BOOK Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business

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INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH IN BUSINESS

JUNE 2011 VOL 3,NO 2

7

Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business

Double Blind Peer Reviewed Journal

IJCRB

ISSN 2073-7122

Vol .3, No. 2 June 2011

www.ijcrb.webs.com [email protected]

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Editorial Board

IJCRB is a peer reviewed Journal and IJCRB Editorial Board consists of Phd doctors from all over the world including USA, UK, South Africa, Canada, European and Asian countries.

Prof. Renee Pistone

Harvard University, Lifetime Fellow - Harvard URI.

706 McCormick Dr Toms River, New Jersey USA Voice: 732.668.4533

Lord David K

Oxford University , St Catherine's College, Oxford, OX1 3UJ www.stcatz.ox.ac.uk/ , www.ox.ac.uk/ Phone: +44 1865 271700 , Fax: +44 1865 271768

Dr. Kenan Peker

Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Selcuk, http://www.selcuk.edu.tr/

University of Selcuk, 42079 Konya, Turkey, Tel: 90-332-231-2877 Dr. A. Sathiyasusuman

Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Statistics, University of the Western Cape, South Africa Dr Mahdi Salehi

Assistant Professor, Accounting and Management Department, http://www.znu.ac.ir/

Zanjan University , D.N 1 Nagilo Alley, Hidaj City, Zanjan Province, Zanjan, Iran , Tel: 98-9121-425-323

Dr Heryanto

Regional Development Bank of West Sumatra

Jalan Pemuda No. 21 PO Box 111 Padang 25117 West Sumatra Indonesia Tel: +62-8126771699

Dr. Dave Hinkes

Assistant Professor of Managment & Marketing

Sam Walton Fellow , Lincoln Memorial University , Harrogate, TN ,UK Tel 423.869.6441

Dr. Francis A. Ikeokwu Sr., Ph.D., MAC, MBA, CFC

Adjunct Professor, American Intercontinental University http://www.aiuniv.edu/

Dr Charles C. Dull Sr. MBA, Ph.D.

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Dr Cara Peters

Assistant professor of marketing , Winthrop University , Rock Hill, South Carolina.

PhD in business administration , University of Nebraska

Peer-reviewer of the Journal of Consumer Psychology; Consumption, Markets, and Culture; and Journal of Academy of Marketing Science.

Dr Mahmoud M. Haddad PhD in Finance

214 Business Administration Building

University of Tennessee-Martin ,Martin, TN 38238 Tel No +1731-881-7249 Dr G.A. Abu

Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Agricultural Economics, Extension and

Management Technology, University of Agriculture, P.M.B.2373, Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria.

Phone: +234-803-607-4434; fax: +234-44-534040 Dr.Rashid Rehman

Associate Professor , College of Business Studies Al Ghurair University , Dubai, UAE.

Dr Ebrahim Soltani

Lecturer in Operations Management

Kent Business School University of Kent , UK Dr Pu Xujin

Business School, Jiangnan University, Jiangsu Wuxi,P.R.China ,214122

Tel: (86510) 85913617 , FAX: (86510) 62753617 , Mobile: (86) 13616193600 Dr. E. B. J. Iheriohanma

Ph. D. Sociology

Directorate of General Studies, Federal University of Technology, Owerri Imo State Nigeria.

Tel +2348037025980.

Dr Etim Frank

Departmentof Political Science-University of Uyo-Akwa Ibom State-Nigeria Phd (Political Science/Public Administration) University of Calabar

SL Choi

University Teknologi Malaysia

School of Business Management Southern College Malaysia Dr. Nek Kamal Yeop Yunus

Senior Lecturer, Department of Business Management

Faculty of Business & Economics, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Tanjong Malim, Malaysia.

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Dr. S. I. Malik

PhD Bio Chemistry & Molecular Biology (National University of Athens) NHEERL. Envrironmental carcinigenei division

RTP Complex NC 27713, US Environmental protection Agency , 919-541-3282 Dr. Bhagaban Das

Reader, Department of Business Management Vyasa Vihar, Balasore-756019 Orissa T. Ramayah http://www.ramayah.com

Associate Professor , School of Management ,University Sains Malaysia, Tel 604-653 3888

Dr. Wan Khairuzzaman bin Wan Ismail

Assoc. Professor International Business School, UTM International Campus Jalan Semarak 54100 Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA

Zainudin Hj Awang

Faculty of Information Technology and Quantitative Sciences, MARA University Technology MARA Kelantan 18500, Malaysia ,Tel: 60-9-9762-302

Ravi Kiran

Associate Professor, School Of Management & Social Sciiences, Thapar University.

Dr.Suguna Pathy

Head, Department of Sociology, VNSG University, Surat Birasnav M

Assistant professor, Park Global School of Business Excellence, Kaniyur, Coimbatore Dr. C.N. Ojogwu

Phd Education Management - University of Benin, Benin City, Edo state, Nigeria.

Senior lecturer - University of Benin.

