Ecotourism Development Evaluation and Measures for Forest Parks in China

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September, 2017 Journal of Resources and Ecology Vol. 8 No.5 J. Resour. Ecol. 2017 8(5) 470-477 DOI: 10.5814/j.issn.1674-764x.2017.05.004 www.jorae.cn Ecotourism Development Evaluation and Measures for Forest Parks in China XIANG Baohui * School of Management, China Women s University, Beijing 100101, China Abstract: Forest parks are one of the important kinds of destinations for the development of ecotourism in China. Based on the principles of ecotourism, an evaluation index system of ecotourism development in forest parks was established. This paper uses data from investigations in 27 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China to evaluate and analyze the ecotourism development of China s forest parks. In order to promote the sustainable development of ecotourism in forest parks, the paper suggests a number of measures, such as promoting the integration of the tourism industry and related industries, exploring folklore tourism products, planning an environmental interpretation system, perfecting the infrastructure and service facilities system in line with the principles of ecology, building an environmental monitoring system, setting up a reasonable mechanism for community participation, strengthening capital investment and investment management, and paying attention to the cultivation of professional talent for ecotourism. These measures can be used as references and guides to the development and construction of ecotourism in forest parks in China. Key words: forest park; ecotourism development; evaluation; measures; China 1 Introduction Forest parks are one type of popular ecotourism destination in China (Buckley et al., 2008). Forest parks combine beautiful forest landscapes with a certain scale of natural landscape and cultural landscape suitable for sightseeing, recreation or carrying out scientific, cultural and educational activities (Lan, 2004). Since China's first forest park Zhangjiajie National Forest Park was established by the central government, the development of forest parks in China has gone through an initial stage (1982-1990), an extensive development stage (1991-1993), a gradual development stage (1994-2000), and a quality and efficiency improvement stage (2001 to present) (State Forestry Administration of China, 2013). Forest parks continue to develop and expand (Fig. 1), playing an important part in China's ecological protection efforts. They provide an important way to enrich the people through green development, are crucial carriers for spreading ecological culture and serve as gateways for constructing a beautiful China. As the number of tourists increases (Fig. 2), forest parks have become one of the most important ecotourism destinations in China. By the end of 2016, China had set up a total of 3392 forest parks with a total area of 18,866,700 hectares, including 827 national forest parks and one national forest tourism area (13,200,900 hectares). These parks received a total of 917 million tourists (including 14,976,690 overseas tourists) in 2016. Tourism income amounted to CNY 78.16 billion. Moreover, forest ecotourism has become an important means of forestry development and a way to promote people's livelihood. Forest ecotourism has an educational function as well. Forest ecotourism activities help tourists learn about ecological and low-carbon concepts related to forestry, and these learning experiences help significantly to raise people's awareness of ecological and environmental issues. The rapid development of forest ecotourism in China has Received: 2017-05-03 Accepted: 2017-08-05 Foundation: National Natural Science Foundation of China (41671527) *Corresponding author: XIANG Baohui, E-mail: xiangbh@cwu.edu.cn Citation: XIANG Baohui. 2017. Ecotourism Development Evaluation and Measures for Forest Parks in China. Journal of Resources and Ecology, 8(5): 470 477.

