Jiuzhaigou Tourism Sustainable Development To Explore

As tourism grows, the development of nature reserves and scenic areas, while contributing to local economy growth, employment, higher living standard, is posing certain threats and pressures to the surrounding eco-system and aboriginal cultures. Therefore it has been a priority for us to consider how to use resources more rationally and maintain that use. Sustainable development strategy is becoming crucial for the development of scenic areas. The core of this strategy is coordinated, harmonious development of local environment, economy and society. This also means that tourism, with other industries, must conform to sustainable development strategy.Jiuzhaigou National Park, located in the northwest of Sichuan, boasts unique natural resources, with mountain lakes, waterfalls, and calcified shoals as the major components. Moreover it is the home for plenty of bio-resources, which have great value for scientific research and tourism as well. Over the years since the Park opened to the public in 1984, it was designated as World Natural Heritage and World Biosphere Reserve, and it was also authorized by Green Globe 21. The number of tourists increased form 27,000 in 1984 to 2,310,000 in 2006, a growth of about 84 times. The tourism revenue has posted a record of 450 million RMB. Twenty years of development has seen tremendous improvement in infrastructure and Jiuzhaigou is better known home and abroad. However, problems do arise in such areas as eco-capacity, tourist structure, natural protection, management and etc. Thus the turning point for a healthier growth of Jiuzhaigou has been the implementation of the sustainable strategy.The thesis begins with introductions to various analysis methods, namely, Butler's"Destination Life Cycle (DLC)", SWOT analysis method, Balanced Score Card (BSC) and theory of system. The DLC model depicts six stages of a lifecycle of any tourist destination, i.e. the pre-event stage, the prodromal stage, the emergency stage, the intermediate stage, the recovery stage and the resolution stage. The SWOT method is an overall assessment of the strength, weakness, opportunity and threat of a destination. The theory of system approaches the subject by perspectives of structure, function and level. The BSC provides measurable standards for businesses to convert their strategies to concrete competitiveness. Then the thesis deals with the sustainable development strategy and that of tourism. A review is given and applications home and abroad are covered and discussed.This thesis employs the above analysis techniques on the case of Jiuzhaigou National Park. The author concludes that the sustainable development path must be followed, and environment, economy and society should be coordinated well. Suggestions, for this sake, are also put forward on governmental policies and management.