A Study On Community Empowerment In Laoshan Scenic Spot

The contradiction between Laoshan scenic spot and local community is outstanding.The past community participation ways, such as working in the scenic spot, getting some prize money all failed to resolve it. Instead, the fundamental measures to solve the contradiction is to balance the power and interest relations of stakeholders, and to empower the community.Using the methods of semi-structured interviews and observation, this study researched the stakeholders of Laoshan scenic spot, then summarized and analyzed seven kinds of contradictions between stakeholders: the contradiction between local government and Scenic Area Administration, Scenic Area Administration and Qingdao Laoshan Tourism Group Co., Ltd, the national government and community residents, Scenic Area Administration and communities, the community residents committee and community residents, communities’ elites and the other residents of the community, the community and external enterprises. In a word, those conflicts and contradictions highlight the imbalance of power relations, which the local government, Laoshan scenic spot, and communities’ elites are in a dominant position, while community residents are in a subordinate position.To deal with communities’ institutional disempowerment, economic disempowerment, psychological disempowerment and social disempowerment, we should give institutional power, economic power, psychological power and social power to the community, of which institutional empowerment and economic empowerment are the main ways.To realize the institutional empowerment, we should manage the Scenic spots and the community together; seperate Laoshan Scenic Area Administration’s operation right and supervision right; weaken the unified system for the tickets. For the economic empowerment, the community should innovate its tourism business models, and improve the management ability and ethics of itself.