XIANG Baohui: Ecotourism Development Evaluation and Measures for Forest Parks in China 471 Fig.1 Numbers of national forest parks in 1992 2016 Fig.2 Tourist numbers in forest parks in China in 1992 2016 encouraged more and more researchers to pay attention to this field. A search of the term forest ecotourism in the literature database of China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) shows 575 results for articles published in core journals in China through the end of 2016. Included among the articles are research on the content of forest ecotourism (Ma 1998, Wang et al. 1998), evaluations of the value forest ecotourism (Dai et al. 1998, Kang et al. 2001, Chen 2003), the environmental impact of forest ecotourism (Li et al. 1998, Wang et al. 1999), the development of forest ecotourism in various regions (Li et al. 2007, Tian et al. 2009), forest ecotourism and low-carbon awareness (Chen et al. 2013, Guo et al. 2013), the ecological security of forest ecotourism (Zheng et al. 2015 ), management difficulties and the sustainable development of forest ecotourism (Luo et al. 2013, Lin et al. 2015) and so on. Using forest park plus ecotourism as the key word, the search returned 239 articles published in core Chinese journals through the end of 2016, including forest park ecotourism suitability evaluations (Zhong et al. 2002), research on forest park ecotourism planning (Xue et al. 2006), the design of ecotourism products in forest parks (Lei et al. 2008), forest park ecological resources evaluations and development (Li et al. 2010), ecotourism interpretation systems for forest parks (Peng et al.2010), forest park environmental carrying capacity (Zhang et al. 2011), sustainable forest park ecotourism development (Luo et al. 2013) and development strategies for ecotourism in forest parks (Zhang et al. 2014). Most studies of forest park ecotourism focus on the cases of particular forest parks, and are not concerned with broader issues like construction of the ecotourism industry or ecotourism management for whole country. Forests are also considered important sources of recreation and ecotourism in many other countries (Marianne Zandersen et al., 2009). It has become increasingly common for researchers to discuss development models for recreation and ecotourism at both the local and national levels (Ishwar Dhami et al., 2014; Smriti Ashok, Dr. et al., 2017). Based on the principles of ecotourism, this paper develops an evaluation index system to assess the current situation and problems of ecotourism development in forest parks from a national perspective. The paper proposes countermeasures for problems and makes suggestions for reference and guidance in the development and construction of ecotourism in forest parks in China. It is hoped the paper will help to realize the scientific protection and rational utilization of forest parks. 2 Methods 2.1 Establishing the index system Fifteen experts in tourism, ecology, resources, geography, urban and rural planning and other relevant fields were invited for consultations based on the ecotourism principles proposed by the International Ecotourism Society (Weaver, 2003) and the current circumstances of China s forest parks. By adopting the Delphi Method, a forest park ecotourism development evaluation index system was established. The index contains 57 indicators including ones for the number of ecotourists and ecotourist revenue, ecotourism products development, ecotourism interpretation and education, green infrastructure development, environmental quality and protection, community participation, ecotourism management, etc. (Table 1). 2.2 Data collection This study used a field survey and a mail survey to obtain data. The questionnaire was tested by Cronbach's α reliability analysis. We obtained the α coefficient of 0.870, indicating that the questionnaire data have a high degree of credibility. The survey was conducted from July 2013 to December 2015, covering 27 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government. The forest park survey consisted of an on-the-spot survey and a survey conducted by post; there were 382 questionnaires altogether (of which, about 89% were field survey). A total of 354 copies were responded by the manager of forest park, achieving a validity of 92.67%. Using SPSS18.0 software, the questionnaire was analyzed by means of <0.05 for significant difference and F test. When choosing survey samples, the number and proportion of forest parks in each province was taken into consideration (Table 2). 3 Result analysis 3.1 Ecotourists numbers and revenue China is a large country with rich forest resources. The combination of many high-quality natural and cultural landscapes has created great potential for the development

