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NZC Visiting Fellow Hazel Tucker Lectures at Peking University
01/11/2018 Peking University hosted Associate Professor Hazel Tucker as a Visiting Fellow from the Department of Tourism, School of Business, at the University of Otago. She presented her seminar on 1st November, which was well attended by students from the College of Urban and Environmental Sciences at Peking University.
On the 1st of November 2018 NZC visiting fellow Associate Professor Hazel tucker was welcomed to Peking University by Professor Wu Bihu, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, The International Centre for Recreation and Tourism Research. Associate Professor Hazel Tucker delivered a lecture titled “Existing (well) in Emptiness: Meaning Making On Tour in New Zealand”. Tourism is now New Zealand’s number one industry, even overtaking agriculture, as a result of the number of Chinese tourists visiting New Zealand now at record numbers. However, as such there has been little in-depth research about understanding the Chinese tourist experiences in New Zealand. Associate Professor Hazel Tucker has recently done such research to understand this better and in her lecture at Peking University was showing some of her findings.
Associate Professor Hazel Tucker and her host Professor Wu Bihu exchanging gifts In order for her to understand Chinese tourists’ on-tour experiences of New Zealand, Associate Professor Hazel Tucker employed two main methods, ‘Emic’ approaches needed to understand how Chinese outbound tourists constitute and experience the destinations they visit in terms of their own socio-cultural reference points and ‘interpretative methodology’ which includes things such as participant observation, blog analysis, and interviews on two group tours.
Hazel Tucker with her host Professor Wu Bihu and students after the seminar Associate Professor Hazel Tucker’s lecture was warmly received and it was very interesting to find out about what appeals to Chinese tourists while on tour in New Zealand. Sometimes icons or tourist destinations that New Zealanders may think appealing, in actual fact weren’t so high up on the list of what the Chinese tourists thought were appealing, and vice-versa, sometimes things such as vast open fields, farms, or just small seemingly uninhabited towns that New Zealanders may think nothing of, was extremely appealing and created much interest amongst the Chinese tour groups. All in all, Associate Professor Hazel Tucker’s visit to Peking University was a great success and we look forward to the continuing collaboration between Peking University and Otago University.
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