The so-called modern tourism refers to the socialized mass tourism that spread rapidly throughout the world after the Second World War, especially since the 1960s.
I. A Brief Review of China's Tourism Development
(1) The Transformation from "Business" to "Industry"
China's tourism industry, though starting late, has developed at a remarkable pace. In 1986, the State Council decided to incorporate tourism into the national economic and social development plan, and formally established its status as a national economy. 1992, the central government explicitly stated that tourism was a key industry in the tertiary industry, and after that, the central government of the People's Republic of China put forward the "Recommendations on the Formulation of the "Ninth Five-Year Plan" and the Outline of Visionary Objectives for the Year 2010 of Economic and Social Development", and the tourism industry was listed as an emerging industry in the tertiary industry. In 1998, the Central Economic Work Conference put forward tourism as a new growth point of the national economy. Since then, the State Planning Commission has included tourism projects in the national bond projects, and the railroad department has run hundreds of special tourism trains in a timely manner. The support of the central government and the State Council has laid a solid foundation for the development of tourism.
From the point of view of the development stage, before 1980, the overall scale of the tourism industry was relatively small; during the period of the "Sixth Five-Year Plan", the inbound tourism improved greatly, and the domestic tourism began to take off; during the period of the "Seventh Five-Year Plan", the inbound tourism continued to develop, and domestic During the period of the "Seventh Five-Year Plan", inbound tourism continued to develop and domestic tourism had greater development; during the period of the "Eighth Five-Year Plan", inbound tourism had greater development and domestic tourism rose rapidly, and this period was the fastest period of development. "During the period of the Ninth Five-Year Plan, the industry's foundation was consolidated and developed steadily; in 2001, under the influence of the negative growth of the world's tourism industry as a whole, China's tourism industry continued to move forward amidst difficulties, but the growth rate declined; in 2002, China's tourism industry rebounded as a whole, with the growth rate of the four economic indicators of tourism exceeding 10 percent (see Table 1). ).
Table 1 Growth of China's main tourism economic indicators in different periods (1991~2002)
Note: ①National Tourism Administration (NTA), 50 Years of China's Tourism Industry, data on the number of people and revenues are the sum of the periods added up;
②National Tourism Administration (NTA), China Tourism Industry Statistical Bulletin 2001;
③National Tourism Administration (NTA), China Tourism 2002 Statistical Bulletin.
In short, China's tourism industry borrows the power of reform and opening up, sustained rapid development for more than 20 years, from scratch, from small to large, the industry image is increasingly distinct, the industry scale is growing, and become one of the fastest growing industries in the national economy.
(2) from a small tourist country to a big tourist country
China is one of the fastest growing countries in the world in terms of tourism. 1978, the number of international tourists in China (1.8 million people) was only 0.7% of the world's total number of tourists, ranked 41st in the world; in 2002, it hosted 97.91 million overseas tourists, and became the world's fifth largest tourist attraction, Asia's top tourist country. In 1978, China's foreign exchange earnings from international tourism (260 million US dollars) accounted for only 0.038% of the world's total, ranking 47th in the world; in 2002, it increased to 20.4 billion US dollars, accounting for 4.4% of the world's total, becoming the world's fifth largest country of foreign exchange earnings from tourism. 2002, the number of Chinese citizens who went abroad reached 16,602,300, an increase of 36.84% compared with the previous year, and it became a remarkable new source of exporting countries in the Asian region. In 2002, the number of Chinese domestic tourists reached 878 million, becoming the largest, fastest-growing and strongest domestic tourism market in the world.
The scale of China's tourism industry is also expanding. According to incomplete statistics, as of the end of 2001, China's tourism-related hotels 11,000, of which, has been rated 8018 star-rated hotels; all kinds of travel agencies more than 10,000, of which, more than 1,300 international travel agencies; China's tourism industry, the value of fixed assets amounted to 700 billion yuan, *** there are all kinds of tourism enterprises and institutions 260,000; tourism industry, directly employing 5,980,000 people, indirectly practitioners are about 29.8 million; *** there are 1,152 colleges and universities running tourism education, with 340,000 students enrolled.
(3) Tourism is increasingly becoming a new growth point for China's economy
With the vigorous development of China's tourism industry, its comprehensive and highly interrelated characteristics are being fully demonstrated, and it is playing an increasingly important role in spurring the development of related industries, expanding domestic demand, enhancing economic vitality, and improving the quality of life of the people.
