TY - JOUR
T1 - Evolution of tourism in a flagship protected area of China
AU - Liu, Wei
AU - Vogt, Christine A.
AU - Lupi, Frank
AU - He, Guangming
AU - Ouyang, Zhiyun
AU - Liu, Jianguo
N1 - Funding Information:
National Science Foundation [Grant number 0709717].
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Taylor & Francis.
PY - 2016/2/1
Y1 - 2016/2/1
N2 - Nature-based tourism in protected areas, which is growing worldwide, offers much potential to enhance biodiversity conservation, poverty alleviation, and ultimately sustainable development. Understanding the evolution of protected areas as tourism destinations and the causes and consequences of changing supply and demand elements is an essential step toward sustainably managing tourism in these critical ecosystems. This research applied the Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) model to illustrate and analyze the 30-year evolution of tourism in Wolong Nature Reserve. Being inscribed in UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage programmes, Wolong is a flagship protected area in China. We showed that the Reserve experienced exploration, involvement, and development stages of the TALC before tourism growth was completely halted by the Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008. We systematically investigated the changes related to the evolution of tourism and identified various internal and external driving forces. We examined the dynamics of politics, economy, and tourism growth that might propel the Reserve through the life cycle and identified significant tourism governance structural changes through the stages. The results have implications for sustainable tourism development in China's protected areas and also contribute to a broader and general understanding of the complex relationships between protected areas, sustainable tourism, and community development.
AB - Nature-based tourism in protected areas, which is growing worldwide, offers much potential to enhance biodiversity conservation, poverty alleviation, and ultimately sustainable development. Understanding the evolution of protected areas as tourism destinations and the causes and consequences of changing supply and demand elements is an essential step toward sustainably managing tourism in these critical ecosystems. This research applied the Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) model to illustrate and analyze the 30-year evolution of tourism in Wolong Nature Reserve. Being inscribed in UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage programmes, Wolong is a flagship protected area in China. We showed that the Reserve experienced exploration, involvement, and development stages of the TALC before tourism growth was completely halted by the Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008. We systematically investigated the changes related to the evolution of tourism and identified various internal and external driving forces. We examined the dynamics of politics, economy, and tourism growth that might propel the Reserve through the life cycle and identified significant tourism governance structural changes through the stages. The results have implications for sustainable tourism development in China's protected areas and also contribute to a broader and general understanding of the complex relationships between protected areas, sustainable tourism, and community development.
KW - conservation
KW - coupled human and natural systems
KW - protected area
KW - sustainable tourism
KW - tourism area life cycle
KW - tourism governance
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U2 - 10.1080/09669582.2015.1071380
DO - 10.1080/09669582.2015.1071380
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84957433179
SN - 0966-9582
VL - 24
SP - 203
EP - 226
JO - Journal of Sustainable Tourism
JF - Journal of Sustainable Tourism
IS - 2
ER -