A Study On The Ethnic Rural Community Participation In Tourism Development

Community participation has been advocated broadly as a sustainable way in tourism by researchers.Researchers concern about the ethnic rural community participation in tourism development, accompanied by Chinese government developing rural tourism to eliminate poverty and advocating scientific development recently.This article summaries the deficiency of current studies, firstly, the author analyzes the theory basis of community participation in western academics, it is based on participation in decision making and planning. For Chinese special condition, the author advocates that we go from benefit-sharing to decision-making. At the same time, the author analyzes the four main stakeholders in the ethnic rural community, and their perceptions to the existing problems. Then, the author did field research about Dehang by using methods of participatory research, key-informant interview, questionnaire-survey, including contents as follows:1) assessment about the current benefits-sharing of rural people; 2) research about community participation will and availability; 3) the function of the local government and the enterprise; 4) tourists perceptions and assessment about community participation in tourism development. From the results, the author verifies that benefit-sharing is the promotion about community participation should be from benefit-sharing to decision-making. At last, there are some advices for four stakeholders in promoting community participation in tourism development.This article analyzes community participation in tourism development explicitly. The experiences and suggestions learned in practical can be used for other similar ethnic communities.