Dr. Nik Maheran Nik Muhammad

General Conference Co-Chair, GBSC 2009, www.nikmaheran.com Dr. A. Abareshi

Lecturer, School of Business IT and Logistics RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia Office: +61 3 99255918

Dr Ganesh Narasimhan

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UKC^HAPTER:CÂNTERBURY,KÊNT,CT2,7PE,U^NITEDKÎNGDOM

SOUTH AFRICA CHAPTER: WESTERN CAPE , PRIVATE BAG X17,BELLVILLE 7535, SOUTH AFRICA

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Sustainable Development and Chinese Tourism Industry

Dr. Luo, Yan

Keiser University Graduate School

1900 W Commercial Blvd, Ft Lauderdale, FL, 33309 Abstract

With the fast growth of Chinese tourism industry, sustainable development catches more and more attention of professionals. Starting from the basic concept of sustainable development, this paper, using China as examples, analyzes the inter-impact of sustainable development and tourism industry in different aspects. Strategies to improve sustainability of one of famous Chinese tourism destination are introduced.

Keywords: Sustainable development, Tourism, Chinese, Strategy 1. Introduction

Nowadays, "Sustainable" has become one of the newest hot topics. The term came into widely use in 1987 with publication of Our Common Future, the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), and then be spread to all over the world in different industries. Tourism, as an industry which is one of the largest economic sectors internationally and depends a lot on the destinations’ environments (natural, socio-cultural, and/or economic), must be taken into account of the sustainable development issues. The concept of sustainable development has becoming a catchphrase in tourism research and in the international development community. This paper will concentrate on the sustainable development of tourism from three aspects, environmental, socio- cultural, and economic, according to its definition from World Tourism Organization (WTO). It includes the relationship between sustainable development issues and tourism industry and the strategies to improve its sustainability situation.

1.1. Concepts and Definitions

Generally speaking, "sustainability" represents an idealized state of society where people live to satisfy their needs in environmentally sound and socially just ways so as to not compromise the ability of other human beings from doing the same now and in the future (WCED 1987).

In the tourism field, the sustainable tourism was defined by Bramwell and Lane (1993 p.2) as “A positive approach intended to reduce the tensions and friction created by the complex interactions between the tourism industry, visitors, the environment and the communities which are host to holidaymakers… (it) is not antigrowth, but it acknowledges that there are limits to growth (which) vary considerably from place to place, and according to management practices.” The WTTC et al.’s definition (1995 p.30) is “sustainable tourism development meets the needs of present tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunity for the future. It is envisaged as leading the management of all resources in such a way that economic, social, and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity, and life support systems”. In Buckley definition (2002), “sustainable tourism means tourism at any scale with practical and proactive design, engineering, and management to reduce environmental impacts". And from the latest definition from WTO (2004), "Sustainability principles refer to the environmental, economic and socio-cultural aspects of tourism development, and a suitable balance must be established between these three dimensions to guarantee its long-term development.”

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2. The Impacts between Sustainable Development & Tourism Industry

Tourism industry is arguably the biggest industry in the world in terms of employment and revenue.

As the main source of foreign capital in many developing and transition countries where have rapid growth on tourism related activities, tourism has been considered as an important economic factor there. A sustainable tourism becomes more and more critical for these areas’ long-term development.

But there is a contradiction between the sustainability and tourism. On the one hand, sustainable development is definitely good for tourism. It can stretch the destination’s lifecycle, enhance its competition. On the other hand, in some sense, developing tourism means exploiting, consuming, and even polluting resources, some of which are nonrenewable, especially those in the destination.

The direct result of this is destroying the sustainability. That’s two-way relationship between them.

The following will discuss the relationship from environmental, socio-cultural, and economic aspects according to the latest definition of sustainable development of tourism.

2.1 Environment Issues

Sustainability in environmental aspect of tourism means making optimal use of environmental resources that constitute a key element in tourism development, maintaining essential ecological processes and helping to conserve natural heritage and biodiversity (WTO, 2004). For the natural- based destinations, the fresh air, clear water, blue sky with sunshine, etc. the beautiful natural scenery is what attracts tourists. So protecting environment should be one of the tourism’s obligations, even for their own benefits. Unfortunately, as a matter of fact, the development of tourism does have some negative impacts on its dependent environment.

Pollution

When we talk about tourism pollution issues, there was a consensus of travelers’ consumption in transportation, mainly road and air transportation. It is said that the use of road transport by travelers contributes significantly to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. And air transport, not as much as road, made more and more GHG emissions, too. The effect of that is the climate change. Temperature rises, sea level rises, flood, storms and sea surges, all of these will in turn put tourism at risk.

Tourisms in seaside and mountain regions are the two very sensitive areas to climate change. The global mean sea level rose by between 10cm and 20cm during the twentieth century and current predictions suggest a rise of 20cm to 100cm, with a mid-estimate of 50cm, during the twenty first (Jones, 2003). Some of the beautiful beaches and even small islands will be regressing or disappeared, as a result of that. Tourism destinations then will find themselves without attraction.

