The Significance of the West Lake Pattern and Its Heuristic Implications for Creating China's Heritage Tourism Economics

Abstract

West Lake,one of China's world heritage sites,lies in the metropolis of Hangzhou,the capital of Zhejiang Province in eastern China.Its tourism industry is referred to as the West Lake Pattern(WLP) by the Chinese travel industry because of its excellence performance as a tourist attraction.The WLP's institutional issues and its significance to China's heritage tourism are first analyzed and then discussed.The WLP is based on the concepts of one and four no's,in line with a basic Chinese concept of using numbers to characterize a general set of ideas.That is,the area is open and free to the public,with no increase in ticket prices,no transfer and rent for heritage-related land use,no disturbance of cultural properties,no occupation of public resources and properties,where the institutional core is free and open to the public;in essence,it is a public-oriented and non-profit-oriented heritage services supply system.The WLP's economic,social and cultural significance includes six facets: 1) making the West Lake world heritage site serve as a global common and provide universally accessible tourist opportunities;2) ensuring the planning,management and tourism marketing of West Lake are culturally oriented rather than purely economically oriented and therefore truly benefit the preservation and conservation of West Lake;3) selectively decreasing and mitigating the tourism pressure on West Lake,especially in those areas of highly cultural,ecological and environmental vulnerability;4) ensuring travelers return to the appropriate values of tourism and enjoy a healthy tourism-style experience;5) making the marketing of West Lake tourism and the distribution of incomes comply with legal,reasonable and appropriate standards;6) expanding and extending the social benefits of West Lake tourism.Also,a comprehensive comparison is made between the West Lake and Mt.Huangshan management schemes,which demonstrates a number of fundamental and institutional relationships involving tourism at heritage sites that are correctly handled using the methods and principles used by the WLP.The relationships are between heritage protection and travel,between public services and for-profit concessions,and between the government,businesses,communities,and travelers. Second,three types of the WLP's heuristic implications are discussed and interpreted: 1) the fundamental importance of choosing an appropriate institutional platform for heritage tourism;2) non-profit marketing of heritage services and conservation of heritage authenticity and integrity;3) defects of current tourism economy-related textbooks in providing guidelines for heritage tourism.These defects especially need to be focused on and analyzed.They mainly result from ignoring the essential differences between heritage and non-heritage travel-recreation resources,the unique nature of heritage property rights,and the unique principles and standards required for heritage conservation and sustainable heritage tourism,and therefore cause difficulties in efforts to correctly and properly treat numerous issues involving heritage tourism,such as tickets pricing,planning and management of scenic spots,protection and conservation of heritage resources,ecological systems and the environment,supply and demand of tourist goods and services,traveler's rights and interests,and the distribution of tourism income. Last,an urgent proposal for creating a heritage tourism economy,especially for China,is advocated.A conceptual framework for China's heritage tourism economy is sketched out for academic discussion.One should be reminded and place emphasis on the following framework: 1) the economic side of heritage resources must be perfectly linked with heritage economics,cultural economics and tourism economics and form an integrated network;2) three types of land resources can be found at heritage sites and areas,i.e.heritage site conservation,probably associated with land containing components of natural and/or cultural landscapes and other ordinary land,should be approached differentially from the tourism of heritage sites;3) reviewing issues involving heritage tourism in terms of the principles of heritage economics and heritage conservation.