Research on the Silk Road Tourism Development from the Perspective of Tourist Destination

Transcription

1 2011 International Conference on Future Computer Science and Education Research on the Silk Road Tourism Development from the Perspective of Tourist Destination Haojie Sun, Yu Dong, Yong Li, Xuegang Chen School of Geography Science and Tourism Xinjiang Normal University Urumqi, Xinjiang, China Abstract After the Trade Road, Culture Gallery and Traffic Road, the Silk Road will be a bright tourist route in the world map in the 21st century. At present, the Silk Road Tourism has started; however, there are a series of problems, such as weak awareness, inconvenient traffic, inadequate investment, repetitious construction, disorder management and competition. Blessed with beautiful natural scene, long history, profound culture and rich ethnic flavor, it will surely become a global top tourist destination as long as the market orientation is proper, government takes the leading role and enterprises actively participate. Keywords-development trend; tourism; Silk Road I. INTRODUCTION Since 1870s when Richthofen, the famous Germany geographers, first proposed the concept of Silk Road in his great writing China [1], the Silk Road, as a bridge connecting Asia and Europe, has attracted great attention in such aspects as trade and culture exchange [2-4]. Recent years, Silk Road tourism has become an important means in promoting economic exchange and cooperation and cultural communication between Asia and Europe. In the International Seminar on New Asia-Euro Continent held in 2005, tourism was defined as one of the three components of Silk Road regional project by the UN Development Program [5]. Large-area tourist cooperation is to be conducted [6]. Thanks to its unique historic and cultural connotation, the Silk Road enjoys distinct quality and rich content [7-9]. Regional tourist cooperation of various types has gradually been conducted [10-11], showing the robust development trend of Silk Road travel. II. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SILK ROAD TOURISM DEVELOPMENT A. Relatively Late Start But a Robust Momentum Compared with major tourist provinces in coastal areas, tourism along the Silk Road starts relatively late, but enjoys a robust momentum. In 2009, the tourist earnings along the Silk Road area makes up 9.96% of the overall tourist earnings in China, which fully displays its great potential in tourism. TABLE I. CHART FOR TOURIST INDUSTRY POSITIONING AND DEVELOPMENT GOAL OF CHINA AND PROVINCES ALONG THE SILK ROAD Area China Shanxi Gansu Qinghai Ningxia Xinjiang Industry positioning during the eleventh five-year plan Status quo orientation new growing economic sector forerunner forerunner growing economic sector Leader of the Tertiary Forerunner Development goal Tour powerful nation Tour powerful province Grow into pillar in 2015 Eco-tourism powerful province Tourism base with distinct features in northwest China backup strategic base of Chinese tourism in the 21st century B. Leading Role of the Government Fostered and Position of Tourism Industry Improved All provinces and regions along the Silk Road have fully been aware of the comparative advantages of tourism, and thus attach great importance to the development of tourism. They stick to governmental leading strategy and try their utmost to tap tourism, the new source of economic growth. After over 20 years development, tourism has gradually become a pillar. Besides, tourism is also seen as a key in various regions (Table I). C. The Tourist Infrastructure Bettered and the Scale of Tourism Production Taken Shape Recent years, the Silk Road quickened its pace in building tourist infrastructure, and the tourism hotel, tourist facilities and regional tourist transportation in especial have been improved remarkably. Regional tourist transportation and communication facilities with the provincial capital and tourism city as the core and with airport, high grade highway and programmed-control telephone as the priority has achieved breakthrough /11 $ IEEE DOI /ICFCSE

2 The new Asia-Euro Continent Bridge Railway has been constructed; high grade highway, most national and provincial roads have been transformed ahead of time; the airport in the provincial capital and many tourism cities have also been expanded and transformed; tourist through trains and charter flights have been added. All these relieved the restriction of transportation. Besides, tourist hotels, travel agents and other tourist enterprises have increased in great number, and the scale of tourist production has initially taken shape. D. Structure of Ttourism Products Adjusted, Improved and Optimized The Silk Road has basically formed four types of tourism products with distinct features, namely sightseeing, vocational, special and ecological tourism. The cultural relics, special scenery and ethnic customers along the Silk Road can fully reflect the civilization of the east, and thus become a tourist product with competitive advantage in the world. Tourism designed around vacations has become increasingly complete. Besides, such special tourism as the Silk Road travel, vast desert travel, ethnic folklore travel, ice and snow travel, expedition and drift travel enjoys distinct features and vast variety. Last but not the least, based on the provincial Eco-tourism Region, such types of eco-tourism has been developed as forest, grassland and agricultural ecology tour. E. The Development Environment of Tourism Gradually Improved For many years, cities along the Silk Road has always integrated the aim of building Chinese excellent tourist city with improvement of city surroundings, citizen s comprehensive quality and life quality, integrated hardware construction with software construction, and integrated