Study On Competition Relationship Among Regional Tourism Cities Zhejiang Province Based On The Niche Theories

Along with the rapid development of tourism, the tourist industry is becoming more and more competitive among regions. How to distinguish rivals, master competition skills and adopt scientific competition strategies to improve competitiveness of their own tourism products, is one of the problems that have to be solved for many tourist cities at present.As same as the natural organism, tourism city is also an organism which has the life cycle. So we can apply ecological theories and methods in exploring the competition relationship among tourism cities. In order to structure the theory basis of this study, niche theories of tourist city were constructed on the basis of the biological niche theories, and a competition judgment framework of regional tourism cities was built using the niche overlap theory and niche situation theory, and basic competitive strategies for tourist cities also were put forward. The study chose eleven tourism cities in Zhejiang province as the research objects, and applied the competition judgment framework to judge the competition relationships among the eleven tourism cities. Based on the competition relationships, the regional competition and development strategies for each tourism city in Zhejiang province were put forward.The main research results are as followings:(1) Put forward the niche concept of tourism city. Combined with the multidimensional niche concept, the niche concept of tourism city was defined as:in a specific regional environment, a tourism city’s tourism development was impacted by multiple factors (such as resources, market, economy, policy, and so on), and the effect of each factor on the tourist cities all had a certain threshold. In the range defined by all these threshold values, the tourism city can survive and develop on any resources combination state, and all these state combination points composed the multidimensional niche of the tourism city in this area environment.(2) Built a competition judgment framework of regional tourism cities based on the niche theories of tourism city. Firstly, calculate the niche overlap degrees between each two tourism cities by using the niche overlap formula to judge the competition degree between each two tourism cities. And then calculate each tourism city’s niche value by using the calculation formula of niche status and trend theory to judge the competition results among tourism cities.(3) Constructed a matrix of competition strategies based on the niche theories of tourism city. The basic competition strategies contained niche separation, niche expansion and specialized, coordinated development, and so on.(4) Chose eleven tourism cities in Zhejiang province as the research objects to analyze the competition relationships among them. And the results showed that the niche overlap degrees between each two tourism cities were in high levels, so the competition pressures also were in high level. And among the eleven tourism cities, comprehensive tourism niches of Hangzhou, Ningbo and Wenzhou were the top three, and the three cities owned a more favorable position in the tourism market. While comprehensive tourism niches of Zhoushan, Huzhou, Quzhou were in the bottom three positions, and they were in a vulnerable position in the tourist market. On this basis, put forward corresponding competitive development strategies for each city on the basis of comprehensive consideration of their niche overlap degree and comprehensive tourism niche values.This study combined the niche overlap theory and niche status and trend theory to analyze the competition relationships of regional tourism cities, and put forward the competition and development strategies of regional tourism cities, it expanded and innovated in the study perspective and method of tourism city’s competition. And it can be more objective and accurate to evaluate the tourism development condition by quantitatively analyzing competition relationships among multiple tourism cities. It can provide scientific theory basis of making development strategies for tourism cities, and it also has practical guidance significance for regional tourism planning and development, such as the development contents, the development sequence, product combination, and so on.