China is the world’s number four destination for international tourists, and the most toured country in the world when day trippers and domestic tourists are also counted. National and local governments are keen to promote the industry, but some Chinese observers are beginning to count the environmental and cultural cost. A China Daily article (October 18) reports that visitors to Zhangjiajie, a world heritage site in western Hunan that derives more than 50% of its revenue from tourism, now find little sign of the local Tujia culture, which has been engulfed by modernity. Local residents interviewed in the article lament their loss of tradition and call for preservation of their culture. But a Beijing University professor asserts in the same article that there is no point in preserving architecture and culture. “Cultural preservation has a high cost,” he is quoted as saying. “It's practical to change Zhangjiajie into a modern city, and it's natural for local Tujias to adjust to modern life.”
China Development Brief sought the views of a range of people with a professional interest in this field. Their answers are printed below in the order we received them; notes on contributors appear at the end.
Can you give examples of projects in China that have successfully demonstrated principles of environmentally and culturally sensitive tourism?
Bill Bleisch (BB): Not many. I suppose Siguniang Mountain (in Sichuan) has the most environmentally sensitive tourism that I have seen yet. As far as culturally sensitive, I have not seen any good examples in minority areas. There are some good historical sites, but I do not think that is what you have in mind here.
Ulrich Apel (UA): We don't know any, however, we are working on one example here in Xishuangbanna (southern Yunnan).
Zoe Chafe & Maria Placht (ZC/MP): Wenhai Ecolodge (northern Yunnan), named one of the World’s Ten Best Ecolodges by Outside magazine, is an example of environmentally and culturally sensitive ecotourism. It has sustainable energy systems (solar panels and bio-gas equipment) and is run by the Wenhai Collective: 56 households who have invested in the lodge. Ten percent of the lodge’s profits go to a conservation and community development fund in the area. It also endorses codes of conduct for both tourists and tour operators. The Northwest Yunnan Ecotourism Association is an active group near Lijiang, with great web resources and responsible tourism itineraries available.
Xu Jing (XJ): The World Tourism Organisation (WTO) has had technical cooperation projects with nine Provinces to formulate tourism master plans. Almost all of these blueprints emphasize the area of sustainable development and environmental protection. So if you wanted to cite certain examples I would say they are contained in all of them. This year we have introduced a systematic scheme of indicators on how to manage the industry along the lines of sustainable development, from economic, social and environmental perspectives. This aims to continue to push development aspects, especially from the economic perspective, but also to do a little bit of pulling back. In that sense these blueprints are very much into the principles of sustainable development.
Jim Stent & Matthew Hu (JS/MH): We believe operations in Jiuzhaigou and Kanas Lake (in Xinjiang) are very well organized and can be considered as good examples. Smaller, less known projects: 1) Thousand Turtle Mountain: A scenic area located in a Lisu village about 2 hours north of Lijiang. All the facilities are very well designed and maintained and protection of the unique landscape is carefully thought through. Stones used to pave mountain paths are produced locally, pavilions are also made of wood and straw, hand rails made of tree bark. 2) Qingshanguan Great Wall fortress hotel and resort. Here you have the chance to experience both luxury and modern comfort in the middle of nowhere. Originally a small fortress along the Great Wall in Qianxi county, Hebei Province that has been redeveloped through preserving the houses in the fortress as much as possible, while renovating the interior of the houses to provide modern comfort. This is now complete and has had the least impact to the local community.
A policy posted on the China National Tourism Administration website calls for: “development featuring large production, large market and large tourism.” Yunnan has responded by setting a target to attract 100 million tourists per year by 2020, and at least five other Provinces--Sichuan, Shandong, Hainan, Guizhou and Heilongjiang--have received World Tourism Organisation technical assistance to develop their tourist industries. Can growth on such a scale be sustainable?
BB: Of course not.
UA: Probably not.
ZC/MP: It depends greatly on what the tourists are looking to see. Recruiting this number of tourists to fragile mountain ecosystems has vastly different effects than the same number of tourists visiting a man-made, city-based attraction. Ecotourism, by definition, is designed for small numbers of tourists. Environmentally and culturally responsible tourism projects should address the capacity of the destination to accommodate tourists. If an attraction is overrun by tourists, it will not stay desirable and tourists will cease to visit in the future.
