Xu Han
- Email: gyhx@leeds.ac.uk
- Thesis title: The impacts of social media on tourist behavior and its collaboration in tourism industry: An investigation in a Chinese World Heritage site
Profile
Before starting the Ph.D. study, Sophia Xu was a research assistant in the Department of Social Science of the Education University of Hong Kong. Sophia received her Bachelor of Tourism Management from Hainan University and Master of Sustainable tourism from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2013 and 2014 respectively. From 2015 to 2017, Sophia participated in the post-earthquake ecotourism development of the Wolong National Nature Reserve, Sichuan and she helped to develop an Ecotourism Accreditation and Certification System (EACS) for the tourism development of the reserve. In 2018, She was invited to join the China Rainforest National Park Research Institute establishment ceremony and China National Park high-end forum.
Her research interests focus on sustainable tourism development, with particular emphasis on nature-based tourism in protected areas, environmental education, and environmental conservation. However,her Phd study mainly focuses on the impact of the Internet(User-created-content) on the tourism industry.
My current supervisor is Jon Lovett.
Published papers:
Xu, H., Cheung, L. T., Lovett, J., Duan, X., Pei, Q., & Liang, D. (2021). Understanding the influence of user-generated content on tourist loyalty behavior in a cultural World Heritage Site. Tourism Recreation Research, 1-15.
Xu, H., Lovett, J., Cheung, L. T., Duan, X., Pei, Q., & Liang, D. (2021). Adapting to social media: the influence of online reviews on tourist behaviour at a world heritage site in China. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 26(10), 1125-1138.
Research interests
- E-WOM
- Social media and tourist behavior
- Cultural and Heritage tourism
- Sustainable tourism
- Ecotourism
- Nature-based tourism
- Geotourism
- Protected areas management