Are There Sustainable Development Trends in Chinese Ecotourism Policies?

Literature Review

Although there are numerous studies about Chinese ecotourism, most of them concentrate on ecotourism content or influence. Ren et al. (2021) in their study examine residents’ behaviors under different types of ecotourism participation and how these behaviors impact the surrounding ecosystem. By using quantitative analysis, Zhou et al. (2013) evaluate the impact of ecotourism on mammals in a protected area. A number of studies also explore the relationship between ecotourism and local communities (Ma et al., 2019; Qiu & Tang, 2020) and ecotourism management (Li, 2004; Xu et al., 2017). However, only few studies have investigated Chinese ecotourism-related policies. Amongst these, the work of Liu and Cai (2009) discusses the need of public participation in ecotourism policies’ formulation. A seminal study in this area is the work of Xiao & Zhong (2017), in which they used cluster analysis to describe policy evolution in China synthetically and trace the change of objectives, contents and patterns in Chinese ecotourism policies. Specific terms such as scenic spots and forest parks are introduced in their data collection, which in turn help advance the comprehensiveness of collected data. However, their study neglected the significance of ecotourism and failed to distinguish the difference between simple natural tourism and sustainable ecotourism. Moreover, policies that show only weak association included in their study led to deviations during the conduct of the study.

Based upon previous studies, it can be stated that misinterpretations or malpractices of ecotourism are particularly serious in China. The work of Li et al. (2019) indicated that there may be misunderstanding or misuse of ecotourism in China by analyzing the distribution of Chinese ecotourism sites and found no correlation between the provincial distribution pattern of Chinese ecotourism sites and natural factors such as the number of protected areas or forest coverages. Liu et al. (2009) indicated institutionalizing and formalizing the whole process of public participation is an important prerequisite to achieving effective participation in formulating Chinese eco-tourism policies. Driven by economic interests, some ecotourism operators may selectively ignore the environmentally friendly requirements of “ecotourism” and use the term “ecotourism” just for attracting tourists (Qin et al., 2006; Chen, 2013). Meanwhile, in some ecotourism sites, the excessive number of tourists and the over-development of tourist facilities construction generate negative impacts, such as, environment pollution to the community (Wang et al., 2014; Zhao & Jiao, 2019).