Regional city integration and its impacts on tourism development

ABSTRACT

Bay areas have experienced a rapid development in their city integration and tourism industry over the past decade. However, city integration has rarely been studied in the tourism literature along with its dimensions and impact on tourism development. Therefore, this study examines city integration and its effects on tourism development from the perspective of residents in the Greater Bay Area, China. Through a qualitative research method with 73 semi-structured interviews, this study identified five dimensions of the effects of city integration on tourism development were also determined, including resource, community, product, marketing and economic dimensions. The theoretical contributions and practical implications of the findings were also discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• City integration
• urbanization
• tourism development
• resident perceptions
• greater bay area

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Macao Foundation [MF2105].

Notes on contributors

Jian Ming Luo

Jian Ming Luo is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of International Tourism and Management, City University of Macau. His research interests are tourism management, entertainment, and consumer behavior.

Daisy X.F. Fan

Daisy X. F. Fan is a Principal Academic in the Department of People and Organisations at Bournemouth University Business School, UK. Her research interests include tourist-host social contact, tourists’ ethnocentrism, cultural distance and cruise travel. She is a Ph.D. graduate of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and worked in a hotel consulting conpany in Hong Kong prior to her academic career.

Yulan Fan

Yulan Fan is a Postdoctoral Fellow of School of Tourism Management at Sun Yat-Sen University, China. Her research focuses on cultural tourism, tourist behavior, and consumer psychology. Her papers appear in Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, Tourism Management Perspectives, and more.