Acupuncture as a new cultural tourism product in Greater Bay Area – Stakeholders’ perspectives

Abstract

Qi is a body network other than blood, nerve and lymph network being recognized by western medication and is identified by Chinese in thousand years ago. However, Qi network still remains relatively vague in the eyes of many scientists and people nowadays, despite the fact that Americans are adopting acupuncture as one of the medical treatments. Presently, a growing number of international tourists were found to be interested in learning more about the Chinese culture, particularly the Qi and acupuncture. It is conceivable that a combination of Qi knowledge and therapy devices can turn into an additional tourism attraction in China for international tourists. Interviews with specialists were conducted to receive valuable stakeholders' viewpoints about the barriers and alternatives to develop the proposed tourism product.