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| STUDY AND THOUGHT ON TOURIST EFFECT OF MODERN URBAN FESTIVALS——Case Study of Yangzhou |
| HOU Bing, CHEN Xiao-jing |
| College of Tourism and Culinary Science, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225001, China |
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Abstract In recent years, the modem urban festivals have developed very rapidly, and they bring enormous economic benefits and social benefits. The modem urban festivals have an obvious impact on all the industries, especially tourism. How to enhance the impact of modem urban festivals actively and maximize its stimulating effect on the tourism industry is a hot topic of the research on the modern urban festivals.
The paper collects and analyzes the research on stimulating effect of modem urban festivals on the tourism industry, and considers that there are two aspects on the issue. One is that the research perspective is narrow and limited relatively, the research level is a bit superfacial, and the other is that there is few research results about one specific urban festival, such as exemplification research or demonstration research. Taking a case of" the Flowery March" international economy, trade and tourism festival of Yangzhou as an example, this paper gives a comprehensive value by using the data on the urban festivals, the change in the appearance of the city and the stimulating effect on the tourism. Since "the Flowery March" international economy, trade and tourism festival of Yangzhou was held, there has been a certain commonality on the theme of festivals. Meanwhile, each of the thematic elements and the character of the festival have been changed correspondingly and the connotation of festival activities has been continually expanded. From the major statistical indicators of Yangzhou tourism in 2000 -2006, the change can be witnessed that the number of tourists to Yangzhou has increased but the increase in the tourists' consumption is comparatively slow. So the article draws a conclusion that modem urban festivals have greatly stimulated the development of tourism, promoted the integration of various tourism resources effectively, and maintained a positive synergy with other areas of the city. Besides these positive effects, serious examination and appropriate adjustment in operating mode, event content, grasping the main theme of festivals and activity target of urban festivals are still needed. All of the problems must be settled. The "utilitarianism" appeal dilutes the theme of the urban festivals easily. The fundamental aim of the urban festivals is to stimulate the development of the tourism. However, the will of the government and spontaneous market behavior tend to pile pressure on city of festivals. This will obviously affect sustainable development of the festival activities. So, much attention should be paid to the problems and the management of modem urban festivals should be strengthened.
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Received: 06 June 2007
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2008, Vol. 23 
