Ecological trap in tourism-urbanization: Simulating the stagnation and restoration of urbanization from the perspective of government incentives

Abstract

For emerging tourism-dominated cities, there is a contradiction between ecological protection and tourism urbanization. This paper explores the causes and solutions of the potential risks that occur in the process of tourism urbanization by simulating the impact of government incentives on tourism urbanization and tourism related-ecological security (TRES). Tourism urbanization in Zhangjiajie has experienced four stages: start-development-stagnation-restoration. This paper analyzes the main obstacles and government incentives at different stages. In the initial stage, government incentives promoting tourism were an efficient method to improve TRES and tourism urbanization. However, with the increase in environmental pressure, ecological overload caused the stagnation of tourism urbanization. The increase in government incentives protected the environment and eventually restored tourism urbanization. Through surveys of tourists and residents, it was confirmed that Zhangjiajie's environmental and tourism problems have improved in recent years. The results indicated that the time mismatch between rapidly developed tourism and the environmental protection policies implemented later caused serious ecological capacity overload. This paper provides a basis for identifying and avoiding ecological risks in tourism-dominated cities to achieve sustainable tourism urbanization. Environmental protection incentives at the end of a rapid development stage are an effective means to avoid ecological traps.