In 2002, China's tourism industry realized an annual total income of 556.6 billion yuan, an increase of 12% over the previous year, more than 3 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate of the national economy, the total income of the tourism industry was equivalent to 5.4% of the GDP of that year, accounting for more than 16% of the tertiary industry, and foreign exchange earnings from tourism have accounted for more than half of the country's foreign exchange earnings from the trade in services.
The tourism industry has increasingly become a new growth point for China's economy and one of the main pillars of China's tertiary industry. Twenty-four provinces, municipalities directly under the central government and autonomous regions have positioned tourism as a pillar industry, while the rest of the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have respectively positioned tourism as an important industry or an advantageous industry.
Second, China's tourism development opportunities and prospect analysis
(A) development opportunities
First of all, the sustained, rapid and healthy development of the national economy will push the tourism industry to a new level. the first 10 years of the 21st century, China's national economy will maintain an average annual growth rate of more than 7%, and the comprehensive power of the country will be further improved. The deepening of the economic system reform, the development of opening up to the outside world, the overall progress of the economy and society, the adjustment of industrial structure, will promote the development of tourism.
Secondly, it is the opportunity brought by the comprehensive construction of moderately prosperous society. Comprehensive construction of moderately prosperous society, means that more than a billion people in China will be to a higher level of moderately prosperous society, tourism demand is bound to grow, tourism consumption has become one of the symbols and characteristics of moderately prosperous. China's "well-off now is still a low level, incomplete, the development of a very unbalanced well-off", but it is at this level of well-off, has formed the world's largest domestic tourism market and the fastest-growing source market for overseas tourism.
Thirdly, the implementation of the western development strategy will enable the development of a number of world-class tourism resources in the west, from the resource advantage into an economic advantage, so as to continuously improve the international competitiveness of China's tourism industry and the development of strength, the formation of China's tourism industry, a new growth pole.
Fourth, after joining the WTO, the tourism industry and its related industries will speed up the pace of international integration, the development environment will be further optimized, and will also promote the growth of international business tourism.
Fifth, China is the safest tourist destination in the world. The September 11 incident in the United States and the outbreak of the US-Iraq war led to a downturn in tourism worldwide, but China's political stability, sustained and rapid economic development, and a series of major initiatives implemented by the Chinese government have strengthened China's image as the safest tourist destination.
Sixth, China's accession to the WTO, Beijing's successful bid for the Olympic Games, Shanghai's successful bid for the World Expo, Hangzhou's successful bid for the World Leisure Expo 2006 and the fact that the General Assembly of the World Tourism Organization will be held in Beijing for the first time in October 2003 indicate that China's growing status and influence in the international arena are positively influencing the promotion of Chinese tourism.
(2) Prospect Analysis
With the construction of a moderately prosperous society in all aspects, the prospect of China's tourism industry is brilliant under the two-way interaction of supply and demand.
1. Huge Potential of Tourism Market
With the increase of people's affluence, leisure time and disposable income will push the domestic tourism demand to grow at a high rate. China is the world's first populous country, with the world's largest domestic tourism source market unparalleled in any other country. 2002, the equivalent of 13 Chinese people in 8 people took a trip. Since May 1, 1995, China has implemented a 40-hour workweek and double rest system, and in 1999 it began to implement the seven-day holidays of May Day, November 11, and the Spring Festival, so that the total number of legal rest days that Chinese citizens can enjoy each year is now 114, and residents' leisure time is becoming more and more plentiful. Residents have more and more leisure time. At the same time, the structure of consumption is shifting from subsistence to well-off, with consumption moving from subsistence to enjoyment and development, and the Engel coefficient declining year by year, with the Engel coefficients for urban and rural consumption dropping from 49.9% and 58.6% in 1995 to 37.7% and 46.2% in 2002, respectively. Consumption such as housing, car purchase and communication will be gradually satisfied, while demand for tourism, which is a combination of spirituality and materialism, will arise repeatedly. According to international experience, when the per capita GDP reaches 800~1,000 US dollars, tourism consumption will show a mass and universal trend and become one of the elements of life. By 2020, China will have built a moderately prosperous society in all aspects, and if calculated on the basis of two trips per person per year, the number of domestic tourists by then could be as high as about 3 billion.
