What about development and tourism in the west?

Existing problems in the tourism industry in the northwest region

1.1 Weak foundation, slow growth, and fluctuations The development of tourism in the northwest region started late, with a poor foundation, and the economic benefits of tourism are relatively low Low. Looking at the national rankings of tourism foreign exchange earnings, except for Shaanxi, which ranked 9th, Xinjiang only ranked 21st, and Ningxia, Qinghai, and Gansu were in the top three. Moreover, Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang are the only three provinces and autonomous regions in the country with negative growth in tourism foreign exchange income.

1.2 Poor location conditions and scattered tourism resources. The northwest region is located inland, and its location conditions are not as good as those in eastern and central my country. Tourism transportation costs are high and the journey time is long, which discourages most tourists. For many years, the four provinces and regions except Shaanxi have been the "cold line" for domestic tourism. Although the tourism resources in the northwest region are rich in quantity, types, taste and uniqueness, due to its vast area and low resource abundance, among the 30 provinces and municipalities in the country, except Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia are at the forefront. The total abundance of tourism resources in Xinjiang, Xinjiang, and Qinghai ranks 17th, 22nd, 29th, and 30th. Xinjiang and Qinghai have only one national key scenic spot covering an average of 1.17 million square kilometers. Scenic spots are too scattered, making it difficult to form a scale and produce a "gathering effect" in development and utilization, resulting in poor tourism accessibility and reducing the advantages of tourism resources in development and utilization.

1.3 The degree of tourism resource development is low, and the level of tourism facilities and services is poor. Due to the backward economy and culture in the northwest region, lack of funds, late start of tourism, and people’s weak concept of commodity economy, the construction of scenic spots, There are obvious deficiencies in tourism product development, tourism facility construction and service standards. The main manifestations are that the development level of tourist attractions is low, and most of them are at the lowest level of tourism; the number and variety of tourism products are small; the ecological environment of scenic spots is seriously damaged, and the cultural taste of man-made landscapes is low; the number of tourist facilities is insufficient and the grade is not high.

1.4 Tourism promotion is poor and its national tourism image has not been determined. Most of the tourism resources in the northwest region have original, peculiar, mysterious and distinctive characteristics, including customs, scenery, religion, imperial tombs and scientific research. , adventure, and sports resource types are the main ones. In particular, most of the natural tourism landscapes are still in their original state, with a clean environment and extremely high quality. The cultural tourism landscapes are large in number, mysterious and profound, and most of them are little-known. New tourism forms are rich and diverse, and only the projects launched in the '99 ecological environment tourism It seems that there are as many as 50 items in the northwest region. Due to poor tourism promotion, most tourists have the impression of the northwest region as desolate, poor, mysterious and remote. Although various provinces and regions have also carried out tourism image design, due to insufficient publicity, the image in the minds of tourists has not been effectively changed. At the same time, due to the lack of overall regional development planning and fragmentation, the northwest region has not formed an overall image in the country and cannot give full play to its overall advantages in tourism resources.

1.5 Unreasonable planning of tourist routes The northwest region has a vast territory and scattered tourist landscapes. The tourist routes of various provinces and regions are not in line with the design of tourist routes in the northwest. Most tourists do not have corresponding travel route guidance, and their self-designed travel routes are mainly concentrated in Xi'an, Dunhuang, Urumqi and other places. They do not fully appreciate the charm of tourism resources in the northwest region, causing tourists to waste a lot of travel expenses and time.

2 Opportunities for the development of tourism in the northwest region

2.1 Prospects for the development of China's tourism industry in the 21st century In recent years, my country's tourism industry has developed rapidly. According to relevant experts' predictions: by the year 2000, the national tourism industry will By 2010, China's total tourism revenue will reach 1.3-1.4 trillion yuan, of which foreign exchange earnings from international tourism will reach 38-43 billion U.S. dollars. , domestic tourism revenue reached 1000-1050 billion yuan. The World Tourism Organization predicts that China will become the world's largest tourist destination and the fourth largest tourist source country in 2020.

2.2 Opportunities for domestic tourism development The development of tourism depends on three aspects of development:

① Residents’ income reaches a certain level;

② Increased leisure time;

③The demand for tourism continues to increase. Globally, tourism is the third largest consumer priority after food and housing. According to international experience, when per capita GDP reaches US$400, citizens will generally be motivated to travel. After 1985, my country's per capita income has gradually exceeded this value. In 1998, the per capita GDP has reached more than 700 US dollars, and the per capita GDP of the urban population has reached more than 1,000 US dollars. In particular, there are more holidays in our country now, people's leisure time has increased, tourism has become a consumer fashion for the people, and my country's mass tourism has entered the growth stage from its initial stage. The tourist source markets in the southeastern coastal areas and more economically developed areas are constantly expanding, and the northwest region has great potential for tourism development.

