INTRODUCTION:

Tourism had a sequence of uninterrupted growth since 1960s, and its growth rate has been at around 4% per year for eight straight years (UNWTO, 2017). Both international and domestic tourism could favor poverty alleviation and equal development between regions. The tourism destination is a well-defined geographical area or space which is understood by its visitors as a unique entity (Buhalis, 2000). The most basic classification of tourism destinations is threefold: coastal destination, urban destination, and rural destination (Cooper et al, 2010).

China, as one of the very important countries in the world, has affluent tourism resources with more than 50 world heritages and hundreds of tourist attractions at AAAAA and AAAA levels (In china, the tourist attractions are classified into 5 levels from “AAAAA “to “A” according to Standard of Rating for Quality of Tourist Attractions (GB/T17775-2003). AAAAA refers to the highest quality of the tourist attractions.), and the local governments at all levels dedicate themselves to the local development of tourism.

Accessibility to the destinations is one of the important factors for tourists. So, many countries or regional governments strive hard to enhance the competitive advantages in the local tourism destinations, such as by improving the transport accessibility, promoting the governance capacity.

Tourists’ activities mainly occur in the tourism destinations, so, they might face ecological and cultural barriers, namely, ecological accessibility and cultural accessibility. Ecological protection and the conditions of subsistence restrict the tourists’ access to destinations. On the other hand, because of the cultural difference between tourists and local residents as well as the difference of attitudes to tourism, face-to-face communication gives easily rise to conflicts between tourists and managers or local residents, which also affect the tourists’ choice for destinations.

1. The Transport accessibility to the tourism destination:

The transport accessibility of tourism, as one of the tourism supplies, refers to the conditions of transport from the usual place of residence to the tourism destinations. High efficiency of tourism transport means lower expenditure and shorter time on the way, which could provoke the tourism demands. Transport is not just about moving from A to B. It is about connecting people to opportunity and building a sustainable future. Theoretically, the transport accessibility is just a technological facet, and the investment of transport infrastructure could facilitate the regional development.

The categories of tourism characteristic transport include railway passenger transport services, road passenger transport services, water passenger transport services, and air passenger transport services, involving transport tools such as cars, trains, ships, and planes, supporting facilities such as bus stations, and airport, and, transport operators. Table 1 shows the transport situation and domestic tourists in China from 2000 to 2019.

Table 1 The transport situation in China (2000-2019)

	2000	2005	2010	2015	2019
Length of Highway Transport Routes (10000 km)	167.98	334.52	400.82	457.73	501.25
Length of Railway Transport Routes (10000 km)	6.87	7.54	9.12	12.1	13.99
Length of Regular Domestic Civil Aviation Routes (10000 km)	99.45	114.25	169.50	292.28	546.75
Number of Regular Domestic Civil Aviation Routes (line)	1032	1024	1578	2666	4568
Number of Regular Civil Airport Opened (unit)	139	135	175	206	237
Domestic Tourists (million person-times)	744	1212	2103	3990	6006

(Data comes from China Statistical Yearbook (2001-2020))

The improvement of transport infrastructure from the usual place of residences to the tourism destinations just means effectively technological access, and the transport costs persistently decrease with the development of society, evenly, “suggesting that our economies are entering an age that will culminate in the ‘death of distance’” (Fujita & Thisse, 2013). Nowadays, tourists could go to everywhere technologically, that is to say, the restriction of transport accessibility to tourism destinations plays a weak role, and the decreasing transport costs give the remote destination from cities a new chance to develop.

2. The ecological accessibility to the tourism destination:

Theoretically speaking, every geographical space could be a tourism destination to the visitors. But realistically, tourists might be restricted by the ecological condition, namely, the ecological accessibility. The ecological accessibility refers to the restriction to the tourists based on the ecological protection and the conditions of subsistence in the tourism destinations. The ecological restrictions include ecological protection and natural restriction.

The basic classification of ecological protection is twofold: the nature reserves and the maximum carrying capacity in scenic area. Regulations on the People’s Republic of China on Nature Reserves took effect from October 9, 1994 to protect the natural regions with unique biological characters. China has established 446 national natural reserves up to 2016, including 34 International Biosphere Reserves established by UNESCO. In the nature reserves, Regulations strictly forbid any human activities at the core zone, allow scientific observation at the buffer zone and appropriate human activities such as scientific tests, educational practices, visiting, and tourism at the experimental zone. Fig. 1 shows the structure of the nature reserves. So, tourists are forbidden to tour at the core and buffer zones in the nature reserves. Secondly, Guideline on the Maximum Carrying Capacity of Scenic Area, issued by China National Tourism Administration on May 1, 2015, requires limiting the number of tourists on the scenic area at the specific time when it is beyond the maximum carrying capacity to assure tourists’ experiences and the sustainable development of tourism destinations. By the end of 2015 in China, all of the 184 AAAAA scenic areas announced the maximum carrying capacity of arrivals a day, respectively. For example, the maximum carrying capacity of the Palace Museum is eighty thousand person-times a day in Beijing, China. The management of maximum carrying capacity in scenic area will lead to inaccessible to the tourism destination at a special time.

Fig. 1 The structure of the nature reserves

On the other hand, a few tourism destinations, because of such special natural conditions as high altitude, big desert, and extremely frigid climate, which most people could not accommodate, could not become the destinations for mass tourism, such as Kekexili in Qinghai province, Dao city in Sichuan province, and Heihe in Heilongjiang province. For example, most people might suffer from high altitude stress which threatens tourists’ lives when they tour in the high-altitude areas. On the other hand, for lack of usual settlements in these areas, the basic infrastructure is obviously too scarce to carry out mass tourism.

