The Study On The Management And Development Of Small Tourism Enterprises In Ancient Villages

As the important force of economic growth, small enterprises play anindispensable role in activating market, increasing employment and promotingeconomic development. For the tourism industry, the change of tourism consumptionpattern has made tourists more inclined to special-interest forms of production andconsumption. Thus, small tourism enterprises (STEs) with flexibility operating andpersonalized products are booming. They have formed a sizeable majority of tourismenterprises in countries all over the world and become an increasing important role inpushing forward the development of tourism industry. But due to their ownfrangibility of operation and lacking of support and guidance from the government,the survival rate of STEs is low. Thus their survival and growth have attracted muchattention. At present, foreign academia and industry have paid high attention to STEs;their research is increasingly mature and gradually formed system. But in China, thestudy on STEs has just started.The research results are deficient and cry for theoreticalconcern.Especially for ancient villages, the tourism developments are based on thevillages themselves and have a high reliance on community participation. And yetSTEs are the most direct and efficient way for community participation tourismdevelopment. They’re the continuation of traditional commercial culture. The correctguidance of STEs in ancient villages is the key of sustainable development of ancientvillage tourism. The ancient village tourism of Xidi ancient village (Xidi) is relativelymature and there are so many STEs concentrated within the village. Therefore, thethesis takes Xidi as a case for practical research. By means of the structuredquestionnaire interviews and in-depth interview, the thesis undertakes an analysis onthe development history and characteristics of STEs. And then the thesis finds someexisting problems of its development and puts forward some correspondingcountermeasures. The main research contents include three parts:Part Ⅰ: Fundamental Research, including Chapter One and Chapter Two. First,this part proposes the background and significance.And then goes into the relatedresearch result on STEs, and gets the research contents, methods and technical route. After that, the thesis explains the definition of the research objects, summarizes therelated theories and analyzes the background of the case to hold the characteristicsand tourism development status of study area.Part Ⅱ: Case Study, including Chapter Three and Chapter Four. First, byanalyzing the relevant data and interviews, this part clears the development history ofSTEs in Xidi and discusses the reasons of their generation and persistence. This thesisproposes that the development of STEs in Xidi can be divided into three stages--generation period (before1994), rapid development period (1994-2004), stabledevelopment period (since2005) and each period has different characteristics. STEsgrow out from market demand and keep continuous development with the in-depthcommunity participation and the need of protection on ancient villages. The existenceof STEs has its inevitability and necessity. Then based on the analysis of98copies ofquestionnaire and field investigation data, this thesis summarizes the characteristics ofSTEs in Xidi from three aspects: the general situation, management and employees ofenterprise. And then it takes comparative studies with Hongcun ancient village andXijie of Yangshuo County to get further understanding of the characteristics of STEsin ancient villages. On the whole, the similarity of context has made thecharacteristics of STEs in Xidi and Hongcun substantially similar. But compare toXidi, the STEs in Hongcun develop later. And due to their different managementsystems, the tourist reception capacity of Hongcun continuous overtakes Xidi and itsradiativity is stronger, too. These make the STEs in two villages have obviousdifference in quantity, distribution, the structure and motivation of owners, marketingand the use of new technology and so on. Compare with Xijie, the STEs in Xidi hassimilar characteristics on the scale and structure of employees. But due to differentenvironmental background and the level of tourism development, especially thediversity of customer types, there are some differences between them in the type ofenterprise, mode of operation, marketing, main business background and motivationof the owners, staff recruitment methods and so on.Part Ⅲ: Countermeasure Research, including Chapter Five. Combined with theprevious analysis and related questionnaire results, this thesis finds some existingproblems of the development of STEs in Xidi. For example, the number of STEs isnumerous and the management is homogeneous. There are few new formats. Themanagement ability of the business owners is limited. Lacking of market supervisionand capital source has also made the the potential of STEs really small.Then thethesis proposes the development countermeasures from the survival of STEs and thesymbiosis development of ancient villages and STEs. First of all, it’s important to enhance the owners’ ability and strengthen their innovation; secondly, establish theassociation of STEs and strengthen their cooperation; finally, the government shouldstrengthen macro-control and supervision.The thesis summarizes the main conclusions in the final chapter and makes somereflection on the research contribution and inadequacy. At last, it points out the futureresearch direction...