XJ: We can look at Chinese tourism as being in a transitional period. It shifting from a simple type of sight-seeing product into a more leisure-based product. There is also a shift from emphasizing numbers to actual income gained, and from a mass tourism concept to a more niche-emphasised product of quality. China is already receiving something like 100 million international visitors. This is very scary on the surface, but if you look at the size of the country and if you compare China with the whole of Europe I am quite confident that there is still a lot of scope for diversification of tourism products.
JS/MH: The Chinese have made many mistakes in their tourism development, but we are optimistic that the authorities have an increasing understanding of the importance of cultural heritage and natural environment protection, and will gradually improve the way they are handling the millions of tourists. Visiting Jiuzhaigou is not a wilderness experience: one walks on kilometers of boardwalk through the forest, fenced in and unable to walk on the forest floor. But that protects the forest and its plants from up to 20,000 visitors per day. The park is immaculate, and the hordes of Chinese tourist from China's grotty cities are having a marvelous time, clearly loving the experience. If a few foreign tourists find the crowds overwhelming, well, that is too bad. I am sure that one has the same feeling at Yosemite (in California).
Domestic tourism has been stimulated by growing affluence and the establishment of extended, ‘golden’ national holidays (in October and May). This creates high peak periods, but relatively long troughs. What is the best way to manage holiday arrangements in China?
BB: Educate visitors and employers. Stagger holidays. Teach people to avoid the peak periods, and avoid the hot-spots. China has so much to offer, there is no need to pack more people into Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong (both in northern Sichuan). However, I understand that these sites are in competition with each other for increasing visitor numbers, and are held up as a successful example for others to follow! This is sanctioned by the World Heritage Office. A very bad example.
UA: The negative effects of these arrangements outweigh the positive ones. A more scattered arrangement of holidays would certainly be better.
ZC/MP: Introducing extended national holidays brings the potential to significantly promote domestic tourism--Chinese tourists visiting destinations within their own country, and learning about Chinese cultures in other provinces. There are several potential dangers of focusing tourism on two small time periods of the year: 1) Destination communities may become dependent on the tourism revenues from just those few weeks out of the year, decreasing financial stability. 2) The dramatic ebb and flow of tourist numbers (nearly zero for most of the year, then spiking over the holiday periods) means that a high number of tourists will visit destinations at the same time, possibly resulting in detrimental impacts to the surrounding environment and to the attractions themselves.
XJ: High peak of demand – agreed - but not necessarily long period of toughs. Golden weeks are the peak periods but it does not mean they are a lot of slack seasons - they are swarmed all the time by domestic tourists. This is good in a sense that they have started to encourage their citizens to go for holidays. But I do not necessarily agree that we should always concentrate on these two or three weeks, which has also created a lot of stress on infrastructure, transportation. We should not only encourage these kinds of three weeks but also adopt practices that other countries have adopted for many years; that is the paid holidays, the 30-days concept, but divided into periods that fit a particular individual or fit into the work of a particular organization. Then you would be able to spread out some of the unnecessary burdens of the three golden weeks
JS/MH: So far this has been an effective way to create a demand in the market. If the three major week long holidays were taken away many Chinese would probably not be able to travel due to the conflict in dates or the unwillingness of their bosses. Of course, in the long run, this will change to allow the healthy growth of the Chinese tourism market.
Until now, the state has been the main builder and operator of hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops, transport and other forms of tourist entertainment. According to the China National Tourist Office, more than 80% of receipts from international tourists flow back into sectors where the state sector is strongest, leaving local operators to fight for a relatively small slice of the pie. What is the best way to encourage equitable and sustainable growth of the industry?
BB: Privatise China Travel Service and other state-owned businesses. Level the playing field. Subsidise training for local operators and guides.
UA: More privatisation; better monitoring & control of local governments.
