Abstract:

Due to the differences in historic culture， thinking model and research process， the research perspectives， research content， and research methods of desert tourism at home and abroad are significantly diversified. This paper systematically sorts out the research results of desert tourism at home and abroad. In terms of research perspective， ecological environment， economics and sociology are the starting points for domestic scholars to analyze the desert tourism resource development value， tourism market demand， environmental carrying capacity and other key issues. Foreign scholars， with a wide range of research perspectives， mainly analyze the value of resources based on geomorphology and archeology， analyze the impact on local communities according to anthropology and ethnology， and analyze the distribution characteristics of passenger flow from the perspective of climatology. In terms of research content， desert studies at home and abroad are focused on tourism resource development， sustainable development of scenic spots， tourist behavior characteristics， etc. However， foreign tourists also pay attention to exploring tourist destination evolution patterns and characteristics of tourist source places. In terms of research methods， qualitative research is mostly adopted by domestic scholars. Quantitative research is mainly used for indicator system building， models， and questionnaires. Quantitative research is the main research method for foreign scholars， who obtain information mainly from field surveys and questionnaires for quantitative data modeling， regional comparison discussion and typical case analysis.

Key words: desert tourism, sustainable development, development model, tourism market