The ethnic tourism expansion cycle: The case of Yunnan province, China

Abstract

There is an ever-growing body of literature suggesting that the Butler's Tourist Area Life Cycle (TALC) model may be a very useful conceptual tool for understanding the development patterns of mass tourism destinations. However, some authors have reported that the TALC model shows limitations in regions like the Asia Pacific and when applied to the development of alternative forms of tourism, such as ethnic tourism. Therefore, the purpose of this paper was to examine whether selected ethnic tourism destinations in Yunnan province in the People's Republic of China exhibited characteristics consistent with the stages of Butler's TALC model. The findings revealed that Butler's TALC model might be useful in understanding the development of individual ethnic tourism destinations in Yunnan province. However, the findings also revealed that the characteristics of the host culture might influence the way the destination develops and that each destination's cycle of development is influenced significantly by the development of neighboring destinations.