typical sightseeing place is located (located provinces), the provinces neighboring to the located province (neighboring provinces), and the provinces adjacent to the neighboring provinces (hypo-neighboring provinces). The following conclusions are drawn: 1. According to OLS model, one yuan RMB adding to GDP per capita in the located province will generate an income increase of 38.46 thousand yuan to the typical tourism firms, and the prominent level is 8.8%; the case of the neighboring provinces is 37.45 thousand yuan and the prominent level is 10.3%; the GDP per capita of the hypo-neighboring provinces has no prominent influence. According to FE (fixed effect) model, the influence of GDP per capita of the located province is 69.86 thousand yuan and the prominent level is 0.1%; the neighboring province is 52.83 thousand yuan, and the prominent level is 8.9%; and the same as the OLS model, the hypo-neighboring has no prominent influence. So we get the conclusion: the economic development level of the located provinces (GDP per capita) has greater influence on the performance (income from main business) of the typical tourism firms. The neighboring provinces have weaker influence than the located provinces. But the influence of the hypo-neighboring provinces is not apparent at all. This conclusion is consistent with the distance decay rule. 2. When controlling other variables as economic development level, and just judging from the quantity of population, we can not find evidences that there exists apparent relationship between the quantity and the performance of China's listed typical tourism firms in all level market areas, even in the located province. 3. In 2003, the performance of China's typical listed firms decreased evidently compared to 2002 due to SARS which indicates that health and stability of society are crucial to tourism industry.

Key words: tourism, market area, GDP, the income from main business, China