Tourism Cluster Development Strategy Study For Chengdu

In the world of economic globalization, information technology, market economy and economic integration, the industrial cluster development is a new trend of international industrial development in the 21st century. As a new sunrise industry, Tourism becomes one of industries with the deep integration degree due to its comprehensive, open, competitive and relevance characteristics. Since 1990 the famous Harvard Business School management expert Michael ? Porter (Porter, ME) in his "Competitive Advantage of Nations," has proposed "industry cluster" concept, industrial cluster theory is gradually being applied to the tourism industry and regional economic research and practice. At present, more and more tourist area develops in the direction of industrial clustering, through which the overall competitiveness of the tourism industry is improved. The cases in point are the Yangtze River Delta area, the Pearl River Delta Tourism Zone, the Bohai Sea Tourism Zone. In those areas, tourism industry development are gradually breaking the boundaries of administrative divisions, metropolitan tourism circle is built, the tourism resources are integrated within the region, packaging is focused, and the new cross-regional tourist routes is introduced. The tourist industry cluster development strategy promotes domestic tourism into new stage of regional tourism development. But the tourism industry has different characteristics from the general industry sector with blurring lines of tourism products, convergent services structure, the intangible nature of consumption, seasonal feature, and the deeper level of integration with other industries. Those features make the tourism industry cluster not as common as the manufacturing sector Clusters. The exploration of the tourism industry cluster development model is still at the initial stage.From 1990s, experts home and abroad have noted the importance of the tourism industry cluster, and made study about the tourism industry cluster theory , but the study mainly covers basic theory like concept, characteristics, and function, seldom covers development pattern, formation, and specific implementation. There are many disputes about the concept of tourism industry. Overall, the study is still at the initial stage, waiting for the further study.As China's outstanding tourist city, Chengdu is rich in tourism resources and tourism development potential. During the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period, the Chengdu tourism industry keeps steady growth, and is becoming a new economic growth point in Chengdu economic development. Overall, however, Chengdu lacks an internationally competitive attractions and leading tourism enterprises, presenting low tourism industry concentration, and weak overall strength of the tourist attractions. In this context, This paper draws the successful experience from tourism industry cluster development research home and abroad, and studies the future development direction of Chengdu tourism cluster development.This paper firstly systematically studies the tourism industry cluster theory, makes a comprehensive exposition of the relevant concepts, and summarizes the characteristics, formation conditions, function, development model, life cycle and other related concepts of tourism industry cluster theory. With the study of the actual development of the tourism industry in Chengdu, the paper then makes a systematic SWOT analysis about Chengdu tourism cluster development to understand the current tourism cluster development in Chengdu, including its internal and external environment, its own strengths and weaknesses, its opportunities and challenges. Thirdly the paper proposes Chengdu tourism industry cluster development strategic objectives and proposes how to reach these objectives: mainly through four strategies: through Enterprise Cluster Strategy, tourism spatial development strategy, tourist industry complex development Strategy, and the Government power strategy, in the hope that with those three strategies it can enhance the overall strength and popularity of the tourism industry in Chengdu.