The Research On The Exploitation Of Eco-cultural Tourism Products In The Great Xiangxi Based On Comparative Advantage

The western and the north-western region of Hunan Province is collectivelyreferred to as “The Great Xiangxi”, which is the major underdeveloped areas, ethnicminority areas, and ecologically fragile areas of Hunan. It is abundant in natural andfolk cultural resources. Based on that, its tourism industry has been developed as thepillar industry in the Western region. However, the contradiction between in-depthdevelopment of tourism resources and protection and safeguard of natural and scarcenational cultural resources has been increasingly conspicuous in “The Great Xiangxi”,the ecologically fragile area. Meanwhile, the transformation of demand structure andthe cultivation of new economic growth point has made traditional tourismdevelopment path difficult to adapt to the competitive market. Given to this fact,based on the comparative advantage theory and current developing situation, thispaper has initiated a developing strategy in which products follow a three-layerdeveloping idea: static, dynamic, and post-potential development. At the same time,core development, associated development and specialized development areimplemented so as to transform resource superiority into comprehensive advantagesof eco-cultural tourism resources.This paper has classified the factors which impact the development eco-culturaltourism products into fundamental, progressing, and weakening factors. It has alsopointed out the shackle of such development, i.e. the over-reliance on fundamentalfactors, turning product development into a comparative advantage trap. Meanwhile,it underlines that the eco-cultural tourism product development has to adhere to fourbasic principles. Guided by such four principles, we can pick out a developing patternwhich gives full play to comparative advantages with selected products. Throughstatic development, dynamic development, and post-potential development, acombined, multi-level development pattern would be formed. In this pattern under theGreat Western eco-cultural tourism products are divided into core products, relatedproducts, specific product categories, thereby conducting focused, diversifiedcooperation, fully functional product development.Specifically, the first layer of the basic elements include geographic conditionsand the foundation of resources development, two of which are considered as absoluteadvantage. One thing to keep in mind is that overdependence on natural resourcesmakes the development a waste of resources, negatively impacts the ecological and cultural balance, and damages the overall image of the building on the GreatWestern. Under the static development strategy, it’s preferable to establish adevelopment and protection coordination mechanism, deep processing a variety ofresources, and build a " mysterious Xiangxi " brand by highlighting the core product.The second layer progressing elements involve policy, technology, market demand,etc. Such comparative advantages are still in the process of development. They, tosome extent, limit the perfection of the functions of products, the enhancement ofadded value and the soundness of its system. Through the dynamic developmentstrategy, regional cooperation could be strengthened and urban functions be improved.Through the integration of related products, forming a large contiguous developmentin Western eco-cultural tourism circle becomes highly possible. The third layer isweakened elements are composed of economic background, cultural values andinvestment environment. These comparative disadvantage not only restricts ecologicaland cultural tourism product development from the root, but also gets in the way tointernational market due to narrowness in the market outlook. In the latter situation,under the post-potential strategy, emphasis on science, publicity of core culture,varied and reasonable investment would bring about a radical change, releasing thepost-advantage of international competitiveness by refining the special products.