A Study Of The Transform Of Government’s Role In The Development Of China’s Tourism Industry

China has changed from a country with rich tourism resource into a county with a big tourism industry as a result of over30years’reform and opening-up. But tourism in China is still short of core competitiveness compared with countries with strong tourism industry such as US, France, Spain, German, etc., and it is still a hard task for China to become a country with a strong tourism industry. According to the World Tourism Organization, the government has different roles to play in different stages of the development of the tourism industry. Now that China is in a critical period for moving from expanding the scale of the industry to improving the quality of the industry, the role of the government is an important theoretical and policy topic.In the research field of the government’s role in tourism industry, tourism economics has analyzed the necessity of the government’s intervention in the tourism market and positioned the role of the government in remedying market failures with theories of market failure and government intervention. Moreover, tourism science has elaborated on the different roles of the government in different periods of the development of the tourism industry. Nevertheless, not enough attention has been given to the evolution of the relationship between the government and the market in the process of economic transition, which, at present, is the background for studying the role of the government in the development of the tourism industry in China. To fill in this gap, the writer of this thesis has applied theories and methods of transition economics to an innovative study of the change of government’s role in the development of tourism industry in China.First, a new theoretical framework of the government’s role positioning in the tourism development is proposed. The requirements of the tourism industry in different stages are analyzed and the necessity and the inevitability of the forming of the market-driven, government-serving development mode by government transition during the period of Chinese economic transition have been demonstrated.Second, the course and essence of the change of the government’s role in tourism industry in China are analyzed, meanwhile the government’s role playing and its efficiency in different periods are evaluated and the essence of the government’s role change in tourism is illustrated. At the beginning of China reform and opening up, the market vitality was stimulated by the change of the government’s role playing from the complete replacement of market to the foster of market; Then the government played the role of regulator and the total supply was balanced with the total demand by the effective industry policy; But later the government began to use administrative methods to adjust the structure of tourism market but failed; Then the government played the role of controller. First the using of administrative control methods has led to the confusion of market, then the control laws has accelerated the orderly development of the industry, later the criterion made by the government led the healthy development of the industry. The government now also plays the role of night-watcher by using administrative power and promoting the effective implement of tourism laws.Third, the characteristics of the change of the government’s role in the development of China tourism industry are analyzed. The dissertation points out that the motivations of the change include the policy motivation of opening up, the need motive and the market motivation. The policy motivation of opening up is the initial motivation, and the need motivation is the continuous motivation while the market motivation is the dominant motivation. The changing process of the government’s role in tourism development has the characteristics of government-push while market-dominate, progressive, role non-equilibrium, limited by constrains.Forth, deep studies are made about the trend of the change of the government’s role in tourism industry. According to the investigation of the need motivation and the analysis of market motivation, combining the trend of the government idea that the enforcement of the social value of tourism resources, the strengthening of the importance of letting market playing the fundamental role in the configuration of tourism resources, it is pointed out that the trend of the government role change is:the role of public person will be completed, the role of regulator will be continued bettered.Fifth, the optimization aid of the government’s role in tourism industry and the reform path are demonstrated:1.playing the role of regulator and night-watcher to resolve the problem of information asymmetric in tourism market;2.playing the role of controller, regulator, night-watcher and arbiter to resolve the problem of tourism market externalities;3.playing the role of public person to promote the reform of the tourism economy system;4.playing the role of coordinator to satisfy the comprehensive characteristics of tourism industry.