material civilization construction and spiritual civilization construction. Consequently, the tourist environment and service standard are improved, which will infuse strength into tourist development. Besides, the pace of urban modernization and linking up with the global system are quickened. In short, we have achieved synthetic benefits. III. THE PROBLEMS IN SILK ROAD TOURISM DEVELOPING A. Weak Awareness of Tourism Economy and Low Grade Exploitation of Tourism Resources The backward concept considerably restricts the development of Silk Road tourism. These years, though governments at various levels have raised its awareness of tourist, tourism is still short of policies and measures, revenue and management. Tourism is not been nurtured as an. Weak tourism awareness is also embodied in that governments insufficiently understand the unique advantage and potential of the regional tourist resources, lack a complete and systematic survey and evaluation and fail to add up and analyze the quantity, quality, type, scope, natural surroundings, development value and market prospect of the tourist resources. As a result, the tourist resources are exploited slowly and utilized at a low rate, which is not conducive to comparing and evaluating the regional tourist resources domestically and internationally. Besides, no exact data is available for reasonable exploitation. Moreover, more exploitation with less protection also impedes the development of tourism. B. Poor Accessibility and Inconvenient Transportation Restricts the Development of Tourism Shortage of tourist transportation is a key bottleneck in the development of Silk Road tourism. There is no through bus between the scenic areas and its neighboring transfer city, therefore it s quite inconvenient for tourists and restricts scenic area exploitation and hinterland development. Being a major Tourist-Guest Source far away from the coastal areas, little number of airports, railways and highways and restricted handling capacity severely hinder the development of tourism. Badly short of international airport, international tourists have to make a detour from southeastern China before they arrive in Western China. With costs added, less international tourists are attracted. C. Small Tourism Scale and Low Industrial Development Level Incomplete statistics show that infrastructure investment for Silk Road Tourism takes up less than 1.3% of that for Western China, far below the national average. Small construction scale causes slow development of western tourism. It is very difficult for it to accumulate and develop by itself. Inadequate investment demand is a key problem for Silk Road tourism. Most of provinces along the Silk Road fall into underdeveloped areas, with weak economic strength. And thus the resource exploitation level is not high and the form is single. What s more, shortage of infrastructure and crude facilities also matters. D. Investment from Governments is Severely Inadequate To begin with, investment form the central governments is severely inadequate. Before 1998 when China implemented the active fiscal policy, the central government invested quite little for Silk Road tourism. During 2000 and 2001, though China allocated tourist treasury bonds, but the number is quite small, only 2.92 billion for these two years, taking up less than 1% of 300 billion, the total amount of long-term treasury bonds for construction. And meanwhile, the treasury bonds used for western tourism take up less than 1% of the overall treasury bonds for Western China. Inadequate investment from the central government leads to inadequate fund for building tourist infrastructure and key scenic resorts. Besides, the local government is financially weak, and thus little investment for tourism. The territory area of the Silk Road area takes up 44.6% of Chinese territory, and 76

3 population 9.07%. Inadequate investment for infrastructure and tourism from local governments leads to slow improvement of transportation facilities, and further impedes the development of tourism. E. Tourism Industry lacks overall plan and duplicate construction is severe Since the Silk Road tourism has not yet mapped out an overall development plan, the tourist infrastructure, scenic areas and resorts construction is voluntary and in disorder, and thus duplicate construction is severe. It is shown in the following aspects: scenic areas and resorts are repetitiously constructed and lack cooperation; hotels, recreational and shopping facilities are blindly located; the tourist products are identically developed; tourist commodities are lack of variety and is low in quality, without souvenir reflecting the features of various scenic resorts. F. IncompleteTtourism Infrastructure Leads to Difficulty in Expanding Tourism Market Tourism infrastructure and transportation infrastructure severely lag behind, and thus it is very difficult for tourist to expand the market. The scenic areas and resorts being vast in size and scattered, it is difficult for the travel agents to offer and besides, the transportation fees is extraordinarily high. At present, the offer for Silk Road tour is usually six or seven thousand, far more expensive than the international tour to Southeast Asia. As a result, Silk Road is less attractive for domestic and international tourists and it is even more difficult to expand the market. What s more, economic and social development along the Silk Road is backward and citizens earnings and disposable income is few, consequently, there is still great difficulty in developing the local tourist market, which will restrict tourism expansion in both width and depth. G. Being Small-scaled and Weak, Tourism Enterprises are Lack of Competition Silk Road tourism starts late and the strength of tourist enterprises