The social impacts of tourism — A case study in Dali, Yunnan province, China

Abstract

Ancient town Dali is located in northwest Yunnan Province. With its ancient history and natural scenery, it is preserved as one of the first 24 historical and cultural towns in China. Dali has become one of the most popular attractions for foreign tourists since it had its first foreign visitors in 1983. As a result, English came into the life of the local people. This paper presents and explains the results of questionnaires and interviews about Dali people’s attitude toward learning English. Three types of questionnaires were designed to local businessmen, local residents and foreign tourists. Interviews were also given whenever possible. In this study, businessmen in Dali were divided into two distinct groups. One group had their business in “Foreigners’ Street”, which was in front of Hongshancha Hotel where many foreign tourists stayed. Another group had business in Fuxin Street, which was vertically across “Foreigners’ Street”. The 41 shops and restaurants in “Foreigners’ Street” served mainly foreign visitors, and most of them had English names and advertisements. The 353 shops and restaurants in Fuxin Street mainly catered for domestic visitors but also served more and more overseas ones. Subjects from local residents were mostly young people because aging ones were apparently not much affected by English. The results of the study showed that the oral English levels became lower from “Foreigners’ Street” to Fuxin Street to local residents, due to declining frequency of contact with foreign people. There were also distinct differences in general English level, the understanding of the importance of English, the purposes of communicating with foreign tourists, the willingness and purposes of going on learning English between businessmen in “Foreigners’ Street” and Fuxin Street: people in “Foreigners’ Street” had more positive feedback than those in Fuxin Street because their constant contact with foreigners required them to speak better English which enabled them to exchange with foreigners in many aspects, which in turn help them to know more about other cultures. On the other hand, Fuxin Street businessmen would catch up with more and more prospective contact with overseas people. Though local residents had nothing to do with foreign tourists, they met them in the street every day and might have to talk with them in unexpected ways. They lived in a place where they saw English advertisement every day. Accordingly, study results showed that they were very much motivated to learn English. They showed even stronger desire to learn more English than businessmen in “Foreigners’ Street”, though many of them were too young to tell why English was so important for them. This is an indication that English has become part of the necessary education for young people in Dali. With the development of tourism, Dali is gradually becoming a place where Chinese culture and western culture meet and coexist.