3. Cultural accessibility to the tourism destination:

The core meaning of tourism is on-the-spot experience, including face-to-face communication with local residents or managers, observing local life style, visiting local families, or participating in the production of souvenir, et al. Summarily, tourism leads to cultural effect between tourist and local resident by displaying their own culture. ‘culture, or Civilization, taken in its widest ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, laws, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society’(Taylor, 1929); or Culture is the shared concepts and norms of people living in a specific space (Benedict, 1935). Cultural accessibility means the mutual acceptability of two different cultures—indigenous and exotic cultures. Different culture shows different inclusiveness and openness, which is embodied by individual behavior in tourism activities. When tourists encounter local culture with low inclusiveness and openness, they might face stronger barriers and obstacles, such as compulsive bargain, hostile attitude. On the other hand, the tourists with lowly inclusive and open culture might splurge on their superior lives to local residents. As a result, a conflict arises between two cultures in tourism, leading to weak accessibility to the tourism destinations. On the contrary, the result is active. Subsequently, tourists always choose the mature and famous tourism destinations, and mutually self-enforcing processes take effect between growth and tourism activities in the destination.

According to Graburn (1989), tourism is divided into two types as follows: natural tourism including ecotourism and environment tourism, and cultural tourism including history tourism and ethnic tourism. In china, there are 55 ethnic minorities accounting for 8.49% of total population in 2010 and 77 ethnic minority autonomous areas at prefecture level mainly locating southwest and northwest regions. That is, the main tourist market is in the east and middle regions, and the main tourists are the Han peoples. Figure 2 (In China, the administrative divisions include province level, vice-provincial level, prefecture level, and county level in sequence. In detail, the administrative regions at province level include 23 provinces, 5 ethnic minority autonomous regions, 4 municipalities directly under the central government, and 2 special administrative regions. The administrative cities at prefecture level and above include 4 municipalities directly under the central government at province level, cities at vice-provincial level and at prefecture level, ethnic minority autonomous areas at prefecture level.) illustrates this. The core attraction is the special ethnic culture and tourism has become the leading industry in the ethnic minority autonomous areas. The ethnic minority households are not only the element of local culture but also the participants of tourism hospitality in the lodging and restaurant industries. So then, the intercultural identity and respect are more significant in China.

Fig. 2 (a) The location of ethnic minority autonomous areas in China; (b) The Percentage of Total Tourism Receipts in GDP at Prefecture Level and above (%) (2017). Data source: China statistical yearbook (2017) and statistical bulletin on national economy and social development (2017).

Another aspect of cultural differentiation is social conventions in different areas, as Chinese proverb runs ‘Ten miles apart, but the customs are quite different’.

Cultural differentiation is not only a tourism attraction but also maybe a potential source of conflict in tourism, which perhaps either improves or deteriorates accessibility to the tourism destinations.

Benefitting from the improvement of accessibility to tourism destinations under the policies of interregional balanced development and national equality, from Fig. 2, we could see that tourism facilitates economic growth and development significantly in the ethnic minority autonomous areas and middle regions where the percentage of total tourism receipts in GDP is above 16 percent, even over 100 percent.

4. Accessible tourism:

The accessibility problems for peoples with disabilities or for elders had been highlighted since the 1991 General Assembly when the first recommendations devoted to promoting Accessible Tourism were passed (UNWTO, 2013). Accessible tourism emphasizes making tourism accessible to all citizens, and is considered as duties for operators, governments, nongovernment organizations, and local residents by providing safe, convenient and economic facilities for all tourists to ensure good experiences in tourism. Accessible tourism is an idea to develop tourism industry.

CONCLUSION:

Accessibility is the premise to realize tourism activities, and is restricted by the factor of nature, economy and culture. The transport accessibility is restricted by geographic locality, technology and investment efficiency which take effect at different periods respectively. The ecological accessibility is of natural aspect and legislative aspect. And the cultural accessibility also embraces two aspects: local culture and formal institutions. To the accessible destination, operators and governments should ensure accessible tourism for all, while the inaccessible destination should be protected effectively.

REFERENCES:

1. Benedict, R. (1935). Patterns of Culture. London: George Routledge & Sono, LTD.

2. Buhalis, D. (2000). Marketing: the competitive destination of the future. Tourism Management, 21(1), pp. 97-116.

3. Cooper, C., Fletcher, J., Fyall, A. et al. (2010). Tourism: principles and practice (fourth edition). Dalian: Dongbei University of Finance & Economics Press, pp. 476.

4. Graburn, N. (1989). Tourism: The Sacred Journey. In SMITH V. (Ed.), Hosts and Guests: The Anthropology of Tourism (pp. 21-36). University of Pennsylvania Press. Retrieved January 15, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt3fhc8w.5.

5. Masahisa, M., and Thisse, J. F. (2013). Economics of agglomeration: cities, industrial location, and globalization (second edition) (pp. 13). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

6. Taylor, E. B. (1929). Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Language, Art, and Custom (PP. 1). London: John Murray Press.

7. World Tourism Organization (2013). Recommendations on Accessible Tourism. UNWTO, Madrid.

8. World Tourism Organization (2017). 2017 Annual Report. Available from: https://www.e-unwto.org/doi/epdf/10.18111/ 9789284419807.

Received on 04.03.2021 Modified on 22.04.2021

Int. J. Ad. Social Sciences. 2021; 9(2):75-78.

DOI: 10.52711/2454-2679.2021.00003