(1) The definition of Kindness Tourism, working mechanism, and guidelines for tourists
Based on the literature review, the research gave a definition of Kindness Tourism as tourism which: embodies Chinese philosophy within tourist practices; consisting of three properties: treating nature kindly, treating others kindly and treating oneself kindly, as well as benefits to sustainable tourism. The three properties of Kindness Tourism were also identified and the working mechanism of Kindness Tourism was adopted through the review of behaviour change theories. At last, based on the content analysis of codes of conduct in the literature review and basic ideas from Chinese philosophy, the three proprieties were interpreted into practical Kindness Tourism behaviour guidelines for tourists.
(2)The focuses of sustainability-related new types of tourism and their effects on sustainable tourism
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The study of the sustainability-related new types of tourism aimed to make a reference for the study of Kindness Tourism. Through the study of the various focuses of these tourism concepts, such as environment conservation, local economy boosts and the welfare of local communities, etc., we found that tourists are seldom studied as a group to get benefits from the tourism activities. This provided a motivation for the study and promotion of Kindness Tourism because it focuses on people and aims to inspire tourists to pursue a higher level of spiritual fulfilment during tourism activities.
Then the research on the benefits of sustainability-oriented new types of tourism on sustainable tourism was reviewed to make a reference point for examining the effects of Kindness Tourism on sustainable tourism. Through the study we found that the most explored areas include the positive and negative effects on the environment, and the economic and social benefits for local communities, while the effects on tourists are seldom studied; the research method concerning the measurement of effects is twofold: some use statistical data from the supply side at a macro level to measure/predict general effects on certain dimensions, while some use a qualitative approach based on individual cases rather than a large number of statistical samples.
This provided a reference for the method of examining the effects of Kindness Tourism on sustainable tourism: to get a balance between comparatively larger number of samples and more objective statistics by adopting the scale method and making a self-determined tourist questionnaire. The view from tourists judging their behaviours provided a new perspective on evaluating the effects on sustainable tourism.
(3) Factors supporting Kindness Tourism
To achieve the research aim (3): identify the factors of Kindness Tourism, a factor analysis was introduced to make the three proprieties of Kindness Tourism more concrete and make the variables relating to tourists’ behaviour more clear. Ten factors were identified within the three proprieties: preserving biodiversity, low-carbon emission, reducing pollution relate to Propriety I (treating nature kindly); respecting local people, respecting social order, contributing to local economy, respecting other tourists relate to Propriety II (treating others kindly); and safety, acquiring knowledge/skills, reverence for life relate to Propriety III (treating others kindly).
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(4) Influences of Kindness Tourism on tourists’ behaviour changes before and after the introduction of Kindness Tourism
To achieve the research objective (4) “evaluate the benefits of Kindness Tourism by comparing tourists’ behaviour before and after the introduction of Kindness Tourism”, a pre-and post-visit questionnaire was used to examine tourists’ behaviour in their last previous tourism activity before being introduced to Kindness Tourism and during Kindness Tourism. The data was collected and analysed through SPSS. With the normality test and Mann-Whitely U test, significant differences were found in all 10 factors of tourist’s behaviour. Since the post-visit group had a higher mean rank in all factors, then we concluded that the behaviour after the introduction of Kindness Tourism was statistically significantly more positive than before.
(5) Benefits of Kindness Tourism on sustainable tourism
To achieve the research objective (5): to identify the routes by which Kindness Tourism contributes towards sustainable tourism, and examine the benefits, some common measureable indicators from different sustainable tourism indicator systems were adopted and the corresponding relationship between sustainable tourism indicator items and Kindness Tourism variables were identified. Through the Mann-Whitely U test, the majority of Kindness Tourism variables showed significant positive change through the introduction of Kindness Tourism, which indicated that the corresponding items in sustainable tourism will benefit from the behaviour changes.
(6) Evaluation of tourists’ satisfaction on Kindness Tourism
To achieve research objective (6): evaluate the satisfaction of tourists on Kindness Tourism, firstly the overall satisfaction and recommendation intentions were identified, then the possible relationship between tourist demographics and satisfaction was explored. Although the dependence of satisfaction on demographics has been explored by many researchers, the results vary depending on different research environments, and some are even opposite to each other. This study indicated that tourists’ satisfaction on Kindness Tourism is significantly different when they are grouped by region of residence and highest educational qualification in terms of the
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extent of constraints they felt in implementing Kindness Tourism: respondents from other provinces report positively than those from Hainan and its neighbouring provinces, and respondents with secondary, high school qualifications report significantly less positive responses than those with college diplomas and doctorate level qualifications.
(7)Tourists’ behaviour changes in terms of demographic groups
To achieve the research objective (7): to test if the extent of tourists’ behaviour changes varied amongst different social demographic groups, the behaviours were examined in cross groups. The results indicated that some of tourists’ behaviour changed significantly after the introduction of Kindness Tourism and the extent of changes varied between different social demographic groups. In terms of gender, female tourists behaved more positively than male tourists after the introduction of Kindness Tourism in the following respects: reducing pollution; respecting local people; respecting social order; contributing to local economy; safety; acquiring knowledge/skills. In terms of age, tourists under 18 and aged 26-35 both behaved significantly more positively than tourists aged 18-25 in relation to the factor of acquiring knowledge/skills. In terms of yearly household income, both tourists earning 45-130 thousand CNY a year and 130- 500 thousand CNY a year behaved significantly more positive than tourists earning 0-45 thousand CNY a year in relation to the factor of reducing pollution.
(8) Suggestions on how to promote and who should implement Kindness Tourism
Finally, some suggestions for local organisations/tourists on how to develop Kindness Tourism were presented. As a relatively new tourism concept, local governments, all kinds of tourism organisations and tourism operators play important roles in promoting and implementing it. The motivation and strength of the three stakeholders were also analysed. Education could be considered as a major way to promote it, but how to effectively conduct the educational process requires further study.
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