A Study On The Stages Of Rural Tourism

The development of China's socio-economy and the improvement of people's living condition will inevitably promote the rapid development of tourism industry. In the process of tourism development, rural tourism has become more and more popular. China is in high speed development stage. The development of rural tourism is an inevitable process. However, a series of problems have also arisen. To understand the development of rural tourism in general, this thesis makes an analysis on the rural tourism process in western developed countries. The result shows that the development of rural tourism can be divided into several obvious stages, and its characteristics and problems are different in each stage. The rural tourism in China overall is still in the initial stage, while the western developed countries have gone through the initial stage and the stage of development. Now those developed countries are in mature stage. Their practical experience will be very helpful to China's rural tourism development.This thesis divides the developing process of rural tourism into three stages by using tourism area life cycle theory, GDP per capita, and categories of rural tourism. They are the initial stage, the development stage and the mature stage. According to the characteristcs and the priorities to develop in each stage, I summarize and construct development model of each stages. 1) The initial stage is the threedimentional model focusing on economic development, and three factors, such as resource, environment and economy. I analyze the three factors and propose priorities to develop and the problems and their countermeasures. 2)The development stage is the fourdimentional focusing on environmental optimization, and four elements, such as resource, environment, economy and society. I analyze the relationships between these factors, the duty of this stage, the problems and their countermeasures. 3)The mature stage is the fivedimentional model coordinating the relationships between different factors, and five elements, such as people, resource, environment, economy and society. I emphasize that sustainable development of rural tourism should depend on technological innovation. These stage models provide new ideas to theoretical study and practical operation of rural tourism.During China's urbanization process, a number of large cities and mega-cities have sprung up. The development of rural tourism is important to realizing the integration of urban and rural economy. Therefore, this thesis makes a comprehensive study on the development of rural tourism by taking Wuhan city circle as an example. Wuhan city circle is located in the hinterland of Jianghan plain, and rich in many kinds of natural and humane resources necessary to develop rural tourism. However, the rural tourism in Wuhan city circle is still in initial stage. Its suburbs are different from not only in the level of economic development but also in the type of rural tourism products. Many problems of funding and management exist in both suburbs and exurbs. This thesis provides to these problems some solutions, such as government regulation, business planning and public-based training. At the same time, it analyzes the future development of rural tourism in Wuhan city, and provides some proposals for the possible problems, including the environment, resources development and the contradictions in community. Finally, it constructs a reasonable framework for the healthy development of rural tourism in Wuhan city.