2.3 Policy Opportunities for the Development of the Western Region As the country intensifies its efforts to develop the western region, the Chinese government actively encourages investment in this region. In order to attract foreign investment to develop tourism, the central and western regions have issued many powerful and A long-term and wide-ranging preferential policy. At present, most of the western provinces and regions have adopted government-led tourism development strategies. The comprehensive environment is constantly improving, and the tourism industry in the northwest region will also show an accelerated development trend.

2.4 Development opportunities under future tourism trends The 21st century will be an era of marketization, technology, ecology, consumption and personalization. Tourism consumption in the 21st century will have a stronger demand for high-quality tourism products, and the competition in the product market will be more reflected in the competition of national cultural connotations. For the northwest region:

① my country’s tourism products will remain the most internationally competitive in the next century. The northwest has a rich variety of tourism products. The uniqueness and richness of cultural relics, historic sites, landscapes, ethnic customs, etc. are one of the long-term advantages of the northwest region's tourism products;

②Vacation products will achieve certain development. The improvement of living standards and the increase of leisure time have created conditions for the development of popular vacation products. Vacation products such as family vacations, suburban vacations, country vacations, weekend vacations, and holiday vacations will have a broad market. The northwest region has the ability to establish national and provincial vacations. and the advantages of vacation products with regional and national characteristics in the international vacation market;

③Special products and eco-tourism products will develop rapidly. According to reports, during the National Day, new forms of tourism such as adventure and sports have become new hot spots in tourism. The northwest region has very rich and unique resources for the development of special tourism and eco-tourism. Vigorously advocating and promoting the development of special tourism and eco-tourism products is in line with international trends and my country's national policy of environmental protection, and is conducive to the sustainable development of the tourism industry.

3 Tourism Development Strategy in the Northwest Region

3.1 Characteristics and Advantages of Northwest Tourism Resources

The northwest is blessed with unique natural conditions, majestic and beautiful natural landscapes, tall and strange The unique topography, colorful cultural landscapes, and colorful folk customs make the northwest tourism resources have the overall characteristics of large capacity, diversity, uniqueness, and monopoly. The novelty, mystery, and ruggedness contained in the northwest tourism resources Sensibility and originality are its distinctive features. Moreover, a number of world-class and national-level tourist attractions have been built in the northwest.

3.2 Determine a reasonable tourism "image" In today's fierce competition in the tourism market, "image" shaping has become the key to a tourist destination occupying the commanding heights of the market. Relevant research shows that "image" is one of the most critical factors in attracting tourists. "Image" makes tourists have a desire to travel. Therefore, determining a reasonable tourism image is of great significance to the tourism development of Northwest China. The provinces and regions in the northwest have both similarities and differences in tourism resources, and are highly complementary, which provides favorable conditions for determining the tourism image of each province and region and the overall tourism image of the northwest. For example, Ningxia's tourism image is positioned as a colorful place outside the Great Wall, while Xi'an is positioned as an ancient capital tourism. The overall image of tourism in the Northwest needs good research and positioning.

3.3 Reasonable planning of tourist routes

Rational planning of tourist routes is an important foundation for the development of tourism in the northwest region. It is important to properly handle the relationship between the internal tourist routes of each province and region and the northwest tourist routes, large-scale tourist routes and small and medium-scale tourist routes, overseas tourist tourist routes and domestic tourist tourist routes, group tourist tourist routes and a large number of individual tourist routes. vital. For the Northwest, the large-scale and long-term tourist market, especially the international tourist market, is the focus of development. When planning tourist routes, special attention should be paid to the needs of this segment of tourists. The planned tourist routes should be made public and actively promoted so that they become a positive factor in the development of the tourism industry.

