Regional Disparity Of Tourism Development In The Western Region Since The Project Of Western China’s Development

In November1999, the Central Committee of the Party pointed out that carrying out the Project of Western China’s Development was conditional and opportune. In December2000, the State Council issued the notice about carrying out the Project of Western China’s Development on policies. The notice pointed out that one of the important tasks is tourism and the supportive policies would be applied from2001to2010in the project. Until2010, the project has been implemented for Ten years and the tourism of Western region has been rapidly developed.However, while the tourism has been rapidly developing and the tourism economic strength has been enhancing of the whole country, there are differences of the speed and the strength of tourism development between the12provinces in Western region.In view of this, this article analyzes the time synchronicity and regional response of the development of the inbound and the domestic tourism based on growth index, growth rate and correlation coefficient; this article also evaluates the overall gap of the development of the inbound and the domestic tourism in the western region from1999to2010based on Variance, coefficient of variation and the Fen Dahl index; based on the Theil index and regional separation index, the paper makes an analysis as well as on changes of inter-provincial, inter-regional and infra-regional disparity about inbound and domestic tourism in12provinces of the Western China and the3regions from1999to2010. What the results show as follows:From1999to2010, the chain growth rates of inbound tourism is below the national level, while the chain growth rates of the domestic tourism is higher than the national level in Western region.The development of inbound tourism is highly synchronized in the12provinces from1999to2010. The sequential comparison increase rates of inbound tourism experience"four rising with three falling", and the changing curve is up and down at the same time. Based on differences between the correlation and the sequential comparison increase rates, the growth rate of foreign tourist can be divided into four levels:Chongqing belongs to the first level; and Yunnan, Shanxi, Neimenggu and Guangxi belong to the second level;and Sichuan,Guizhou, Xizang, Ningxia,Qinghai and Xinjiang belong to the third level; Gansu belongs to the last level. The growth rate of inbound tourism income can be divided into three levels:Chongqing, Qinghai and Neimenggu belong to the first level; and Sichuan, Yunnan, Shanxi, Ningxia, Xinjiang and Guangxi belong to the second level;and Xizang, Guizhou and Gansu belong to the third level.The development of domestic tourism is almost synchronized in the12provinces from1999to2010. The changing curve is almost up and down at the same time.Based on differences between the correlation and the sequential comparison increase rates, the growth rate of domestic tourist can be divided into three levels:Xizang belongs to the first level; and Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Shanxi, Gansu, Qinghai and Neimenggu belong to the second level; and Yunnan, Xinjiang Ningxia and Guangxi belong to the third level. The growth rate of domestic tourism income can be divided into four levels:Neimenggu belongs to the first level; and Xizang and Guizhou belong to the second level; and Shanxi, Gansu and Ningxia belong to the third level; and Chongqing, Sichuan, Guangxi, Yunnan, Xinjiang and Qinghai belong to the last level.The regional response of the inbound and domestic tourism is different during the12provinces. This article takes2periods respectively, according to basic numerical value, growth multiplier and average growth rate from1999to2004and from2005to2010.Based on the average growth rate and the point value of the various stages, the article carves out of regional differences and the types of response in the development of inbound and domestic tourism.After10years of Project of Western China’s Development, the inbound and domestic tourism of each province have been developing rapidly, but the overall gap is still larger. Absolute difference and relative differences of tourists and tourism income are obvious, and the relative differences aren’t stable but show a trend of decline.On the whole, inter-provincial disparity of the inbound and domestic tourism between the western region, the central region and the eastern region shows a trend of decline and slows down.From1999to2010, inter-regional disparity of the inbound and domestic tourism between the3regions shows a trend of tiny decline and it isn’t the main source of inter-provincial disparity of the inbound and domestic tourism between the3regions. The contribution rate of inter-regional disparity to inter-provincial disparity of inbound tourism increases, but decreases to inter-provincial disparity of domestic tourism. From1999to2010, infra-regional disparity of the inbound and domestic tourism of the3regions decreases and it is more than inter-regional disparity. So infra-regional disparity is the main source of inter-provincial disparity. The inbound tourism between the3regions gradually separates to divergence, and spatial polarization increases gradually, but the degree is not high; while the domestic tourism between the3regions is gradually convergent, and the difference tends to be small, and spatial polarization gradually weakens.