Comprehensive Evaluation And Study On Development Strategy Of Ecotourism Resources In Youyu County

The traditional tourism is not adapted to sustainable development of tourism industry for its negative effects on sightseeing resources and local environment. However, the ecological tourism, aiming at seeking the balance and concordance among ecological, economic and social benefits, shows great vitality in recent years. Youyu County is the transitional zone of farming to herding areas in the northwest of Shanxi Province, which has a long history and culture, remarkable achievements of ecological construction, and abundant ecotourism resources. The scientific and rational evaluation of Youyu is necessary to the development and the sustainability of ecological tourism.Using vegetation, climate, atmosphere, water and acoustic environment as the main factors for natural environmental analysis, the appropriate computing methods were selected to evaluate natural environment quality in Youyu County. The main conclusions are:1) Youyu has high vegetation coverage;2) the comfort indices meet the national standard in summer and autumn, the tourism peak seasons;3) the air quality is good in three seasons except for winter when it is at the "alert" level;and 4) the water quality and noise levels are all with the national limits.The article established the evaluation index system, and calculated the weight of indices using the analytic hierarchy process. Furthermore, the ecotourism resources were ranked with the fuzzy computation. Finally, the situations of Youyu's ecotourism resources were obtained with a method involving analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation. The main conclusions are as follows:The factors including ecological environmental condition, cultural value and esthetic and recreation value, demonstrated the highest weight. The limiting factor in the development of ecotourism industry was the socioeconomic condition. The ranks of Youyu's ecotourism resources were mostly below three-tier standard. Since the whole state of all the ecotourism resources were found as good, it is appropriate for Youyu to develop ecotourism.This thesis proposed development strategy for ecotourism. The general principles are on the local feature, integrity, and relationship. It divided the county into five ecotourism areas, including Shahukou culture tourist area, Cangtouhe River wetland tourist area, natural ecology tourism area, special tourist area, and mining tourist area. The suggestions to ecotourism products development are put forward based on the present situation in Youyu. They include:1) strengthening the construction of ecological industry; 2) establishing brand to raise the popularity of ecotourism resources; 3) strengthening environmental protection education and the training to ecotourism professionals;4) adhering to diversified investment under the guide of government.The thesis is expected to provide a quantitative evaluation of Youyu's ecotourism resources to set the direction for future development of ecotourism industry in Youyu. The analysis is useful in providing a guidance to such poverty-stricken counties but with esthetic natural landscapes and a long history as Youyu in terms of the development of ecotourism industry. It also demonstrates an example for regional development in the transitional zone of farming to herding areas, both in environmental improvements and ecological tourism...