An Analysis On The Tourist Area Life Cycle

The theory of the tourist area life cycle is a description to the evolution of tourist area. It divides the tourist area life cycle into different evolution stages; the tourist area in different development time corresponds with the specific evolution stage, so it has the characteristics of a particular stage. These characteristics provide us with effective tools and instruments to study the development of the tourist area and take different countermeasures.This paper applied Butler's theory of life cycle in the tourist area to analyze the development situation and the course of tourism in Wuyishan, and the yearly numbers of tourists visiting Wuyishan based on the dynamic analysis of the tourist area life cycle theory and proposed the regulating countermeasures on the tourist area life cycle of Wuyishan City. Through analyzing, the results showed that:Wuyishan City nowadays is in the developing stage of the tourist area life cycle. It considered the structure of the tourism products composite gradually as time passes by, while the adjustments and innovations on the types of the tourism products occur during the entire process of tourism development. In exploration stage, the structure of the tourism products is simple since the tourism products types are mainly religious worship, mountain sightseeing with cultural exchange playing a subsidiary role for a long time; in developing stage, vacation tourism, specific tourism (as commercial tourism, village tourism, tea culture tourism, convention tourism, ecotourism, study tourism, folklore tourism, adventure tourism, etc.), and event tourism (MICE tourism, festival tourism) appears one after another. Meanwhile, sightseeing tourism is transforming from the elementary form into the advanced form. Thus, the structure of the tourism products presents the situation which the quality enhancement and quantity expansion.At the same time, aiming at the questions like environmental capacity, space competition, the tourism products and so on, this paper proposed the way of the active control the tourist area life cycle, in order to fulfill Wuyishan City as "world natural and cultural heritage" sustainable development of the tourist area.