472 Journal of Resources and Ecology Vol. 8 No. 5, 2017 Table 1 Forest park ecotourism development evaluation index system Goal level (A) Factor level (B) Indicator level (C) Forest park ecotourism development evaluation index system Table 2 Tourist numbers and revenue (B1) Ecotourism products development (B2) Ecotourism interpretation and education (B3) Green infrastructure (B4) Environment quality and protection (B5) partici- Community pation (B6) Ecotourism management (B7) Opening season and hour (C1); Annual tourists number (C2); Tourism annual income (C3); Main revenue source (C4) Whether to implement sightseeing (C5); Vacation tours (C6); Scientific tours (C7); Education tours (C8); Bird watching (C9); Adventure tours (C10); Countryside tours (C11); Camping and driving tours (C12); Ethnic customs tours (C13); Green food sales (C14); Audio and video products sales (C15); Forest park pictures sales (C16); Forest park-relevant philatelic items sales (C17); Other ecotourism souvenirs sales (C18); Local traditional products sales (C19); and Whether to combine the tourism project with local folk customs (C20); and Whether to combine the tourism project with surrounding scenic spots (C21) Whether it has plans for an interpretation system (C22); and Methods of interpretation (C23); Whether the interpretation system shows the local natural, environmental values (C24); Whether the interpretation system shows the local cultural and environmental values and traditions (C25) Are there standards for main buildings in the forest park (C26); Layout of accommodations (C27); The relationship between tourism activities and the concept of environmental protection (C28); Whether facilities and the environment are in harmony (C29); Use of ecological toilets (C30); Means of transport (C31); Road conditions in forest parks (C32) Air quality (C33); Quality of surface water (C34); Vegetation coverage rate and the background value (C35); Soil erosion status (C36); Forest park tourist area sewage discharge rate (C37); Forest park tourism area solid waste solution (C38); Tourist area water utilization rate (C39); Clean energy utilization rate (C40); Use of ecological toilets (C41); Whether to establish a tourism eco-environmental monitoring system (C42); Implementation rate of environmental impact assessment of construction projects (C43); Main negative impact on the environment of the forest park (C44); Whether to formulate contingency ecological plan (C45); The protection and management of the cultural resources of the landscape (C46); The protection and management of the biological environment and tourism resources (C47); Tourism s impact on local people s income (C48); Community residents attitudes toward tourism development (C49); Ways of community residents' participation in ecotourism planning (C50); Participation of local residents in ecotourism planning (C51); Community residents' participation in tourism ecotourism operations (C52) Whether there are relevant regulations and rules for ecotourism (C53); Whether there is a code of conduct for tourists (C54); Factors that hinder the development of forest park ecotourism (C55); Whether there are tourist accident prevention mechanisms (C56); Whether the site has managers (C57) Distribution of sample provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities Province Number Percentage (%) Province Number Percentage (%) Beijing 8 2.3 Henan 16 4.5 Tianjing 1 0.3 Hubei 18 5.1 Hebei 10 2.8 Hunan 25 7.1 Shanxi 9 2.5 Guangdong 26 7.3 Inner Mongolia 13 3.7 Guangxi 13 3.7 Jilin 6 1.7 Hainan 8 2.3 Heilongjiang 22 6.2 Chongqing 5 1.4 Shanghai 6 1.7 Sichuan 18 5.1 Jiangsu 24 6.8 Guizhou 20 5.6 Zhejiang 22 6.2 Yunnan 11 3.1 Anhui 14 4.0 Ningxia 6 1.7 Jiangxi 20 5.6 Xinjiang 2 0.5 Shandong 13 3.7 Tibet 3 0.8 Fujian 15 4.2 Total 354 100 of ecotourism in China s forest parks. Of the 354 forest parks that provided survey information, 327 forest parks have officially developed ecotourism, accounting for 92.3% of the total number of forest parks; of the 327 parks 34.5% were opened in the 1990s and 41% were opened after 2000. The fastest growth is seen in 1990s, with an increase of 84 over the 1980s, representing a growth rate of 227%. In terms of tourist numbers, 20.9% of the forest parks received from 50 to 100 thousand people, while 46.6% of the forest parks received more than 100 000 people (Fig.3). In terms of annual tourism income, forest parks with an annual income of more than CNY 5 million accounted for 23.7%, parks with an annual income of CNY 1-5 million accounted for 20.8%, and parks with an annual income of CNY 0.5-

XIANG Baohui: Ecotourism Development Evaluation and Measures for Forest Parks in China 473 Fig.3 Annual tourist numbers Fig.4 Revenue from ecotourism 1 million accounted for 18.5% of the total (Fig.4). This shows that forest park ecotourism in China has entered a stage of steady development. At 77.4% of the forest parks, the main source of income was ticket sales, while at 65.7% the main source was accommodations.most income comes from a single source at many parks, suggesting that the ecotourism industry needs more innovation to meet the growing, varied demands from tourists. 