Similar thing will happen in mountain regions. Mountain region especially those that attract tourists by snow or glacier will suffer the shrinking snow cover because of the temperature rises. Using Tibet of China as an example, according to the surveys performed by a group of 20 scientists from China and the United States over a 40-month period, “Tibet's glaciers have been receding over the past four decades due to global warming, …most of the plateau's glaciers will have disappeared from the face of the Earth by the turn of the next century, … global warming was causing China's highland glaciers, including those covering Mount Everest, to shrink by an amount equivalent to all

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Another pollution problem is the litter issue. That is a problem especially in the remote or poverty area. I have been to Tibet, which is called the world last pure place. I was shocked by the nice people and fantastic scenery, extremely blue sky, transparent water, and the marvelous snow mountain. The picture below can show a little of its beauty. Is it amazing? But can you imagine.

There are also some disappointed scenes there just outside the picture. More and more tourists make there more and more dirty. Cans, bottles, toilet papers, you can see these litters almost everywhere.

The local restaurants are still using the so-called “white wastes” canteens, and they are thrown directly to the nature after used. Local residents seem not care about the environment. Nobody responds for cleaning and treating the rubbish. Yes, Tibet did make money since more and more visitors there. But I do worry about the future of its tourism industry. If current situation continued, we might not maintain the “world last pure land”. The tourism there will be damaged a lot.

Lake of Tibet Lijiang crescent moon spring Water shortage and land desertification

Tourism is also a huge resources consumer. The evidence shows that tourists' water consumption was far in excess of that of local residents and that deteriorates water stress in regions and areas which already suffer from water shortages (Djerba Conference, 2003). Western China is a typical water-scarce area. In order to improve its tourism industry, the resorts, hotels and restaurants have to give full time water service for their visitors, including 24-hour showing water, although they have totally about 10 million people who met drinking water difficulties.

Nowadays, many natural resorts are threatened by water shortage and desertification. Lijiang, China, which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors because of its beautiful landscape of mountain and water, now is “tired”. In several months, especially from September to next February, water shortage makes boats have difficulty to navigate in the river.

Another heart-struck example is shrinkage of crescent moon spring, Gansu, China by desertification.

According to the native’s introduction, in the recent decades, the crescent moon spring actually is shrinking by the astonishing speed., the current crescent moon spring water surface is only 1/3 of 1960’s, and the water depth also dropped from 7 - 8 meters to today’s about 1 meter. If that continued, this well-known tourism destination would disappear from this planet.

2.2 Socio-Culture Issues

Cultural tourism is about movements of people motivated by cultural intents such as study tours, performing arts, festivals, cultural events, visits to sites and monuments, as well as travel for pilgrimages, and enjoyment of the lifestyle of the local people, the local area and what constitutes its

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identity and character (WTO, 2004). The development of cultural tourism is regarded as an effective way to alleviate poverty.

Sustainable cultural tourism development requires tourists “respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities, conserve their built and living cultural heritage and traditional values, and contribute to inter-cultural understanding and tolerance” (WTO, 2004).

But the exploiting cultural tourism and sustainable tourism development are a pair of contradiction.

Arguably, a destination that dedicates maximum efforts to conserving its unique cultural heritage instead of exploiting it for tourism would fail in business terms. On the contrary, a destination with few strategies for cultural heritage conservation but maximum business goals of developing tourism based on its cultural heritage would see the loss of its culture and tradition in the development process (Wight, 1994). It is well known that Xi’an, China is a destination which is rich in cultural heritage. Millions of visitors from all over the world come to experience the long history of China.

Tourism, therefore, become the city’s backbone. But sustainable problems are met during exploitation. Many cultural relics, such as “Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses”, were buried beneath the earth for thousands of years. So as soon as they are excavated, they begin facing the danger of erosion. Exploitation and destroy happen simultaneously.

Another example is the Lugu Lake, which is the only existing matrilineal society in China. Tourists go there because of its special customs and its original village. But in order to attract more visitors, the residents used to build modern architectures, like dancing hall, Kara OK, etc. These buildings are not harmonious with its culture. That definitely badly impacted the tourism there. So not long later, they were removed.

2.3 Economic Issues

“Ensuring viable, long-term economic operations, providing socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders that are fairly distributed, including stable employment and income-earning opportunities and social services to host communities, and contributing to poverty alleviation” is the WTO’s latest definition for economical sustainability of tourism.

Tourism is believed the world's largest and fastest growing industry, accounting for 5.5% of the global Gross National Product and 6% of the employment (Glasson, Godfrey, & Goodey, 1999). It is an important economic asset for some countries and regions, and the main way to alleviate poverty in most of the underdeveloped countries. The countries of greatest need in the fight against poverty are also areas with massive tourism opportunity. They abound in culture, nature and tradition that tomorrow's tourists are seeking. All developing countries have tourism export potential -- it is already one of the top sources of investment and foreign exchange. And the good news is that over the past decade tourism to poor countries grew at twice the rate of OECD states (New York Beacon, 2004).

When the tourism makes money for the destinations, it also brings potential damage for them. As this paper mentioned above, the development of tourism has had so much bad impacts on