| China has been exploring tourism poverty alleviation since the early1980 s.After nearly 40 years of development,China now has certain poverty alleviation experience and has achieved good poverty alleviation results.China’s tourism poverty alleviation is mainly led by the government,the government,tourism enterprises and poor residents are the important stakeholders of tourism poverty alleviation.These stakeholders may have more or less cognitive misunderstandings,insufficient emancipation of thoughts,conservative traditions,lack of innovation and reliance on past poverty alleviation experiences in tourism poverty alleviation practices.Once these path dependent features form a lock-in effect,it may lead to the inefficiency or ineffectiveness of government and tourism enterprises work and the ineffectiveness of the development of tourism economy in these poor areas,and thus affect the performance of tourism poverty alleviation.In view of this,this research uses the "path dependence" theory in economics in the research of tourism poverty alleviation.Firstly,this research uses grounded theory to analyze the mechanism of different stakeholders’ tourism poverty alleviation path dependence.Then,from the provincial and municipal macro levels of inputs and outputs,this study uses quantitative econometric models to quantitatively analyze the characteristics of path dependence in tourism poverty alleviation and the lock-in relationship between the factor input of tourism poverty alleviation and poverty alleviation performance.At the same time,from the county micro level,this study uses the structural equation model to quantitatively analyze the path-dependent features in tourism poverty alleviation practices and their causes and effects.Based on these analyses,the study try to reveal the characteristics and problems of the path dependence in tourism poverty alleviation,and try to propose countermeasures to solve the adverse path dependence and improve the performance of tourism poverty alleviation,in order to provide scientific decisions for the smooth development of China tourism poverty alleviation.This study draws the following main conclusions:(1)The lock in effect of path dependence in tourism poverty alleviation is not achieved overnight.It is affected by factors such as historical events,sunk costs,and self-reinforcement,and is gradually accumulated over time.The path dependence of tourism poverty alleviation has experienced the initial stage,path formation stage and path locking stage.The government,tourism enterprises and poor residents are interdependent in different stages of path dependence development.The lock-in effect of path dependence will affect the performance of tourism poverty alleviation.(2)There is lock in effect of path dependence in tourism poverty alleviation and there are different types of path dependence.Different indicators show different intensity of path dependence.The path dependence of tourism poverty alleviation includes cognitive path dependence,economic path dependence,institutional path dependence and technological path dependence.In addition,there are also path dependence at the level of government,tourism enterprises and poor residents in tourism poverty alleviation.(3)Factor input affects the performance of tourism poverty alleviation,which is an important reason for the dependence of tourism poverty alleviation.In the macro level,tourism poverty alleviation performance is locked in the factor input.The tourism poverty alleviation still stays in a relatively extensive mode,and there is a state that factor inputs inhibit the efficiency of tourism poverty alleviation.In the micro level,the factor input in the early stage of tourism poverty alleviation has a significant positive impact on the cognitive path dependence,technical path dependence and economic path dependence of tourism poverty alleviation.The factor input(sunk cost)in the early stage of tourism poverty alleviation is an important reason for the formation of tourism poverty alleviation path dependence.At the same time,the factor input of tourism poverty alleviation has a significant positive impact on the economic performance of tourism poverty alleviation.The government early investment in tourism poverty alleviation is conducive to the economic development of poor areas and can improve the living standards of residents in poor areas.(4)The path dependence of tourism poverty alleviation has positive and negative effects on the performance of tourism poverty alleviation.Four types of tourism poverty alleviation path dependence at county level have the impact on the performance of tourism poverty alleviation.The cognitive path dependence of tourism poverty alleviation has a significant negative impact on the economic performance of tourism poverty alleviation,and has a significant positive impact on the environmental performance.The institutional path dependence has a significant negative impact on the social performance.The technical path dependence has a significant negative impact on the environmental performance and has a significant positive impact on the social and economic performance.The economic path dependence has a significant positive impact on the economic and social performance.Therefore,different types of path dependence have different impacts on the performance of tourism poverty alleviation,and the non optimal path dependence with negative impact on tourism poverty alleviation performance should be paid special attention to.Based on this,government should pay attention to the dual nature of the factor input of tourism poverty alleviation.Try to improve the level of government organization and management and innovate the tourism poverty alleviation method.Break cognitive path dependence and institutional path dependence,focus on path creation,and improve the performance of tourism poverty alleviation.Pay attention to the environmental performance of tourism poverty alleviation,take the road of sustainable development,and attach importance to the participation of tourism poverty alleviation stakeholders in the practice of tourism poverty alleviation.To sum up,the innovation of this research lies in: Firstly,this research introduces the path dependence theory in economics into the research of tourism poverty alleviation,and puts forward the concept of path dependence in tourism poverty alleviation,which not only explains the concept,framework,function pathway and performance impact of path dependence in tourism poverty alleviation,but also extends the application of path dependence theory in tourism poverty alleviation.At the same time,this study explores ways to solve the dilemma of non optimal path dependence in tourism poverty alleviation,and provides innovative practice path for improving the performance of tourism poverty alleviation in China.Secondly,this study attempts to use the empirical methods to measure the path dependence quantitatively.It measures and identifies the lock-in effect of path dependence in tourism poverty alleviation in China from the provincial and municipal level,and develops the tourism poverty alleviation path dependence scale at the county level.It comprehensively and systematically discusses the problem of path dependence in China’s tourism poverty alleviation,constructs the evaluation framework system,and provides a way of using technical means for the quantitative analysis of path dependence in tourism poverty alleviation.Thirdly,both qualitative analysis(grounded theory)and quantitative analysis(econometric and management model)are used to confirm each other.Different empirical models and qualitative model are used to measure the path dependence laws of tourism poverty alleviation at the provincial,municipal and county levels.This on the one hand,a method that can quantitatively measure path dependence was found.On the other hand,it explores the existence of path dependence in tourism poverty alleviation,and judges the impact of tourism poverty alleviation path dependence on poverty alleviation performance.From macro to micro level,this research step-by-step deduces the performance and essential law of the path dependence in China’s tourism poverty alleviation.Thus revealing the occurrence,development and essential law of the path dependence of China’s tourism poverty alleviation,which can provide valuable reference for the realization of the goal of tourism poverty alleviation and rural revitalization in China. |
