A Study on the Chinese Recreational Vehicle Tourists with the Concept of Novelty Space

Abstract

The current research sought to discover the notion of “novelty space” in the field of tourist behavior and especially the behavior characteristics among Chinese RV tourists. The analysis focused on a group of Chinese RV tourists who spent certain amount of time traveled in Xinjiang, China. The domains of novelty space as in geographic, cognitive, psychological, social and mechanical were tested within the focused informants. Informant generated photographs were conducted as mediation to analyze the statistical validation in the proposed domains, in-depth interviews were to facilitate better accuracy to understand the RV traveling behavior. The results propose that the notion of novelty space is eligible to portray the behavioral features of Chinese RV tourists, and photographs are an effective method to deliver the power for harnessing the cognitive gaps of the focused informants. Future studies should focus more on how to maintain the level of novelty in these domains, in order to provide theoretical support for a relative consistent curiosity towards the novelty spaces.