2. Unique tourism resources
China's vast territory, beautiful mountains and rivers, a long history, cultural splendor, a large number of ethnic groups, a long history and a vast territory formed an incomparable richness of tourism resources. According to research, China's natural and humanistic types of tourism resources in the world's first number of more than the United States, Spain, France and other tourism powerhouses. At present, the country has more than 15,000 tourist attractions (points) covering natural landscapes, history and culture, reform achievements and social life, of which 28 are listed in the World Heritage List, 151 national key scenic spots, 44 national geoparks, 197 national nature reserves, 439 national forest parks, 99 national historical and cultural cities, and 99 national 4A tourist areas (points). 4A-level tourist areas (points) 360, 137 Chinese excellent tourist cities, and 1269 national key cultural relics protection units, all kinds of museums more than 2,000. The distinctive local customs, colorful cityscape, majestic construction projects, etc., provide unique conditions and foundation for the development of tourism.
3. From a big tourist country to a world tourist power
According to the basic idea of tourism development "Tenth Five-Year Plan" formulated by the National Tourism Administration, by 2020, China's overseas tourist arrivals will be more than 21,000,000, and foreign exchange earnings from tourism will be more than 58 billion U.S. dollars. Domestic tourism will reach more than 2.9 billion trips, and tourism revenue will reach more than RMB 2,040 billion. The total output of tourism will reach more than RMB 2.5 trillion, which is equivalent to about 8% of GDP. Scholars at home and abroad are unanimously optimistic about the development prospects of China's tourism industry and that China will become a world tourism powerhouse. Authoritative organizations, including the World Tourism Organization (WTO), have identified China as the top destination country for global tourism in 2020 (see Table 2). The World Tourism Council (WTC), on the other hand, predicts that by 2020, China's total tourism output will account for 8.64% of GDP, tourism consumption will account for 6.79% of total consumption, and tourism investment will account for 8.61% of total investment, which is close to the world average.
Table 2 Forecast of the World's Top Ten Tourism Destinations in 2020
Source: Collated from the World Tourism Organization's (WTO) "World Tourism Development Forecast Report 2020", 1997. III. Further Playing the Leading Role of the Tourism Industry in the Development of the National Economy
(1) Implementing the Strategy of Developing the Tourism Economy
Comprehensively building a moderately prosperous society, means that China will basically realize industrialization by 2020, the comprehensive improvement of land resources and ecological protection and construction to reach a new level, the process of agricultural modernization and urbanization of the countryside to great effect, the strategy of development of the western region has made a breakthrough, and the proportion of tertiary industry in the national economy has greatly increased, the historical process, will be in all respects and the tourism industry to form a benign interaction, **** with the development.
Investment, consumption and exports are the three main aspects of maintaining economic growth, and tourism can play an important role in all three aspects. From a macro point of view, tourism investment has played a role in economic growth, maintaining a high input-output rate. It is widely recognized internationally that tourism is the best export industry, exporting landscapes in situ and having the advantage of low exchange costs. The State has implemented a number of policies to stimulate internal demand, such as the implementation of the Western Development Program, the upward adjustment of civil service salaries, and the increase in infrastructure spending. On the basis of these policies, it should also draw on the successful experience of developed countries in developing the tourism and leisure industry and take measures to vigorously stimulate tourism and leisure consumption and promote the development of China's tourism economy. In the course of industrialization, the United Kingdom has formulated corresponding programmes and policies to facilitate the transformation from a product-centred industrial society to a service-centred post-industrial society. It can be boldly predicted that, among the many policies, the implementation of "tourism economic development strategy" can play a better effect.
To this end, it is necessary to completely change the long-standing understanding of the tourism industry on the bias, clean up some of the past restrictive consumer policies and a series of policies and regulations that discriminate against and restrict the development of tourism, clear the status of tourism as China's advantageous industries, the implementation of tourism economic development strategy, and comprehensively build the world's tourism powerhouse.
(2) Give full play to the role of domestic tourism to stimulate domestic demand
The Central Economic Work Conference in late 2001 clearly put forward: "Expanding domestic demand is a strategic policy that needs to be adhered to for a long time". 2003 Government Work Report put forward proposals for eight key areas of work this year, of which the first one is "expanding and developing domestic demand". The first of these is to "expand and cultivate domestic demand and promote faster economic growth". Under the current severe international economic situation, the fundamental strategy to realize faster economic growth is to expand domestic demand and further develop the double pull of consumption and investment. The Government Work Report lists tourism as the second area for expanding consumption, and its importance is self-evident.
