Managing Side Effects of Cultural Tourism Development
- The Case of Zhouzhuang
Xu Honggang
In the proposals submitted to UNESCO for world heritage, four major values are listed: 1)The town, not impacted much by wars and other disasters, is located in a region which has always been the most developed in China since the 9th century. It presents well the local history. 2) The layouts of the town and buildings were beautifully designed and express the harmony of and human. 3) The water town plays an important in the regional economic system. 4) Humanity essence of the local culture. Local people are famous for their simple happiness and honesty.
Tourism development started in the 1980s. Strategies and policies have been made and implemented in order to raise the destination attractiveness and economic returns on tourism investment. Promotion is a major strategy. An increasing substantial potential of tourism income has been devoted to promotional efforts. To be registered in the world culturaI heritage directory is also a way of promotion tourism. Strategies are formulated to reallocate some residents in the old town to reduce environmental pressures and make it easier for the company to manage the attraction. Although tourists are several times more than resident during the national holiday days, impacts of tourists on the local environment and society are not managed and controlled properly. In order to bring a staged authentic local cultural atmosphere for tourists, blacksmith and grass weaving shops have been established. For the same purpose, a brand called Wangshan was also contrived for a serial of specialties, such as Wangshan Pig Foot, Wangshan Cake and Wangshan Wine. However, since raw materials for specialties are not produced locally, the economic leakage is quite large. The Protection Plan of Zhouzhuang Old Town was finalized and is being implemented. Formerly demolished traditional style buildings, such as bridges, old gardens have been reconstructed. However, environmental facilities have not been put into place to treat water and waste solids.
The corporate is now headed by the deputy governor of Zhouzhuang Town. The ownership determines that corporate has strong linkages with the local com- munities and has strong control over local residents. Compared with other tourism development regions controlled by external monopolized tourism companies in many developing countries, the strategies that Zhouzhuang Tourism Company has adopted are less opposed by the locals. For example, the resettlement program has been quite well accepted by the locals. However, resistance from the locals can rise if the potential conflicts are not solved in the early stage of tourism development.
Impacts of Tourism on Local Attractions
- Job opportunities
Tourism is touted as a major source of employment wide. Tourism development has provided substantial job opportunities in Zhouzhuang. However, local people prefer categorizing themselves producers to service providers. Migrants are attracted to start small business and work in tourism sector. All the low pay jobs are filled by outsiders rather than the locals.
- Commodification
When TSARTAS(1992)studied the sociological impacts of tourism on two Greek Isle, he pointed at the declining of the cultural value is hard to be perceived. Tourism development has also caused a lot of cultural changes in Zhouzhuang.
According to the survey done in November of 2000, commodification is undertaking rapidly in Zhouzhuang. There are 466 various shops situated in the old town (including the ones in the process of decoration). There are 166 craft shops selling framed photos, 94 restaurants and local specialty shops mainly selling Wangshan pig foot. These shops are basically for tourists. The old town has turned into a busy business town especially for tourists. Articles on the commodification in Zhouzhuang have reported in newspaper (CHEN, 2001).
- Environmental damage
The total area available for 10000 m^2. If 15m^2 are needed for each tourists, the maximum carrying capacity is about 2000 people per day. During the public holiday period, average tourists visiting this place far exceed its carrying capacity. The over-crowdness brought environmental damage, especially water pollution. With the increase of tourists and the opening of 24 big-scale restaurants discharging waste water directly into the canals, water is badly polluted.
Although any new construction inside the old town was controlled quite strictly, hotels and other service facilitates have been built around the old town attempting to benefit from the arriving tourists. New tourism products, “free-riders" of the old town, such Japanese style golf course, and other recreational facilities are also constructed rounding the old town. The image of quite and peaceful water-town is hardly obtained.
Also, travelers expectations of the goods and services, can lead to the items or services, being imported from outside or local supply chains, being distorted to meet demands and sometimes lead to the increased consumption of local natural resources (HUNTER and GREEN, 1995; STABLER, 1998).The increased demand for water and pig feet in Zhouzhuang is a good example.
- Latent conflicts between local people and tourism development
The work done by BULTER (1980) and others indicates that the level of tourism development influences residents’ perception of the tourism development and thus leads to potential conflicts. WILLIAMS and SHAW (1998) pointed out that there is no simple linear relationship between the growth of tourism and the benefits for local communities. In the initial stages, tourism may bring benefits to the locals. With the further development, both co
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