A Study On The Industrial Status Of The Tourist Industry

This paper provides a comprehensive and thorough study on the status of the tourist industry. In part one the author inspects the historical and present study on the same theme, and points out the further study must be based on the theories of the industrial economics and the regional economics. In part two a few problems on how to recognize the tourist industry are discussed including whether tourism is an industry or not, the relation of the concept of the tourist industry, tourist and tourism (as a phenomenon), and the scope and levels of the tourist industry. In part three the author puts forward a theoretical system about the industrial status based on some related theories in the industrial economics and the regional economics. According to the system, the status of an industry must be defined by potentiality, scale and relativity. With the above-mentioned theoretical system, this paper analyses the status of the tourist industry of China in part four, and regards the tourist industry of China has great potentiality and high relativity but small scale and is suitable to be defined as the guide industry. In part five some advice on the industrial policy to prop the guide industry are given. In part six this paper explores the status of the regional tourist industry in general. The result from the study of this paper can be used as guide for drafting industrial policy and tourism planning. There are some original ideas in this paper: 1) expounding tourism is an industry and pointing out the difference of the recognition to the tourist industry in broad sense and in narrow sense and of the analyses by supply-side and by demand-side; 2) putting forward a theoretical system about the industrial status; 3) analyzing the status of the tourist industry of China in detail and working out the labor productivity and the relativity of the tourist industry of China through some creative methods; 4) showing the tourist industry of China is suitable to be defined as the guide industry and giving some advice on corresponding policy.