ZC/MP: This is a very important issue. Responsible and sustained tourism must be managed by the local community. When the community has an economic stake in tourism development, they will be much more likely to be active participants in creating a good tourism product. Encouraging community ownership and involvement also leads to cultural sensitivity, and provokes local citizens to become stewards of the area in which they live. National initiatives risk overlooking the local character of destinations--often one of their top draws.
XJ: Nowadays many Chinese partners are private companies or individuals. If you go down south to Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and then to Guangdong and Shenzhen, none of the travel agencies belong to the state any more. All these travel services are entirely privatised except in the north where the capital city is. You know, where the capital is, usually they move slower!
JS/MH: We believe that percentage is a bit exaggerated. We see the actual benefit of local operators in the private sector growing steadily and healthily. Take the Jiuzhai Paradise Hotel in Jiuzhaigou for example. This is a private investment and also the biggest investment in the area.
Admission fees to tourist sites and protected areas have ballooned in recent years: eg, entrance to Huang Shan is CNY 200 and Jiuzhaigou is more than CNY 300 per person. The rationale for increases is to scale up conservation efforts. How confident are you that extra conservation work really is taking place?
BB: There is some return to management. I have heard that returns from gate receipts are actually going to some of the nature reserve management offices, which actually do carry out patrols and limited educational programmes. However, much more must be done in this area. Provincial funds should be established from the revenues in each province, and this should be ear-marked for management operations (ie, monitoring, patrolling, education and enforcement, not additional hotels). It should be used to pay for operations in all parks, not just the showcases.
UA: We are not very confident. Although national programs are funding conservation efforts, these funds are probably not coming from the entrance fees.
XJ: I have always been amazed by the speed of entrance fees increase in China, even compared with some of the world-class monuments like in Paris. I don’t know how they really design the system of entrance fees here. As to the amount invested in conservation I would say it has been quite positive. Without that you would not see the Great Wall being rebuilt in many sections or the Forbidden City still in existence. As for historical or natural heritage sites, usually the entrance fees are very high by Chinese standards. There are NGOs who argued against the double-charging system that some countries use. But I think this is a debatable issue. Perhaps it is sometimes beneficial for local people who do not earn as much as international tourists to pay lower fees. Another system in the city of Suzhou gives out coupons every year or quarter to those domiciled in Suzhou. This probably can solve the issue and also give equal rights to local citizens and international tourists, taking into account their income level.
JS/MH: Audits are needed to give the public confidence. But from what we can see on the spot, over a period of four or five years, the sites we have mentioned are very well managed. We are sure that at least part of the money the tourists pay contributes to improvements.
Mass tourism can have adverse social and environmental impacts that mainly affect people who live in the most visited areas. What can be done to ensure that those local people also enjoy some of the economic benefits of tourism?
BB: Visitor education is one area that needs attention. People get what they ask for. If the only thing the visitors know to expect is to be herded around to phoney cultural events and amusement parks, that is what will be delivered. If they start to demand a more interesting, realistic experience that does not damage the sites they treasure, the industry will respond quickly.
FIT (Fully independent traveller) tourism is an area that needs to be promoted, or at least allowed to grow. While yielding very small returns now, this is an important investment in the future of the industry. These are the pioneers, opening up remote areas and reaching people who otherwise would not benefit from tourism. The kid with a back-pack and a bus ticket on vacation from college will someday come back in a sedan with the whole family.
Training of local tour operators is critical, but they must see a benefit, so this must go hand-in-hand with improved regulations. Tour guide certification programmes should be improved, and appropriate certificates should be required in key parks (as in Malaysia).
More accountability of the very local government representatives in decision-making would also go a long way to more equitable benefit sharing. The travesty of Hailugou , which entirely excluded the local community from tourism benefits, would not have happened if the local officials involved had to stand in elections. Hongkou Township in Dujiangyan is a good example of a local scheme to promote local entrepreneurs, through a simple certification programme for small-scale inns and bed-and-breakfast style accommodation. I understand that there are other success stories like this. These need to be promoted.
UA: Participation of local communities is the only way we can imagine. However, there is a lack of successful examples where it really works. Especially with mass tourism, the negative impacts cannot be avoided. Mass tourism is also not likely to fit into small-scale, local and sustainable development concepts.
