Supervisors: Dr. Les Roberts & Dr. Beatriz Garcia
Contact: Xin.Cui@liverpool.ac.uk
Research topic
My PhD project looked at the impacts of film-related tourism on a tourism destination’s place images, identities, and history based on the case of Hengdian, a Chinese town in Zhejiang Province, where the largest outdoor film shooting base in the world as well as an off-location film-related tourism site – Hengdian World Studios, is located. Both qualitive and quantitative methods were employed in this research, including ethnographic methods, online and offline interviews, and online questionnaires, to collect data and gain knowledge from different channels and different groups of people.
It aims to figure out to what extent film-related tourism positively and negatively impacts on the destination as well as the potential opportunities and risks that Hengdian will meet in future in developing its tourism industries and managing its place images and identities. My PhD project thus can contribute to the academic research in relation to differences between on-location and off-location film-related tourism, media tourism development and management, and place branding and marketing through filming and tourism activities.
Research areas
Media and tourism, Culture, Space and Memory
Academic acheivements
Conferences
1. ‘No culture is low culture’ Postgraduate Peer Conference
Bangor University,16.04.2019
Presentation: Post film-viewing activity: film fans as pilgrims in a film-related tour
2. MeCCSA PGN Conference 2019
Bangor University, 01.07-02.07.2019
Presentation: Film audiences’ movement: from home to film location sites
3. Worlds of Imagination 2021
Online, 07.05.2021
Presentation: Entering the ‘back stages’ of film scenes: film tourists’ journeys to off-location film tourism sites
4. Tourism Research ICTR 21 Conference
Online, 21.05.2021
Presentation: Representing Film Elements Everywhere: The Place Branding Campaign in Film-related Tourism Destinations
Publications:
Cui, X (2021). ‘Representing Film Elements Everywhere: The Place Branding Campaign in Film-related Tourism Destinations’, in Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Tourism Research, pp. 142-149.
Cui, X. (2020). ‘Post film-viewing activity: Film audiences’ movement from home to the film-related sites’, in Emma Buchanan (eds), Culture: Raise ‘low’, Rethink ‘high.’ A Representation of the Academic Potential of So-Called 'Low' Culture, pp. 93-106.
Cui, X. (2020). ‘From home to the film location site, from a film audience to a film tourist’, in Networking Knowledge: Journal of the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network, 13(1), pp. 4–21.
Cui, X. (in process). ‘Close to You: Film Fans’ Visitation to Film Location Sites’, in Celia Lam, Jackie Raphael, Renee Middlemost, and Jessica Balanzatequi (eds) Fame and Fandom: Functioning On and Offline
Teaching experience
Media, City and the Culture (UoL), Semester 1-2019/20
Introduction to Communication and Media Analysis; Analysing Media Texts (UoL), Semester 1-2019/20 Module
Online research assistant (XJTLU), 12/2021-01/2022
Introduction to Communication Studies (XJTLU), 04/2022-07/2022