Ecotourism Practices in Potatso National Park from the Perspective of Tourists: Assessment and Developing Contradictions

Shuo Zhen,Lin Mei,Rumin Zheng,Hongqiang Jiang

doi:10.3390/su132212655

Abstract

Ecotourism in Potatso National Park has been developing for more than 15 years, which has had important guiding significance for the development of China’s national parks. This paper analyzes ecotourism practices in Potatso by extracting related travel notes and adopting the ground theory and content analysis method. The results show that the current ecotourism practices in Potatso include 5 dimensions and 15 elements. The five dimensions are the natural environment, environmental education, community participation, ecotourism experience and socioeconomic background. The five most important elements are the ecosystem elements, sensory and behavioral ecotourism experience, ecological facilities and interpretation systems. There are also three contradictions: between tourists’ environmental awareness and lack of environmental behaviors, between community participation and residents’ reception capacity, and between environmental education and tourists’ experiences. Regarding the future development of Potatso, conservation will always come first. A breakthrough is needed to strengthen the conversion of environmental education to the environmental behavior of tourists, adjust the participation model of communities dynamically, and continue innovating in the form of environmental education.

Highlights

A national park is a place that combines both biotic and abiotic heritage and attracts tourists from all around the world [1]
Ecotourism is a feasible and effective way to maintain the sustainable development of national parks and is defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” [4,5,6]
This paper extends the research on ecotourism practices of national parks from a relatively novel perspective of research on ecotourism practices of national parks from a relatively novel(1)

Summary

Introduction

A national park is a place that combines both biotic and abiotic heritage and attracts tourists from all around the world [1]. Ecotourism is a feasible and effective way to maintain the sustainable development of national parks and is defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” [4,5,6]. The balance between conservation and development in ecotourism in national parks has a long history and can be seen in the legislation of various countries and the planning approaches for various national parks [7,8,9]. Sustainable development is still the core issue for national parks. It is reflected in the existing planning schemes of national parks and in the dynamic development of their ecotourism. This paper carries out a bottom-up study from tourists’ travel notes under the guidance of existing top-down theories of ecotourism to enrich the empirical research on ecotourism practices in national parks

Results

Discussion

Conclusion