Abstract：Tourism industry has ushered in a new era of high-speed development since China's accession to the WTO. All regions compete with each other in their tourism development, promoting ever growing need and supply with huge economic and social benefit. The present tourism planning system in China is far from being adaptive to the need of tourism as an emerging industry as the tourism conceptive planning advances. The status of tourism industry has also ascended in the national economy. As such trend becomes obvious nationwide, planning on the industry is also pushed forward. Conceptive planning yielded from both urban and regional planning is introduced into the field of tourism planning and helps to shape new ideas in the industry design. We may call it "conceptive tourism planning". Newly emerged in the circle of tourism planning, it sucks needy nutrients from the urban planning and also manifests the characteristics of tourism. This concept uncovers the limit of tourism planning for the sake of tourism planning and enlightens a systematic thinking among people in the tourism career on the matter of tourism planning optimization. This article, based on predecessors' research and the author's own knowledge and practices, will define conceptive tourism planning as one pattern that borrows the designing idea from both urban and regional planning when it developed into a certain stage. This pattern is also granted with the special characteristics of the tourism planning itself. It is conducted from a macro perspective that is generally controlling, strategic, prospective, innovative and practical. It lays emphasis on both planning and research leaving space for future growth. It eyes on a macro thinking, intermediate orientation and micro guiding on the key issues in the area to be planned with special idea, focused theme, stage target and the controlling strategy based on comprehensive analysis on the background and development premises of the to-be-planned area and finally provides a strategic and conceptive planning in terms of the entire structure of the tourism development in areas to be planned in the future.