3.2 Ecotourism products Since the establishment of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in 1982, more and more different ecotourism products have been developed and introduced in China's forest parks (Zhong et al. 2003). With respect to ecotourism products development among the surveyed forest parks, 94.4% offer sightseeing tourism products, 84.5% offer leisure products, 50.6% offer science education tourism products, 49.2% offer rural tourism products, 48.6% offer scientific exploration tourism products, 36.2% offer camping and driving tourism products, 32.2% offer adventure tourism products, 25.1% offer ethnic tourism and 22.6% offer birdwatching products (Fig. 5). It can be seen that the types of ecotourism products in China's forest parks are rich. Beginning with typical sightseeing tourism products, China's forest park ecotourism products are evolving towards leisure tourism and special interest ecotourism products (for example, adventure tourism products, scientific exploration products, etc.). Tourism products are mainly green food in 83.3% of the parks and local traditional products with distinctive features in 72.6% of the parks. At the same time, forest park ecotourism products development has focused on a combination of local geography and folk culture. Among the surveyed forest parks, 86.2% of the tourism products in the parks were closely related to ideas about the protection of nature, 75.7% had tie-ins with local folklore and 89% could interact with the surrounding scenic spots. But the survey also shows that 17.6% of the surveyed forest parks have not yet combined products with local folklore, 6.3% have no plans to develop such product tie-ins, indicating that the combination of tourism products with local culture is far from ideal. 3.3 Interpretation and education in ecotourism Ecotourism emphasizes the opportunity it gives visitors to experience nature and culture, so ecotourism needs to provide high-quality interpretation services to visitors so they can appreciate these experiences (Guo et al.1997). The results of this study show that the forest parks in China have begun to pay attention to the construction of environmental interpretation systems. 77.3% of the forest parks already have special environmental interpretation systems or have a special section about interpretation in the tourism development plan, while 22.7% of the forest parks have not yet developed a plan for an environmental interpretation system. Commonly used interpretation media include tour guide interpretation, reading materials (brochures, webpages, leaflets), signs and indoor screens. Their utilization rates at the forest parks surveyed are 87.8%, 83.7%, 73% and 37%, respectively. Related special reading materials (monographs or papers), expert narrations and intelligent recreation activities receive low rates of utilization (23.3%, 19% and 8.1%, respectively) (Fig.6). These percentages reflect a lack Fig.5 Forest park ecotourism products Fig.6 Interpretation systems in forest parks

474 Journal of Resources and Ecology Vol. 8 No. 5, 2017 of awareness of environmental interpretation at forest parks in China, and the low degree of specialization of environmental interpretation systems. When it comes to interpretation, 96.8% of the surveyed forest parks fully or partly displayed local natural-ecological value, while 95.8% fully or partly displayed local cultural values and traditions. This indicates that China's forest park interpretation has clear themes and is able to demonstrate geographical characteristics and cultural knowledge in multiple ways. 3.4 Green infrastructure Ecotourism requires the infrastructure and facilities of the forest park to be in line with the principles of ecologization and minimizing carbon footprint. In the forest parks surveyed, 87.3% of the roads have been scientifically planned, and 73.2% of the scenic landscapes along the roads remained intact. But only 17.3% retained animal channels, only 12.7% set animal channel signs and only 31.4% used ecological materials for pavement, indicating that forest parks are tourist-oriented when planning and constructing scenic roads, but have not paid enough attention to ecological considerations. The survey shows that walking and cars are the main modes of transport in forest parks, with walking found in 86.9% of forest parks and car transport in 61.9%. Only 33.8% of the parks used environmentally friendly tour vehicles. High utilization of cars can cause air, noise and other kinds of pollution. Among surveyed forest parks, 44.2% have restaurants and accommodation facilities located mainly outside of the forest park, 29.9% have their accommodations concentrated in a particular location inside the park, and 25.9% have accommodations scattered throughout the park. Buildings in forest parks are mainly of simple and practical types (54.8%) and middle level types (40.7%). In terms of coordination between facilities and the environment, 68.6% of the parks achieve overall coordination and 27.7% have partial coordination. As for ecological toilets, 29.1% of forest parks achieve a utilization rate of 100%, 42.7% of forest parks have a utilization rate of 50%-99% and in 27.1% the parks, the utilization rate is below 50%. Generally speaking, progress has been made placing green infrastructure in forest parks. 