Ecotourism: Symbiosis Of Multiple Objectives And Stakeholders

Ecotourism has been paid much attention by the government, related organizations and researchers of different fields since its birth in 1980's. What's ecotourism? What should be the objectives of ecotourism? Who participate the development of ecotourism? What're their roles of the different participants and what are their relationships? As a large developing country, how China should develop ecotourism? These are the questions that this dissertation tries to probe into and answer.Except for the preface, this dissertation consists of four chapters, including the development of ecotourism research and practice, the discussion of ecotourism, its multiple objectives and participants, and the way of Chinese ecotourism development.It's essential to know the background, the evolution, the present situation and the problems of ecotourism research and practice both at home and abroad before the deeper and narrower analysis. The first chapter reviews and comments on the development of ecotourism research and practice at home and abroad. The author points out that the lack of common understanding of ecotourism, ecotourism's objective, and the way to realize the objectives block ecotourism development.Researchers have different understandings on what's ecotourism. The second chapter of this dissertation retrospects the definitions and their differences, evolution of the term of "ecotourism", the background of its birth, the differences between ecotourism and nature tourism, alternative tourism, sustainable tourism, community-based tourism and other terms. It comments on the criticisms of ecotourism as well. Based on these analyses, the author gives a framework of "5 W & 1 H" to understand ecotourism, including who (the participants or stakeholders), why (the motivations of the participants), which (the objectives and principles), where (the background and sites), how (the methods and ways) and what (the performances and effects).What are the objectives of ecotourism? Who are the participants? What are the relationships between them? These critical questions are yet not answered systematically. The author analyzes the objectives and stakeholders of ecotourism in details in the third chapter. This dissertation construes the objectives of ecotourism in terms of two angles (conservation and development), three dimensions (environmental, economical, social and experience dimensions), three entities (tourism industry, the reserve and local community) and the complicated relationships among them. According to the author, the stakeholders are confronted with dilemma. For the local community, the dilemma is to participate in the market economy while protecting their own cultural identity. For the ecotourist, the dilemma is to meet needs while abiding by the strict behavior regulations. Ecotourism corporation should earn profit while bearing the social responsibilities, and the reserve should protect the natural resource while earning money by itself. Meanwhile, the relationships among the stakeholders are very complex. This paper also summaries the researches of the key stakeholder-the local community and their participation method and the results. Based on the above analysis, the author points out that to develop ecotourism is to realize multiple objectives and to establish a symbiosis system, hence it's necessary to adjust the condition and the media of symbiosis, and to change the structural and behavior modes. In fact, it's a process to establish a new profit earning and interests contribution system and to develop a new institution by compromises and trade-offs among the stakeholders. This dissertation also analyzes the roles of different stakeholders in the development of ecotourism, such as the government, the tourism industry, the local community, the ecotourists, the NGOs, the media, the academics, other related organizations and so on.How to evaluate the role of ecotourism and its development environment, factors and problems in China? How to find an appropriate way to develop ecotourism in China based on it own c...