The tourism industry is characterized by the prosperity of all industries, and it includes six major elements: travel, tourism, accommodation, food, shopping and entertainment. Tourism consumption is not only directly related to transportation, accommodation, catering, commerce and scenic spots, but also related to industries such as industry, agriculture, and information, finance, insurance, medical care, consulting, environmental protection, etc., which directly and indirectly affects more than 100 sub-sectors, and therefore has a very obvious role in boosting the economy. The role of pulling the economy is very obvious. Compared with housing, automobile and other consumption levels, tourism consumption covers a price range from a few dollars of tourist souvenirs to tens of thousands of dollars or even tens of thousands of dollars of tourist routes, the production of products is very strong, and can be consumed is also very strong. 2001 China's residents' consumption expenditure on tourism accounted for only 5.97% of the final consumption expenditure of the residents, 11% of the world's average level there is still a greater distance from the development of the domestic tourism is still a great deal of leeway.
There is still a lot of room for the development of domestic tourism.
So, while vigorously developing inbound tourism, we should put domestic tourism in a more important position and promote domestic tourism to the breadth and depth of development. It is necessary to further increase publicity, actively guide domestic tourism consumption and implement a paid vacation system. We should actively guide the planning and development of new tourism products, actively explore new ways of doing business, constantly improve the quality of service and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
(3) Actively Promoting the Adjustment of Economic Structure
Tourism is an industry with a relatively large degree of industrial correlation, which is conducive to driving the development of related industries and upgrading the economic structure. Tourism is an important part of the modern service industry, and the service industry is an important part of the national economy. Its level of development is a basic indicator of economic modernization and comprehensive national strength, and its development status predicts the direction of the evolution of the economic and industrial structure. According to the requirements of the Tenth Five-Year Plan, the average annual growth rate of the added value of the service sector should be appropriately faster than that of the national economy, and its share of the gross domestic product (GDP) should be raised from 33.2 per cent in 2000 to 36 per cent. Further accelerating the development of the tourism industry is crucial to maintaining the growth rate of the service industry as a whole and increasing its share in the national economy. Tourism should be regarded as the core and leading industry of the service industry, and various ideological barriers should be broken down to further expand the industrial surface, lengthen the industrial chain and form industrial clusters.
Speeding up the development of tourism is one of the important aspects of the industrial restructuring of the national economy. The development of tourism should be consciously integrated into the macroeconomic restructuring, in promoting the rest of the industrial restructuring to cultivate the tourism industry's own development of growth points. It is necessary to strengthen the combination of tourism with primary and secondary industries as well as other categories of tertiary industry, and vigorously develop industrial tourism, agricultural tourism, scientific and educational tourism, business tourism, convention and exhibition tourism and urban tourism. For some of the development of tourism conditions are relatively good old industrial bases and resource cities, in the economic transformation of the tourism industry as a successor to the development of the industry, which has been done successfully, such as Jiaozuo City. For some of the old industrial enterprises, through the development of industrial tourism, resettlement of laid-off employees, improve the comprehensive utilization of resources, publicity of enterprise products and image, expanding the influence and enhance the sense of honor of the staff, etc.; for some of the original reliance on deforestation, plantation and animal husbandry areas, since the beginning of the country to implement the "ban on logging of natural forests", After the implementation of "natural forest logging ban", "returning farmland to forest" and "returning pasture to grass" measures, economic development needs to find a new way out, and the development of eco-tourism is a good alternative; rural areas can be developed through the development of agro-tourism to increase the income of farmers, improve the added value of agricultural products, strengthen the exchange between urban and rural residents, broaden the horizons of farmers, and enhance the communication between farmers and their families. Rural areas can increase the income of farmers, enhance the added value of agricultural products, strengthen the exchanges between urban and rural residents, and broaden the horizons of farmers, which can also play a role in solving the problems of the three rural areas. The development of tourism can also provide new markets and space for the development of other service industries, such as the traditional service industries of commerce and circulation, transportation, and other modern service industries such as information, finance, and consulting. In short, tourism can serve to "strengthen the primary industry and improve the secondary industry", and can also link the tertiary industry.
Therefore, the National Tourism Industry Policy should be issued as soon as possible, and the guidelines and policies for supporting the tourism industry should be clarified. At the same time, the government should increase investment through multiple channels, increase the orientation of the tourism industry, strengthen the construction of tourism infrastructure, pay attention to the protection of tourism resources, and actively support the tourism industry to enter the capital market financing, and further open up to the outside world, and strengthen the collaboration between the departments and so on.
