摘 要

旅游是人们生活中的一种常见现象并呈现出多种类型与模式。本文对比中美两国间的不同旅游模式并分析差异背后的文化因素。研究表明: (1) 旅游前，美国人对于旅游的意愿程度高于中国人。美国人倾向于选择国外游及自助游而中国人倾向于选择国内游及跟团游。（2）在旅游中，美国人倾向于选择房车而中国人倾向于选择民宿。且在对待消费上，美国人的态度比中国人更加开放。中美不同旅游模式的原因在于社会价值观及宗教的影响。本文旨在帮助个体在跨文化交际中避免由于缺乏必要的知识而产生的误会与冲突。

关键词：旅游模式；中美；差异；文化因素

Contents

1. Introduction -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------1
2. Demonstration---------------------------------------------------------------------------------2
   1. Before Travel---------------------------------------------------------------------------------2

2.1.1 Degree of willingness in travel----------------------------------------------------------2

2.1.2 Choice of travel destination--------------------------------------------------------------3

2.1.3 Package tour or DIY tour-----------------------------------------------------------------4

2.2 During travel---------------------------------------------------------------------------------6

2.2.1 Choice of accommodation ---------------------------------------------------------------6

2.2.2 Consumption modes----------------------------------------------------------------------6

2.3. Reasons for differences in travel modes ------------------------------------------------7

2.3.1 Influence of social values: Individualism and Collectivism ------------------------7

2.3.2 Influence of religion: Christianity and Buddhism------------------------------------9

3. Conclusion -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------11

Bibliography-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------12

Investigating Cultural Differences Between Chinese and American Travel Modes

1. Introduction

Travel, the most common word in our life, has many versions of definition. According to Wikipedia, travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip.^[1] Travel can also include relatively short stays between successive movements. With the development of economy and transportation, travel is growing with popularity among people all over the world. More and more people have considered travel as a way of relaxation nowadays.

UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization) Tourism Highlights 2018 Edition shows that the number of international tourist arrivals reached a total of 1323 million, which surpassed the previous year and made a new record. The sector has now predicted an uninterrupted growth in arrivals for the next eight years. 2017’s growth was the highest since 2010 and was led by the regions of Europe and Africa, which received increases of 8% and 9% respectively in arrivals. Among these tourist destination countries, France has the highest number of visitors, reaching 86.9 million with an increase of 5.1% compared with 2016. The number of visitors coming to America has decreased by 3.8% compared with 2016, ranking third. The number of people entering the top 10 countries increased by an average of 7.86%, with Turkey growing in the fastest speed. The United States is the only country among the top 10 countries with negative growth. In terms of China, Chinese tourists spent $257.7 billion overseas, accounting for about one-fifth of the world’s total spending, which remains the world’s largest amount and nearly twice the amount spent by the second largest American tourists. According to a series of reports released by the China Tourism Academy, tourism is becoming a must for happiness for Chinese people. Dai Bin, President of the China Tourism Academy, said that according to the historical data since the monitoring, people’s willingness to travel basically maintained a high level between 82% and 87% by quarter and was in a fluctuating upward trend. According to the data, the number of domestic tourists in 2018 is about 5%. 5.54 million trips were made, with revenue of about 5.13 trillion yuan, and were increased by 10.76% and 12.3% respectively year-on-year. Chinese citizens made 148 million outbound trips, increased by 13.5% year-on-year.

With abundant data and analysis of travel, the most important conclusion to be drawn is that travel has played an important role in people’s life. However, it should be noted that travel modes have differences between countries and regions. Taking China and America as two samples, this paper compares and analyzes the differences between Chinese and American travel modes, followed by investigations into the cultural differences behind the differences. As a result, this paper intends to help us learn some knowledge about the cultural differences and avoid some misunderstandings in cross-cultural communications.