is generally weak, plus years of war, consequently, they are lack of competition. In 2008, the travel agents in various provinces and regions along Silk Road makes up 7.6% of that in China, and their fixed asset takes up 3.57% of the total amount in China. This embodies that large tourist enterprises is relatively few while small and medium ones are much more, which can not meet the demand of speeding up tourism development. H. Unfavorable Investment Environment and Low Degree of Opening up Except the rigid and inflexible limiting factor such as low economic and social development standard, backward infrastructure, small tourist market scale and lack of talents, unfavorable investment environment prominently displays in slow transformation of government functions, more charges and non-standard management and service. At present, government administration is very obvious in the tourist management system, as shown in the in distinction between the functions of the government and those of the enterprises, staggered system of organization and lack of coordination. The local government intervenes tourist activities and meanwhile such departments as investment, tourism, historic Opportunity Resource factor Enterprise strategy, Cooperation, Competition Competitive potential of Silk Road Relevant and support Demand requirement Governmen Figure 1. Diamond model analysis relic, Urban and Rural Construction, administration for and commerce, transportation and environment protection lack efficient communication and cooperation, which leads to monopoly and unfair competition, lowstandard and redundant construction, tedious administrative examination and approval procedures and excessive charges. Moreover, due to various reasons, opening up degree of the Silk Rod to other provinces and cities is quite limited, which is not conducive to the development of tourism. Low percentage of external opening port of national first class forms a great contrast with the development demand of Silk Road tourism. IV. ANALYSIS OF THE COMPETITIVE POTENTIAL OF THE SILK ROAD TOURISM According to the diamond theory proposed by Michael E. Porter, the Silk Road, as the tourist destination, concentration and competitive advantage of the tourist is influenced by such factors as resource, demand, performance of relevant and support industries, enterprise s structure and strategy, competitors, governments and opportunity, which constitute the diamond system. Rise and decline of any factor will influence the competitive model, either quickening or slowing down tourism development and the process of creating competitive advantage. In order to promote the competitive advantage, the Silk Road needs to nurture every advantage in the diamond system, and then alternatively applies them, formulating an ever strengthening competitive advantage (Figure 1). A. Analysis of Tourism Attraction System and Its Characteristics With magnificent natural scenes, unique plant and animal resources, precious cultural relics, long-standing culture and rich ethnic folklore, the Silk Road boasts complete Competitive tourist attraction. Richness of tourist resources is embodied in such aspects as variety, quantity and distribution. Referring to the six categories and 74 types of 77

4 tourist resources in Chinese tourist resources survey norms (for Trial Implementation), the Silk Road boasts six categories and 73 types, only without sea island tourist resource, making up 99% of the overall tourist resource categories. Beyond the list, it also has climate, ethnic culture and cross-country tourist resources. In addition, it enjoys three world natural and cultural heritages, 10 national key TABLE II. Province CONDITIONS OF TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN PROVINCES ALONG THE SILK ROAD Oversea tourism Number of visitors (10,000) Foreign exchange receipts (10,000$) Domestic tourism Number of visitors (10,000) Tourism revenue (100,000,000 Shanxi Gansu Qinghai Ningxia Xinjiang places of interest, 13 historic and cultural cities in China, 4 top 40 Chinese tourist attractions, 7 Chinese ace tourist attraction and 55 national priority cultural relic protection sites. With the Silk Road as the central spindle, scenic areas in five provinces in northwestern China are highly concentrated, and form a tourist belt with Silk Road as the trunk. With this as the backing, tourist branch lines and then tourist network take shape. Shaanxi tourist areas is laid out with a network distribution, with east-west Silk Road and north-south Shan- Gan-Chuan Roads as the trunk, Xi an as the center and Xianyang, Baoji, Tianshui, Pingliang, Qingyang, Yan an, Hanzhong as the base. Gansu is cluster distributed, with Lanzhou as the core, south-north and east-west Silk Road as the main axis and the tourist cities along as the base. Silk Road in Xinjiang has south, middle and north branches, with Urumqi as the distributing center. Xi an, as the east gate, is the most popular tourist destinations along Silk Road; Urumqi is the west gate and the outpost open to Europe and Central Asia and while Lanzhou links the east to the west and connects the south to the north. B. Analysis of market demand structure and potential Since 1990s, the Silk Road tourism develops quickly. Tourism has stepped onto a track of rapid development, and the overall standard improves gradually (Table II). Seen as a whole, the Silk Road tourist market is divided into three levels, namely international, domestic and local level, with a bright future. The Silk Rod is vast in size and long in history. With rich tourist resources, it is an ideal place for international tourists to explore Chinese fivethousand-year history, know of the rick culture and folklore, and experience mountains, rivers, grasslands, deserts and forests in East