(4) give full play to the tourism industry in the development of the west in the leading role
Tourism resources is a prominent advantage of the western resources, tourism is the west has a strong competitive advantage of the industry. Western primitive and pure natural environment, unique natural landscape, ancient and mysterious cultural relics, different styles of ethnic customs, in line with the trend of world tourism demand for new, different, knowledge, fun, has a strong attraction. The five key directions identified in the development of the western region are closely related to the development of tourism and promote each other.
The tourism industry has a special low center of gravity to start the economy of the pioneering and highly correlated radiation driven function. This is rich in tourism resources, but the economic foundation is weak, the urban and rural economic dual structure of the western economy of the start, and then directly and indirectly along the industrial chain to drive the related industries, rolling development, and ultimately promote the prosperity of the western economy, has a "breakthrough" significance. Vigorously develop the tourism industry, is conducive to improving the economic income of the people in the west and the level of social welfare, is conducive to changing the local financial "blood transfusion economy" mode, is also conducive to enhance the western and domestic and foreign developed areas of contact and collaboration, investment. The development of tourism is bound to bring the rapid growth of passenger flow, talent flow, capital flow, commodity flow, information flow, so that the extraterritorial inflow of purchasing power to expand. It will also inevitably lead to the development of catering, hotel industry, business, and promote the improvement of transportation and communication facilities. And these are precisely to improve the investment environment, to attract external capital must do a good job of the preliminary work.
Therefore, tourism should become an important entry point for the development of the western region, in the conditions of suitable areas, the implementation of "tourism-led development strategy".
(E) fully tap the potential of tourism employment
Tourism is a labor-intensive industry, China's tourism employment has a fast-growing rate of growth, large capacity, large potential and so on. 2001, China's tourism indirect employment of 29.8 million people, the total number of tourism employment reached 35.78 million people. In the last decade of the 20th century, among the 77.4 million new jobs in China's tertiary industry, the new jobs in tourism accounted for 38%, reaching 29.4 million. The number of direct employment in China's tourism grew from 520,000 in 1989 to 5.98 million in 2001, an increase of 12 times.
Tourism promotes employment in a large capacity and many opportunities, many tourism jobs have a low threshold, there is a great demand for all levels of labor, most jobs on the cultural quality and age requirements are not harsh, especially suitable for state-owned enterprises laid-off workers re-employment. Tourism has become the main channel for creating urban jobs and absorbing surplus rural labor.
From the point of view of growth potential, China's direct employment in tourism accounted for only 0.8% of all employment in 2001, far below the world average, and its growth potential is still very large. According to the National Tourism Administration and the State Planning Commission *** with the development of tourism to expand employment of a number of opinions, the next 10 years, China's tourism industry to continue to maintain a moderately faster than the GDP growth rate, the new jobs of about 40 million, an average annual increase in direct employment of about 700,000 people in the tourism industry, driven by about 3.5 million people indirect employment. By 2010 China's tourism direct employment accounted for the proportion of employed persons in society as a whole is about 1.7%, while the world average by then is 3.3%, tourism employment still has a lot of room for growth.
To this end, the current tourism employment potential should be fully tapped to expand the scale of the industry as the basis for the realization of tourism employment growth; to increase the development of tourism products as a focus, the extensive formation of the expansion of the employment growth point; reform, innovation and structural adjustment as a breakthrough, to achieve the number of employees and the quality of the enterprise's double improvement.
(F) vigorously give play to the function of poverty alleviation in tourism
Many poor areas in China are very rich in tourism resources, and the richness of tourism resources has a high degree of overlap with poor areas and ethnic minority areas. As of 2001, there were more than 100 national forest parks among the 592 key poor counties in the country, and among the 307 key poor counties in the west alone, 78 counties had national and provincial nature reserves, and 34 counties had national scenic spots.
China's financial status quo and the reality of poverty-stricken areas determine that China can not rely on strong investment to change the face of poverty-stricken areas, as in developed countries. Therefore, how to use the limited investment to activate the vitality of local economic development has become the key to developmental poverty alleviation. The best way to solve the problem is to find a kind of industry that is closely connected with local resources, low-investment, widely influential and beneficial. In impoverished areas with abundant tourism resources and certain market conditions, tourism has undoubtedly become the preferred industry. In this regard, many places have already achieved successful experience.
Therefore, the relevant state departments should actively explore new modes of poverty alleviation through tourism, and set up and cultivate a number of national tourism poverty alleviation experimental (demonstration) zones in poverty-stricken areas with high tourism potential, and give the necessary external support to make full use of the local resources, and drive the economic development of the poverty-stricken areas and the poverty alleviation of the peasants to become rich.