Study On Community Empowerment In Tourism In Cultural Heritage Site

The practical difficulties and theoretical shortcomings of community participation in tourism make it become necessary from community participation to community empowerment in tourism. The past studies on community empowerment in tourism home and abroad mainly focus on the communities in rural tourism destinations, ecotourism destinations and ethnic villages, and these types of communities have generally the ownership of the tourism resources or things attached to them (it points mainly the land), however, the phenomena of community disempowerment exist universally in other tourism destination communities which haven’t the ownership of the tourism resources or things attached to them (such as the communities in cultural heritage site in China), which calls into my question about the existing premise of community empowerment in tourism. On the basis, according to the fieldwork about the situation of community empowerment in tourism in cultural heritage site and deep reflect about the theories of community empowerment in tourism both here and abroad, the paper tries to construct a set of systemic theory about the community empowerment in tourism in cultural heritage site on its connotation, basis, content, paths and purpose.The paper firstly defines the concept of community empowerment in tourism in cultural heritage site; Secondly, according to the connotation and extension of this concept and the theories and practices of community empowerment in tourism at home and abroad, the paper puts forward question about the existing premise of community empowerment in tourism, which arouses the probe into the basis of community empowerment in tourism in cultural heritage site; On the basis, the paper uses both qualitative research and quantitative research to construct the framework of community empowerment in tourism in cultural heritage site in China and develops a tourism empowerment scale which has higher reliability and validity, thus providing theoretical tool for the next empirical research; And then the paper studies on the paths of community empowerment in tourism from different perspectives; What’s more, the paper differentiates clearly the theoretical relation between community empowerment in tourism and community participation and thinks that the final purpose of community empowerment in tourism is to realize sufficient community participation, the paper probes into the effect mechanism of community empowerment in tourism to community participation. Finally,. On the basis of theoretical research, the paper takes on the community residents around the world cultural heritage Terracotta Warriors Scenic Spot for example, using the theories of community empowerment in tourism in cultural heritage site and the depth interview and survey data, the paper analyzes empirically its situation of community residents empowerment in tourism and puts forward pointed tourism empowerment countermeasure based on the estimation of empowerment situation.On the basis of the above research, the paper draws mainly the following conclusions. Firstly, whether the community is affected by the negative externality of tourism development or not is the basic premise of community empowerment in tourism, and the community empowerment in tourism in cultural heritage site has not only the necessity but also deep practical basis, theoretical basis and institutional basis. Secondly, the paper reveals that the four-dimension structure of community empowerment in tourism of Scheyvens is suitable for cross research context and cross types of tourism destination, and develops a tourism empowerment scale of community resident in cultural heritage site in China on the perspective of individual perception, which has higher reliability and validity. Thirdly, the research framework of the paths of community empowerment in tourism in cultural heritage site is a "three levels and four dimensions and many ways" structure. Fourthly, the paper reveal the correlativity relation between community empowerment in tourism and community participation, and the right consciousness of community resident plays adjusting role in the relation. Finally, the community residents in cultural heritage site have different perception of tourism empowerment according to different demographics, tourism partitions and empowerment dimensions, so it should use the countermeasures such as empowering according to people’s demands, empowering many ways and combining self-empowerment and other-empowerment together.The main academic innovations of this paper includes that:Firstly, the paper puts forward and proves the standpoint that the premise of community empowerment in tourism lies in whether the community residents are affected by the negative externality of the tourism development or not. The past studies on the community empowerment in tourism both here and abroad all have a hypothesis that the community residents have at least the ownership of the tourism resources or things attached to it (it points mainly the land). However, in China, the community residents in most of types of tourism destinations haven’t the ownership of the tourism resources and things attached to them, but the affection from tourism development exists objectively, which calls into my question about the connotative hypothesis of the past research and the supporting of the new hypothesis. Secondly, the paper enriches the typology research of community empowerment in tourism. The past studies on community empowerment in tourism home and abroad seldom concern the community in cultural heritage site, however, the phenomena of community disempowerment in cultural heritage site are universal. Because of the limitation of protection institutions and policies of historical relics, the studies on the connotation, basis, content, paths and purpose of community empowerment in tourism in cultural heritage site are different from that of general tourism destinations, which calls into the systemic study on theories about the community empowerment in tourism in cultural heritage site and expands the types of research object of community empowerment in tourism. Thirdly, the paper develops a tourism empowerment scale of community resident in cultural heritage site in China. The paper uses both qualitative research and quantitative research to develop a tourism empowerment scale of community resident in cultural heritage site in China on the perspective of individual perception, which not only overcomes the shortcoming in measuring quantitatively the community empowerment in tourism in theory and realizes valid valuation, diachronic track and synchronic comparison research of tourism empowerment of community resident in cultural heritage site, but also has actual application effectiveness to assess the tourism empowerment situation of community resident in cultural heritage site through test. Fourthly, the paper discriminates clearly and testifies the "way-purpose" relation between the community empowerment in tourism and community participation. From community participation to community empowerment in tourism doesn’t mean the replace of theory, but a kind of theoretic optimization. In practice, community empowerment is the way to realize community participation, and community participation is the final purpose. On the basis of this hypothesis, the paper constructs the relation mode between tourism empowerment perception and participation willingness of community residents, of which the right consciousness that reflects well the characteristic of people in the folk society in China is the regulated variable, and confirms it.