Study On Western Hubei's Regional Development Strategies And Implementation

The concept of "regional collaborative development" is one of the major consensuses and requirements of the Scientific Outlook on Development and "Five Overall Planning". Using Synergitics theory and other relevant intellectual tools, this dissertation systematically examines the development strategies of western Hubei, from the perspective of the tourism industry. The western regions of Hubei are trapped in the Revolutionary past, ethnically diverse, remote and poor. Compared to the preponderant industrial economy and city clusters of the Wuhan urban circle in eastern Hubei, the western regions'economic development remains weak and restrained by multiple factors. However, the western regions boast excellent ecological environment, profound culture and rich resources for tourism. Also the "rise of central China" strategy and the construction of the "two-oriented society" in the Wuhan urban circle are now giving western Hubei a tremendous opportunity to utilize eco-cultural resource and late-mover advantages to develop its own unique economy.As an industry that often leads to socio-economic development and foster other industries, tourism plays an important role in regional development. In western Hubei, it has already contributed to the local development and offers exciting market potential. It acts as a breakthrough point towards regional collaboration and balancing environment with development. It seems plausible in theory and feasible in practice to stimulate western Hubei's collective growth through healthy tourism, efficient and orderly resource integration, inter-industrial collaboration and forming competitive forerunner industries and products.This research involved local investigations in most part of western Hubei, noting its economic, social and ecological conditions. It also analyzed a massive number of records and statistics. The purpose of the research is to answer the question why regions with rich natural resources and poor economy can develop itself in the post-industrial age. This dissertation is a series of theoretical and empirical inquiries on western Hubei's current development state, obstacles, backgrounds, strategies and implementations. The author concludes by putting forward a "tourism-led and regionally collaborative" development approach for western Hubei, in the hope of stimulating new ideas for the development of resource-rich regions and providing a scientific reference for similar regions.In "Introduction", the background of this study, literature review as well as research methodology are listed. In order to implement the strategic vision of the "rise of central China" and minimize regional development disparity, the study proposes that, it is necessary and urgent for western Hubei to rely on tourism and achieve synergetic development. This part of the dissertation reviews existing regional development theories, surveying the idea of synergetic development from the perspectives of sustainability, regional economics, tourism science and urban-rural coordination. This research framework defines the material, methodology, significance and originality of this study.The second part of the dissertation focuses the theoretical basis of the dissertation. Aided by studies in Synergy theory, comparative advantage, regional tourism cooperation, sociology, ecology, and sustainable development, the author of this dissertation makes an in-depth and comprehensive theoretical inquiry into the idea of regionally collaborative development. It paves a way for the empirical evaluation of the actual conditions in western Hubei.The third part of this dissertation talks about "the current state of development and obstacles". The key concepts of this part are resources, environment and development. First it offers a detailed analysis of western Hubei's economic, social and cultural status, considering resources abundance, transportation, ecological environment and changes of industries. Following the analysis comes the examination on the causes behind the region's stagnated development such as the lack of new development ideas, ecological imbalance, and uniform industrial structures.The fourth part of the dissertation discusses the strategic choices facing western Hubei. It aims to demonstrate the rationality of a tourism-led development approach. First, it theorizes the current state of western Hubei's development and its main challenges. It advocates that the decision on the region's development strategy must be made based on comparative advantage theory, sustainable development theory and sociological theories. Second, it analyzes the feasibility of developing tourism in the western Hubei (policy environment, social atmosphere, geopolitical integrity, ecological quality and the convenience of transportation), comparative advantages (unique tourism resources, growing demands in the tourism market and a booming tourism industry), the "engine effect" of tourism promotion in western Hubei (accelerating transformation of development merits, catalyzing coordinated development between urban and rural areas, balance development levels among different regions, ensuring the growth of eco-civilization and so on). This leads the author to conclude that the development strategy for western Hubei must be tourism-led and regionally collaborative (utilizing complementary advantages among different regions).The fifth part of the dissertation is about the different paths towards achieving this development strategy. This part extracts its theoretical wisdom from Synergy theory, as it discusses the implementation of the tourism-led regional collaboration strategy in western Hubei. First, Synergy theory dictates that western Hubei's development path must be determined by intra-regional compatibility, tourism collaboration and ecology. Secondly, it proposes that western Hubei can refer to three different experiences in tourism collaboration. These are Jing Jin Ji "synergistic effect", which prioritized transportation; the "identical treatment" of Hu Hang, which emphasizes complementary characteristics; and the "linkage pattern" of the European Union, which exiled in market operation. Thirdly, the study proposes a value reconstruction, which requires changes in concept, objective and priority, when considering how to implement the strategy for western Hubei. The traditional industry-centric approach of modernization must be replaced by a development strategy that protects the environment and improves the eco-system. Finally, emphasizing integration and linkage, the study analyzes the operation mechanisms for regional collaboration, such as integrated colony, trickling progress, complementing transportation and coordinated marketing, in order to further prove the feasibility of the tourism-led and regionally collaborative strategy.The last part of the dissertation argues that it is possible and necessary to build an integrated model of development where "tourism leads and regions collaborate", since the western regions in Hubei can very well integrate and complement each other. This is not only the inherent requirement of western Hubei's development, but also a key element to economically and socially sustainable development for the whole province. Moreover, it can provide a paradigm for other similar regions to explore innovative ideas on development, transform the way people think of development, reconstruct the resource value, and build new development models.