3.4 Determine the reasonable direction of resource development, strengthen the development of high-quality tourism, open up new markets and identify key tourism development areas. Based on a high starting point, high intentions and high-level planning, give full play to the leadership of the national and local governments It will make full use of market mechanisms to attract investment and gradually develop tourism products in the 21st century; relying on the advantages of tourism resources and late-mover advantages, it will become a new base for the development of my country's tourism industry in the 21st century. Since the scenic spots in the northwest region are relatively scattered, the advantages of developing large-scale comprehensive tourism projects are not obvious. However, according to the characteristics of the region's tourism resources with outstanding individuality, distinctive features, and strong heterogeneous cultural atmosphere, we can organize and carry out some moderate-scale special projects, special lines, special topics, and highly participatory tourism activities, and form some patented products to enhance the competitiveness of the tourism market. monopoly effect. The ethnic customs of the Silk Road in the northwest, mountain ice and snow and desert scientific expeditions, and folk culture festivals are all tourism development markets with great potential. In particular, the emerging adventure, sports, fitness, eco-tourism and special tourism are the most suitable tourism projects with the greatest potential for development in the northwest region. In terms of tourism market development, we should strengthen the development of old tourist source areas such as Japan, and at the same time actively explore new tourist source markets and tourism forms: Xinjiang, Ningxia, and Qinghai can focus on the Middle East market and the Muslim market in Southeast Asia.

3.5 Strengthen tourism publicity Strengthen tourism publicity, mainly through active promotion, changing promotional methods and technical means, strengthening exchanges with tourism organizations in major tourist source areas, and reshaping the Northwest in the minds of domestic and international tourists tourism image to enhance their desire to travel to the northwest when making travel decisions. We should correctly understand the impact of tourism promotion on the life cycle activities of tourist destinations, and use distinctive tourism promotion to promote its long-term prosperity. For example, my country's "Silk Road" has always been one of the main choices for Japanese tourists, but it has gradually declined in recent years.

This year, a large number of "Silk Road" TV promotions and cultural relics tour exhibitions were carried out in Japan, which greatly increased Japanese tourists' interest in the "Silk Road". According to the International Tourism Bureau, the "Silk Road" tourism products will Set off a climax in the Japanese market.

3.6 Strengthen tourism management and actively cooperate and unite within and outside the region. Strengthen industry management, standardize market order, and create a good tourism environment for tourists. Establish the concept of "big market, big industry, big tourism", actively strengthen cooperation and alliance with the outside world, use the country's preferential policies towards the west, actively attract foreign businessmen to develop tourism infrastructure, and strengthen cooperation with domestic tourism-developed provinces. Collaborate to form competition, collaboration and division of labor with tourism activities in neighboring provinces and regions.

3.7 Strengthen the construction of infrastructure and improve transportation conditions. Due to the low level of economic development and limited financial resources, the northwest region should use various channels to absorb funds, increase investment attraction, make good use of poverty alleviation funds, and expand the tourism foundation investment in facility construction. Select cities with mature conditions to open up as international and domestic aviation ports, develop a number of already-grown transportation hub cities such as Xi'an and Urumqi into international aviation hubs, improve the tourism transportation structure, and change the flow of passengers from one-way operation to a loop operation, reduce travel costs for tourists and enhance the competitiveness of the tourism market.

4 Protection of tourism resources in the northwest 4.1 Problems existing in the development process of tourism resources in the northwest

4.1.1 Weak awareness of tourism resource protection

Compared with many places in the northwest Focus on the development of tourism resources and immediate economic benefits, while ignoring the protection of resources. Prominent problems are manifested in the following aspects

① "Development" overwhelms protection;

② There is a severe lack of sanitation facilities and garbage disposal stations:

⑧ Public perception of the scenery There is little awareness of the protection of scenic spots resources and ecological environment;

④Managers lack corresponding control measures for scenic spots during the peak tourist season, resulting in the number of tourists seriously exceeding the ecological load.

4.1.2 Lack of overall concept in development and utilization. When preparing scenic spot plans for various tourist areas in northwest China, they were subject to segmentation due to geographical, administrative and other factors, and the pursuit of quick success and quick benefits was emphasized. As a result, the plans lacked organic systematic grouping, and their respective plans lacked an organic system. Serve the formation, pursue self, and circulate self.

4.1.3 Improper development and utilization of tourism resources Extensive development of tourism resources, poor optimization, and poor overall benefits. Because some local governments have insufficient understanding of the sustainable development of tourism, the products developed have single functions, lack of connotation, and inability to optimize and combine, resulting in disordered development and poor overall benefits.

4.2 To survive and develop, tourism resources must be protected. From the above analysis, it can be seen that in the development process of northwest tourism resources, there are still many problems such as predatory development and extensive development. In the past, northwest The advantages of rich tourism resources will also be lost, and northwest tourism will be defeated in the development of the western region. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the protection of northwest tourism resources.