3.5 Environmental quality and protection In the samples, 97.3% of the forest parks maintain the vegetation coverage rate to that of the level before setting up forest park, and 98.5% of the forest parks witness no significant soil erosion. Among surveyed parks, 80.4% meet the air quality standard I (the highest standard) and 19.3% of them meet the secondary standard set by Ambient Air Quality Standard (GB3838-2002). Among the surveyed parks, 67.6% of their surface water quality meets standard I (the highest standard), 26.8% meet standard II and 5.6% meet standard III set by Surface Water Environmental Quality Standards (GB3838-2002). In 41.4% of the forest parks, all discharged sewage complies with standards. And 45% of forest parks spend more than 10% of their annual revenue for environmental and resources protection. This indicates that the development of ecotourism in forest parks in our country is in good shape. But there are also some problems in the management of ecotourism. These include the fact that only 36.2% of the forest parks have established well-running tourism eco-environmental monitoring systems, while 10.8% forest park have such systems, but they do not run well and 53.1% of forest parks no eco-environmental monitoring system in place. Only 59.5% of the forest parks boast a rate of 100% for implementation of environmental impact assessment projects. In 58% of the parks, the main negative impact of tourism on the environment is garbage, followed by damage to natural conservation objects in 23.7% of the parks, and water pollution in 21.4%. Only 56% of forest parks have facilities for solid waste treatment in place. 3.6 Community participation Community participation is one of the principles of ecotourism that can bring sustainable economic benefits to forest parks and surrounding communities. Among the surveyed parks, 93% had local residents participating in ecotourism operations, by selling tourism food, supplying family hotel reception, producing handicrafts, providing guide services, and offering horse rides, rickshaws and other means of transport. The economic benefits of tourism are obvious and 87.2% of local residents have increased incomes; of these residents 42.4% had income increases of 1-3 times and 17.6% had increases of more than 3 times. Because of the economic benefits brought by ecotourism, the majority of local residents supported the development of ecotourism in forest parks. 96.4% of the local residents were supportive, and of this group 58.4% were very supportive with no objections. As for the ways that residents participate, information feedback accounts for 34.5%, consultation accounts for 32.3%, public information and education accounts for 17.0% and participation in planning accounts for 9.8%. Only 15.2% of local residents did not have any form of participation in ecotourism. With respect to ecotourism planning, 56% of local residents know about the planning process and participate to a certain degree, 36% know that there is planning but do not participate and 8% do not know anything about planning. This indicates that local residents have low participation in ecotourism, especially in planning and decision making process. 3.7 Ecotourism management Since "Forest Park Management Measures" was issued by State Forestry Administration of China in 1993, forest park management systems, together with ecotourism management systems, have been gradually improved. Among surveyed forest parks, 75.7% have developed ecotourism-related management regulations, and 89.7% have formulated codes of conduct for tourists. In the case of tourism accident

XIANG Baohui: Ecotourism Development Evaluation and Measures for Forest Parks in China 475 prevention and management, 91.5% of forest parks have prevention plans in place, 67.2% have tourist evacuation routes, 86.2% have safety supervisors, 90.4% possess fire-prevention facilities, and 74% employ emergency personnel. In terms of specialized management staff, according to statistics, 44.4% of forest parks have more than 15 managers, 28.2% have 6-15 managers, and 22.8% have 1-5 managers. When it comes to obstacles to the development of ecotourism in forest parks, the survey results show that inadequate capital investment accounts for 88.2% of the obstacles, unsound management systems account for 63.6%, lack of personnel with relevant skills accounts for 62.5%, lack of a sufficient regulatory framework accounts for 47.6%, and lack of land use rights accounts for 41.3%. Lack of capital investment, unsound management systems and lack of talent are the main obstacles. The reasons for this can be attributed to the fact that China's forest parks have a relatively short history. Management systems are still developing and in need of improvement, the sources of tourism income are not sufficiently diversified and training for ecotourism employees is inadequate. According to statistics, 10.3% of the surveyed forest parks did not carry out ecotourism training for employees. Only 58.8% of the tour guides had knowledge of nature conservation and had been trained professionally. 4 Conclusions and suggestions 4.1 Conclusions This paper constructs an evaluation index system based on the principle of ecotourism to examine the ecotourism development of forest parks in China. Based on the questionnaire survey data from 27 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government, this paper evaluates the development of ecotourism in China's forest parks. China's ecotourism in forest parks is undergoing a stage of steady development and the types of ecotourism products available are rich and distinctive. More and more attention is being paid to the construction of environmental interpretation systems. The move to green infrastructure is making progress. The natural ecological tourism environment is generally good while communities that participate in ecotourism receive economic benefits and ecotourism management continues to improve. However, problems also exist, such as single sources of tourism income at some locations, weak integration of tourism products and local culture, lack of professional interpretation capabilities, infrastructure and service facilities that are not sufficiently compatible ecologically, and the needs for stronger monitoring of tourism eco-environmental protection and more community participation. 