Research Of Ecotourism Resources Evaluation System In Underdeveloped Counties In South China

Ecotourism resources are prerequisite for ecotourism. The key and the precondition to develop ecotourism rationally and protect ecotourism resources efficiently is to evaluate ecotourism resources scientifically. Basing on the analysis of ecotourism and ecotourism resources, this paper has discussed the elements of ecotourism resources and its characters which differ from other styles of tourism. And combined with the theories of Ecology, Tourism and Sustainability, how to establish an efficient evaluation system of ecotourism resources also has been studied deeply in this paper.Firstly, the paper introduces the background, significance, content, methods and routes of research. The research studies progress of eco-tourism in domestic and abroad, and impresses the status of eco-tourism as well as the importance of eco-tourism resources in ecotourism research.Secondly, an assessment system is established in this study, along with three subsystems, which are ecological conditions, tourism resources conditions, and development potential and community involvement conditions. There are24indices in total. Indicators used in this study are selected for underdeveloped counties based on feasible and representative principles, and some research has been done on community involvement.Through investigating22specialists and professionals, the weight of each index obtained by judgment matrix, In the three sub-target level, ecological conditions has the biggest value, followed by tourism resources conditions and community involvement conditions. But there is not a big gap among the three, In the ecological subsystem, weights of air quality, water quality, and forest cover are the largest. Weight of noisy environment quality is less, and weights of oxygen ions and solid waste emissions are the least, In the tourism resources subsystem, ornamental recreational using value obtains the highest weight. Weights of visibility and influence are the least. In the development potential and community involvement conditions subsystem, weights of the policy supporting conditions and traffic conditions are the largest in potential. Three indicators of community participation conditions——recognition residents, participation, and impact on local——have no significant difference.According to the national standards and the current evaluation system of tourism resources, and referring to research results in ecological evaluation and the ecological tourism resources and other related areas, this study has figured out evaluating standards of ecological tourism resources evaluation system. The characteristics of different indicators determine the corresponding evaluation method and the corresponding evaluation grades. In this paper, Zixi County, Jiangxi province has been taken as an example, and the ecotourism resources evaluation score is76.9946points, then puts forward development proposals including improving behaviors inconsistent with ecotourism concepts, strengthening educational functions, strengthening the degree of community involvement, and increasing inter-regional cooperation.Finally, get conclusions and put forward the direction of future development. The evaluation system has some scientific and practical value, and research of ecotourism evaluation system in underdeveloped counties in South China has some significance. However, the lack of horizontal comparison study is the research’s shortcoming. It seems a bit simple to just use expert scoring method to determine the weight. The weight calculation and evaluation system’s application have space to study in the future.