Study On China's Rural Tourism Sustainable Development

The sustainable development of rural tourism means sustainable development of the rural tourism industry and sustainable development of the countryside as rural tourism destination. Contemporary China's social economies are transforming into the stage that manufacturing industry supports agriculture and urban areas support rural areas. Tourism economic development can help to update the structures of rural industries and enhance the diversified functions of agriculture. Sustainable development of rural tourism can partly solve the problem of labor force surplus and lower income in China's rural regions. To enhance rural tourism sustainable development, on the basis of interaction between town and country, is a prospective route to construct socialist new country. And new country construction provides historic chance for China's rural tourism sustainable development.The dissertation paper includes the four parts as follows:Part One is the theoretical studies on rural tourism sustainable development, covering chapter one and chapter two. Chapter one analyzes the thesis backgrounds and both domestic and overseas research achievement and shortcomings. The author defines rural tourism and other related concepts, and brings forward two new concepts, i.e. pure-rural-tourism and quasirural-tourism. The paper applies the generalized concept of rural tourism including pure one with outstanding rurality and quasi one with common rurality.There are three theoretical basis on rural tourism sustainable development. The first one is sustainable development theory. Tourism development should meet the requirements for harmonious development among ecology, environment, and human beings. Ecological, economic and social sustainable development is a vital angel from which to understand and solve the problems in rural tourism practice. The second one is regional economic development theory. The ideas that urban and rural regions should pursue harmonious economic development can guide the social economic development for China's non-advanced rural regions. The third one is the guideline and ideas on new country construction.Part Two is the research on overseas rural tourism development discussed in chapter three. The modes for foreign country's rural tourism development are diversified. Japan and Korea intervene deeply in their rural tourism economies; Japan emphasizes rural tourism development with town and country interaction; France pays attention to the leading function by public industry organizations; Austria and other nations try to develop inbound tour oriented rural tourism depending on their advantage on location and resources. The common successful experience is that sustainable development of rural tourism relies on the driving forces from both supply and demand factors for rural tourism product, and the combination of governmental intervention and market development.Part Three is the research on impact and influence and appraisal issues concerning China's rural tourism development, covering chapter four, chapter five and chapter six.China's rural tourism economies are generally not in the phase of sustainable development. Rural tourism industry mainly locates in suburbs nearby urban regions and tourism in distant countryside is not very advanced. Rural communities cannot receive fair tourism incomes and big income gaps between community members and between local and external stakeholders are obvious in China.Rural tourism exerts both positive and negative impacts on local social economic development. The author differentiates the general development conditions of China's rural tourism from certain local ones, and also distinguishes the ideal and practical impacts of rural tourism development. Through experiential and statistical analysis, the author asserts the positive impacts of sustainable rural tourism on local rural development and town and country harmonious development.The difficulty of the research is to measure the outcome and level of sustainable development of rural tourism. The author establishes the appraisal indicator system to measure rural tourism sustainable development and positively studies the level and outcomes of rural tourism development in Heilongjiang province in 2006, according to the model for appraisal.Part four refers to chapter seven on China's strategic goals, modes and countermeasures for sustainable development of rural tourism. We must develop sustainable rural tourism according to general consideration on sustainable development, socialist new country construction and town and country overall planning. The sustainable development strategic modes include ecological friendship orientation, town and country interaction, poverty alleviation, community participation and openning orientation. Rural tour destinations can apply the strategies and related measures synthetically according to their location and resource conditions.