Cultural Geography and Tourism Seen by Tourism Policy of Taiwan

Abstract

Today, the concept of ‘Culture’ is everywhere. It is in field of economy, politics, industry and even in agriculture of which is originated in meaning. It became a kind of symbolic value to all field of profession as panacea of development. On the other side, the concept and practice of ‘Tourism’ is becoming one of the fastest growing industry and widely spread ‘way of life’ in the world. As for industry, the WTO esteem that the ‘Exports of tourism services generated $1,093 billion in 2010, or 30% of total world exports of services ($3,670 billion) (Vellas, 2011; 12)’. And together, ‘cultural tourism’ is perched as a new, fresh and powerful global trend, rather than Mass tourism which relied mostly on land planning and construction of infrastructure. The Cultural tourism is not only related to some cultural resources but also diverse environmental issues, ethnic policy, democracy and economic development. Otherwise, since the beginning of field of geography, each physical and humane geography has been deeply related each other especially in terms of ‘culture’ and ‘landscape’. In terms of Cultural Tourism, invention, management, and promotion of ‘culture’ and ‘landscape’ is a key factor of policy and marketing in these days. In that case, vice et versa, the ‘cultural tourism’ who deals physical, natural and cultural resources could be a new field where an academic ‘consilience’ along physical and human geography could be achieved, and also dimension of application of geography could be broaden. In this paper I would like to search new horizon of cultural tourism by observing Tourism Policy in Taiwan.