Owing to their authoritative prestige,PhD dissertations provide us a perspective to realize a discipline's development.This paper,contrasting 56 PhD dissertations in Tourism geography in China(1989-2004) with 76 counterparts in North America(USA and Canada,1951-2000),analyses their main research fields and their variation with time to disclose the academic tendency in Tourism Geography or in Tourism.From this perspective,it is evident that China's research lags behind that in North America.In contrast with broad research fields and scientific orientation in choosing topics in North American dissertations in Tourism Geography,China's dissertations are characterized with narrow research fields and practical orientation.While PhD dissertations in Tourism Geography of North America involve many disciplines such as Anthropology,Ecology,Sociology,Psychology,etc.,China's PhD dissertations is mainly restricted within Geography and is of obviously regional character.And researchers in China often concentrate their research in several topics of general interest such as ecotourism in recent years,which shows immaturity in disciplinary development.Difference in development background and phases of tourism industry as well as researchers' understanding of tourism geography's issues between China and North America are responsible for evidently different tendency in choosing dissertation topics,even in the same period.
In North America,tourism impact and landscape/image/perception are two long-lasting topics in which 36 dissertations involve.Other important topics include tourism modeling,spatial-temporal rules,tourism market/industry development,tourist motivation/behavior,etc.The topics vary with time,with tourist resources/tourist attractions and tourism market/industry development before 1990,tourism planning/division and community tourism in early 1990s,and ecotourism/tourism sustainability and heritage tourism after 1995.On the contrary,in China,the topics mostly involved are regional tourism development and ecotourism/tourism sustainability followed by basic theories/issues in tourism development,spatial organization/distribution,and tourism region/theme parks,etc.,whose variation with time is not obvious.