4.2 Suggestions (1) Tourism industry integration and tourism revenue diversification ought to be promoted. Forest park ecotourism development should adhere to the innovation mechanism, strengthen relations with travel agencies, transportation departments, food and accommodation companies, leisure and tourism enterprises and others. At the same time, forest tourism market consumption needs to be directed. By making full use of forest park natural landscapes, forest environments, folk customs, health and other resources, diversified tourism products can be developed. Diversified tourism revenue can be achieved by promoting car tours, forest health tour, forest adventure and forest learning tours, and other new projects. (2) Get greater tourist participation by tapping into folk cultures. Forest parks need to explore distinctive local folk cultures, and offer folk activities that are simple, original and lively such as mountain worship ceremonies, local ecological food gathering, etc., to achieve a combination of folk tourism and ecotourism, enrich ecotourism and extend the ecotourism industry chain, thus enhancing the quality of tourist experiences and leaving tourists with unforgettable memories. (3) Pay more attention to planning environmental interpretation systems and to strengthening specialization. Environmental interpretation systems are important means to realize the educational function of ecotourism. Based on scientific cognition of the natural ecological background and cultural connotation of forest park, environmental interpretation systems should be strengthened in terms of explanation of the content, the division of the audience, the methods of planning and interpretation, media, layout and security measures, thus building a forest park interpretation system with ecotourism characteristics. At the same time parks should strengthen basic scientific research, and actively cultivate environmental interpretation services and train management professionals, to enhance specialization. (4) Adopt ecological concepts for the ongoing improvement of services and infrastructure systems. During the process of developing accommodations, catering, entertainment, signs, health, safety, science education and other service facilities such as transportation, communications, water supply, and gas supply, forest parks need to follow the principle of ecological, low-carbon operations and combine the design with the nature. Also, parks need to advocate green building, promote energy conservation so as to build carbon-neutral forest parks. At the same time, forest parks should strengthen resource management, safety management, environmental management and visitor management, thus guaranteeing the unification of the tourism function, environmental protection and rational use of resources. (5) Improve the construction of environmental monitoring systems to strengthen environmental protection. We should scientifically determine the monitoring indicators, regularly monitor environmental conditions in forest parks, make sure that the environmental quality and the changing trends are under control, gradually establish and improve

476 Journal of Resources and Ecology Vol. 8 No. 5, 2017 environmental monitoring systems, and provide technical support for pollution and ecological emergencies. Furthermore, government should supervise the implementation of dynamic monitoring in forest parks, regularly or irregularly inspect forest parks for planning and implementation of forest park resources protection, to ensure compliance with standards and demand that problems are corrected in a timely manner. Violations should be severely punished. (6) Establish reasonable community participation mechanisms to protect the interests of local communities. Based on the interests of community residents, forest parks should encourage residents to accept forest park employment and engage in entrepreneurship so as to increase income and live a better life. Parks should establish community participation incentive mechanisms to stimulate awareness and innovative participation, improve community participation in terms of distribution of benefits, planning advice, supervision and implementation, construction operations, etc. By doing so, parks will help to empower local residents in the decision-making process for planning, construction and management. Community participation mechanisms will also help the community to safeguard their own interests and protect the forest park, thus achieving the dual goals of economic development and social stability. (7) Increase capital investment and improve the quality of employees. The main sources of funds for forest park construction are government, self-financing by the forest park, and outside investments. 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