The issue of development and protection is essentially a matter of input and output, as well as a matter of long-term and short-term benefits. If solved well, Northwest tourism can not only try its hand in the development of Northwest China, but also contribute to the economic development of Northwest China for a long time in the future and show its talents. If it is not solved well, northwest tourism will become short-lived and difficult to last. Some people believe that tourism resources must be vigorously developed. Damage to the natural environment and other tourism resources during the development process is inevitable, and a price must be paid. This is a short-sighted behavior. Although damage is inevitable as long as there is development, this damage must be limited to the smallest scope, and should be continuously remedied and redeemed during development.

In order to minimize the loss of resources, we must first explore the current new concept of development in the world economy. Today's world's approach to development has evolved from simple industrialization and technology in the past to a new "people-oriented" concept of sustainable development. Since the 1970s, the idea of ??sustainable development has emerged from Western society. It originated from mankind’s crazy excavation, mining, felling, and reckless development of industry in the past. Modernization has brought great consequences to mankind. Reflection on serious environmental problems in the past has now become common knowledge around the world. If the environment deteriorates further, it will seriously restrict and threaten human survival and development.

The concept of sustainable development was first proposed by ecologists. Later, the concept of sustainable development defined from social attributes, economic attributes and technological attributes emerged. “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” From the perspective of social development, it advocates fair distribution to meet the basic needs of all people of present and future generations; from the perspective of economics, it advocates sustained economic growth based on the protection of the earth's natural systems; from the perspective of ecological environment From a human perspective, it advocates that human beings should live in harmony with nature and effectively protect the natural environment on which human beings depend for survival. The concept of sustainable development is a challenge to the traditional development model and a new development concept established to seek a new development model. It can be seen that we use the idea of ??sustainable development to guide the development of tourism. Sustainable tourism development is the common sense of the world tourism industry, and it is also the path that must be taken for the current development of tourism resources in my country and northwest China.

We can understand and view the sustainable development of tourism from the following aspects.

4.2.1 The sustainable development of tourism must be viewed from a systemic perspective

The entire earth where human beings live is a large organic complex system, consisting of nature, society, economy, culture composed of many factors. They are both interconnected and restrictive. The weakening or strengthening of the function of any one aspect will affect other parts and affect the development process. Tourism is an integral part of the social system. It is independent from other parts of the system, forming a self-contained system (subsystem), but also interdependent. To promote the sustainable development of tourism, we must consider the role of tourism in the development of the earth's large system and its functional matching with related subsystems. Any advance development that exceeds objective conditions and lagging practices that artificially limit the development of tourism will be hinder the realization of sustainable development of tourism.

4.2.2 Sustainable development of tourism must be viewed from a fair perspective.

The concept of equality in sustainable development advocates mutual respect and equality between people, between nations, between nations, between big countries and small countries, between strong countries and weak countries. The first is fair distribution and fair development for the current generation, which is horizontal; the second is fairness between generations, allowing future generations to enjoy the fair use of natural resources, which is vertical.

4.2.3 The sustainable development of tourism must be viewed from the perspective of resources

Different countermeasures should be adopted for resources with different attributes. The use efficiency of non-renewable resources should be improved, alternative resources should be found, and their depletion time should be postponed as much as possible; the use of renewable resources should be limited to the limits of their reproduction carrying capacity. For the tourism industry, it is also necessary to consider the issue of tourism environmental capacity. In view of the different categories and attributes of tourism resources, coordinate the relationship between resource development and protection and human tourism needs, and scientifically and rationally plan, develop and protect precious tourism resources so that they can maximize their due value and Extend its service life as much as possible and promote the sustainable use of tourism resources. 4.2.4 Sustainable development of tourism must be viewed from a coordinated perspective.

The coordinated view of sustainable development believes that the coordinated development of ecology, economy and society is the prerequisite for sustainable development. Without coordinated development, it is impossible to achieve sustainable development. To achieve sustainable development of the tourism industry, we should not only consider the level of tourism and economic and social development, but also take into account the ecological environment's carrying capacity for the scale and grade of tourism development. At the same time, we must also consider the factors of the tourism industry itself, such as the structure, grade, and Analyze and synthesize the basic conditions of tourist source markets and tourism-related industries to maintain an appropriate development scale and promote the coordinated, stable, healthy and sustainable development of tourism.

The concept of sustainable development emphasizes fairness (time and space) and systematization. It is the current general trend of world economic development, and it is also the criterion that needs to be followed in the process of developing tourism resources in the northwest. It is based on this idea that we cannot ignore the protection issues in the process of tourism resource development and tourism construction. That is to say, in order to achieve sustainable development of tourism, tourism resources must be vigorously protected. At the same time, this idea also finds the best way for us to solve the contradiction between development and protection.