ZC/MP: It is very important that local people are allowed to play an active role in tourism project development and management. Mass tourism often relegates local people to lower-level jobs, bringing in outsiders to manage hotels and attractions. Mass tourism also can ignore the unique products available in the local area, favouring instead the import of brand-name food, beverages, and other goods. Mass tourism projects are often planned without attention to the environmental situation in an area, setting the project up to actually degrade the environment on which it relies. (Rivers polluted by runoff from hotels and restaurants, for example, will not be attractive to tourists). Furthermore, mass tourism projects that do not include community consultations and community planning sessions will risk being blacklisted by local residents, leading to problems between the community and the management of the projects.
XJ: Mass tourism has its pros and cons. The WTO has noted that world-class monuments--such as Angkor Wat in Cambodia--are usually located in areas of poor communities. So we have been trying to spread the economic gain to local communities. We have a programme that emphasizes poverty reduction through tourism, Sustainable Tourism Eliminating Poverty (STEP). This encourages the participation of local communities in the actual activities of those monuments in various forms through some kind of institutional arrangement of local employment by the developers. Or maybe a tea-break must be in the local village. For example in Bala River Valley, a series of ethnic Miao villages in Guizhou, when one tour group comes each village will receive on average USD 2 per international tourist. Their contribution is to dress like the old days with the ethnic costumes, offer greeting services and then they benefit collectively. The money is very small but we feel this is how you can link the wealthy with the poor communities
JS/MH: Employment is a good way. At each destination, a guaranteed percentage of the job opportunities created should go to the local community. Other than that, some recreational programs with local characteristics should be considered as part of the overall plan. For example horse-riding in most rural tourist sites or village-stay experiences in the Guizhou Miao area.
In many parts of Asia, growth of travel and tourism has been associated with growth of the commercial sex industry. What, if anything, should be done about this in the development of China’s tourism industry?
BB: The market is there, and I doubt that is going to change. So sex education for teenagers and pre-departure training for young woman is key. Empower the women to make intelligent choices and control their own lives. There should also be strict sentences for those engaged in trafficking. Perhaps the European model could provide lessons.
UA: Since this problem cannot be avoided, it should be legalised, better managed and controlled.
ZC/MP: The sex industry associated with tourism exists because there is a demand for it, and because local people living in tourist areas often perceive a lack of other opportunities to gain economically from the tourism in the area. A grassroots effort to expose the horrific effects of the sex industry should be top priority. Locally run projects will be much more successful at building awareness, both among the community and among tourists visiting the area, than a nationally-run project that has the potential to be deaf to concerns among those on the ground. Locally run projects will also be better prepared to address the needs of those in their own community, helping them to find jobs outside of the sex industry.
XJ: For this issue we have established a special global task force. In Asia we rallied the major tour operators in Europe and asked them to sign up with us (together with the governments and with the local handlers) that no tour operators who have signed this initiative will be organising sex tours and especially not child sex tours. I am not aware of how much these tour operators have responded, but yes, we have been doing some programmes.
JS/MH: Hotels should have a more important responsibility to stem this. Some simple technical changes or organizational regulations can be introduced to prevent such kind of things happening.
Contributors: Bill Bleisch is the China Country Director of Fauna and Flora International. He contributes to this roundtable in a personal capacity, and his views do not necessarily represent FFI policy. Ulrich Apel speaks on behalf of the Ecotourism Section of Tianzi Biodiversity Research & Development Centre in Xishuangbanna. Zoe Chafe works with the Worldwatch Institute's Globalization and Governance Project, and as a researcher at the Center on Ecotourism and Sustainable Development. She has responded jointly with Maria Placht, a Research Associate at the Environmental Law Institute in Washington, DC and former intern with The Nature Conservancy in Yunnan. Xu Jing has worked with the World Tourism Organisation for 13 years, serving for the last two years as Asia Pacific Regional Representative. He previously worked as the head of international relations for the China National Tourism Administration. James Stent and Matthew Hu run Wild China, a private tourism company.