| Since the implementation of the strategy of developing the western region, great advancement has been made in the western tourism which is one of the leading industries in the western regional economy. While there still exist a lot of restricting elements and problems which curb sustainable development, among which the disturbance to the ecological environment in travelling areas is so sharp that it has posed a significant challenge to the sustainable development of tourism industry.Urban eco-tourism is a new kind which appears as a combination of urban tourism and ecological tourism. Its highly towards-nature inclination and social adaptability has made it a hot spot for both tourism study and industry. It can also meet the needs of the sustainable development of urban areas.China's western area has a rather vulnerable eco-environment. In this regard, developing urban eco-tourism can not only actively promote the tourism development in the western region, but also exert a positive influence on the eco-environment protection and rectification in a larger scale..This paper takes Xi'an as an example. Based on the local tourism resources and its travelling environment quality, the writer first proposes to strenghthen urban landscape greening, improve the urban eco-environment, establish landscape parks with the city's humanistic culture as the theme and build a ecological city in large. Then based on the natural condition of the surrounding areas, people can develop ecological parks, such as forest parks and natural reserves, taking the natural ecological landscape as their theme.Developing eco-tourism and improving eco-environment in the city as well as its surrounding areas can not only assist to attract more travellers from other places but also meet local urban residents'need for short-distance travel.Urban eco-tourism aims at realiazing the integration of the economy, society and ecological benefit and at the same time providing tourists with the perfect unity of nature-endowed landscapes and the culture created by the humanbeing ourselves. |