China Regional Cooperation In Tourism Theory And Practice

Under the circumstances of economic globalization and regional economic integration, regional tourism cooperation, as one of the main trends and hot issues in the world, has great effects on both the orientation and competitiveness of tourism in the future for every country. At present, the practice of regional tourism cooperation is developing vigorously, and becomes the primary industry characteristics of China's tourism to meet the needs of regional economy and tourism. In 2005, regional tourism cooperation achieved a new climax in China, for cooperation became wider, more active and more comprehensive.The great tourist circle of the Three Gorges (GCTG) consists of a municipality and four provinces as follow: Chongqing, Hubei, Hunan, Guizhou, and Sichuan. This tourist circle is quite rich in tourist resources due to its good environment, favorable climate and advanced solid traffic network. However, the holistic image of GCTG has not been established during the course of exploitation and marking of tourism because of regional division and fierce competition within this circle, which result in impairing the brand of GCTG and weakening attraction to tourists. Therefore, regional tourism cooperation of GCTG becomes necessary and inevitable since regional tourism cooperation has been well practiced around the country.Based on the theories of regional tourism cooperation, the present study first probes into the inner motivation of regional tourism cooperation and cooperation modes with some basic theories of economy, geography and management. Then it analyses the significance of industry cluster for promoting the process of regional cooperation and the whole competitiveness of regional tourism. Next, taking GCTG as the object, this study makes empirical analysis of developing regional tourism cooperation in GCTG from the following aspects: spatial distribution, tourist resources and the feasibility of regional tourism cooperation. And at last, it proposes the strategic design of regional tourism cooperation in GCTG considering cooperation goals, cooperation principles, cooperation modes, construction of exterior environment, products development, marketing and industry cluster.