Asia. Meanwhile, the natural scene, long history and profound culture are quite attractive for tourists from south and east China. Besides, though at present, tourist demand potential of the local people is restricted by their income, it will be greatly tapped as people s income and living standard improves because of the West Development Policy. C. Analysis of tourist enterprises and their competition In 2008, the travel agent of the five provinces along the Silk Road takes up 7.6% of that in China however; their sales revenue only takes up 2.67%, and their fixed asset 3.57%. Large tourist enterprises are relatively large while medium and small ones are much more, thus it is less competitive and can not support tourism to advance quickly. TABLE III. Area number CONDITIONS OF TRAVEL AGENTS AND HOTELS IN AREAS ALONG SILK ROAD Travel agents Sales revenue (10,000 Total assets (10,000 Star hotel number Shanxi Gansu Ningxia Qinghai Xinjiang China Source: Statistical Yearbook of Chinese Tourism, 2009 In 2008, hotels from the five provinces along the Silk Road take up 8.56% of that in China, and the sales revenue only 4.70% (Table III). D. Analysis of the tourism supportive system As the pilot of the tertiary in provinces along the Silk Road, tourism covers six aspects, including food, accommodation, travel, visiting, shopping and entertainment, which in turn will surely drive the first and second forward by the need of hardware facilities, consumption food and souvenir. Provinces along the Silk Road is rich in handcrafts and local specialty, such as Yangzhi Jade, Hetian Carpet, fruits, Woolen products in Xinjiang, apples and pomegranate in Shaanxi, matrimony vine, Luminous cups in Gansu and etc. According to tourists consuming psychology, development of tourism will definitely drive the development of handicraft and local specialty processing, which is also an advantageous of Silk Road area. E. Analysis of government s function and its support Government leading is an important strategy for China s tourism to advance. Government in especial put forward the Silk Road Tourism Plan in the eleventh five-year national tourism planning, which fully displays its significance. Provinces also made clear positioning and proposed clear suggestions for accelerating tourism development, trying to make it a pillar (Table IV). TABLE IV. LIST OF TOURISM INDUSTRY POLICY ISSUED BY PROVINCES ALONG SILK ROAD Province time Issuer Name Shanxi 1985 provincial Decisions of Government to Party 78

5 committee 1995 government Decisions of Shaanxi Province to Gansu 1997 government Decision of Gansu Province to Ningxia 1999 government Decision on Issue of Accelerating Tourism Development Qinghai 1998 government Decisions on Accelerating Tourism Development Xinjiang 1995 government Circular of the Notice of Accelerating Tourism Development Issued by Tourist Bureau Source: Tourist Survey and related materials from Tourist Bureau in Provinces along Silk Road F. Opportunity is for areas with preparation Competition accompanies cooperation and opportunity coexists with challenges. The Central government has defined tourism as a new source of economic growth. Implementing the West Development surely demands adjustment of industrial structure. Service and tourism development needs to be quickened. China s entry into WTO brings golden opportunity for development of tourism, and also to Silk Road tourism. As China s economy stably develops and people s living standard improves, vocational travel will advance the development of tourism. As a global-level tourist destination, the Silk Road will always be the focus of domestic and international tourist market. Opportunity is in favor of areas with preparation. As a ribbon connecting world s culture, the Silk Road should follow the international standard and be well prepared for the opportunities and challenges so as to improve its comprehensive competitive advantage. V. CONCLUSION Despite of world-top tourist attraction, such as long history, profound culture, beautiful natural scenes and unique ethnic folklore, Silk Rod tourism is still on the initial stage owing to restriction of government s management, financial input, development environment and etc. However, after analysis, we can conclude Silk Road is on the threshold of great development, and it will grow into a new source of economic growth and become one of world-top tourist destinations. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The research performed has been funded by the Xinjiang Laboratory of Lake Environment and Resources in Arid Zone. REFERENCES [1] M. Li, Review of the One-hundred-year Research on the Silk Road, Northwest Minorities Research, , pp [2] S. Zhang, A Discussion on the cultural significance of Silk Road, Theory and Observation, , pp [3] W. Wei and J. Zhao, On the management value of Silk Road, Reform and Management, , pp [4] C. Li, The Influence Silk Road exerts on land across the river, Gansu Theory Journal, , pp [5] W. Hou, Pursuing the Silk Road Regional project planned by the UN, Continental Bridge Horizon, , pp 21. [6] J. Wang, The World Tourist Organization Coordinating and Planning Silk Road International Travel, The Silk Road, , pp 4-5. [7] Y. Nan, Analysis of the Silk Road Development Prospect and Advantage, Development, , pp [8] F. Wang, A discussion on Characteristics of Silk Road and Western Tourist Resources Development, The Silk Road,S , pp [9] X. Wang and Z. Gan, Tourist Resource Exploitation along the Silk Road Should Reflect Humanity Spirit,, Geography of Arid Region, vol. 26, , pp [10] W. Gao and X. Xu, Silk Road Development on the Basis of Economic Cooperation, Reform and Management, , pp 1-3. [11] M. Wang and Z. Zhuang, Theory and Practice for Mountain Tourist Destination Planning, Beijing: China Travel & Tourism Press,