Research On Cost And Benefit Of Ecoturism In Qinling Mountains

Characterized by emphasized ecological environmental protection, requirement of tourists’ ecological responsibility and community participation, focusing on economic, ecological and social benefits, ecotourism as a sustainable tourism form has been developed rapidly in China and become one of key points of Chinese ecological civilization in the new age. However, contradiction between tourist resources development and ecological environmental protection always exists during ecotourism development, especially in nature reserves, forest parks and scenic spots which are exploited as popular destiny of ecotourism and characterized by fragile unique original species and natural landscape resources. Understanding the profits and contributions of stakeholders including exploiter, local government and community residents, as well as the comprehensive costs, especially the resources and environmental costs in ecotourism is crucial for sustainable development of ecotourism in nature reserves. Therefore, systematic analysis on benefits and costs of ecotourism is crucial for future development of ecotourism, as well as the construction of balanced tourism-economic relationship between human and environment.The emphasis and difficulty in the research of ecotourism is using scientific theories and methods to quantitatively evaluate the costs and benefits of ecotourism in nature reserve. According to previous studies and combining with data from economics, ecology and geography, we in this study summarized the current development and operation situation, as well as problems of ecotourism in Qinling Mountain area from the aspect of cost-benefit analysis of ecotourism in nature reserve based on empirical research. The cost-benefit estimation and evaluation of ecotourism in nature reserves located in Qinling Mountain area were conducted using survey data and statistical data. Benefit estimation was focusing on the contribution to the development of local communities from ecotourism, and cost estimation was focusing on the ecological costs of carbon emissions from tourists. Overall, the current policies and potential problems of ecotourism were analyzed, and countermeasures and suggestions of ecotourism development in nature reserves of Qinling Mountains were concluded.The primary conclusions of this study are summarized as followed.(1) The eco-tourism in Qinling Mountains is systematically constructed by tourism departments, local communities, investing enterprises, tourists and other relative groups. A special characteristic is the combination of diversities of natural landscape and cultural landscape. The development model of eco-tourism in Qinling Mountains is the compound of investment-invitation led by government, participation of local communities, and alliance of non-governmental organizations and ecotourism areas.(2) The annual integrated benefit of ecotourism in Qinling Mountains was calculated as 1.69 billion yuan, contributed by economic benefit majorly, social benefit and ecological benefit. Subject to the benefit of eco-tourism, an increasing income is achieved among the community residents, and remains a large advancement. The community basis has been established with the development of eco-tourism, however, the driving force of residential ecotourism benefit improvement from local community participation is insufficient, leading to the restriction of ecotourism benefits, and the unbalanced benefit distribution.(3) The annual integrated cost of eco-tourism in Qinling Mountains was estimated as 0.25 billion yuan, constructed by 82% of direct costs, and 18% of indirect cost including social and ecological cost. The cost analysis of eco-tourism implied a serious problem of carbon emissions from tourists. Over 35.3 million kilogram per year of CO2 was emitted in the survey area subject to eco-tourism, with tourism traffic as the major contributor. The increasing of tourists will lead to enlarged amount of carbon emissions, as well as the enhanced ecological cost due to the damage of wildlife and its habitat.(4) The benefit-cost ratio of ecotourism in Qinling Mountains was evaluated as 6.56 according to the association analysis. The government had the highest ratio and the maximum net benefit, as the major beneficiary. However, the community residents had the lowest ratio, suggesting limited incomes from eco-tourism. The study on integrated benefits and costs of eco-tourism in Qinling Mountains implied the problems on the unbalanced distribution of benefits and bearing of costs, as well as the insufficient input of environmental protection in the scenic region.(5) Based on the analysis of ecotourism benefits and costs, and the relative policies of ecotourism, the study pointed out that the development and management of ecotourism in Qinling Mountains are remained to be improved. In addition, the conflict between beneficiaries due to the unbalanced distribution of ecotourism benefits and costs, as well as the potential costs of ecotourism are easily overlooked. Overall, the suggestions of future development of ecotourism in nature reserves has been raised.