ANALYSIS OF TOURISM DEVELOPMENT FOR EDGE-TYPED TOURISM CITY——A Case Study of Lianyungang City
WEI Xiang-dong1, ZHU Mei1
1. College of Geographical Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210046, China;
2. Institute of Tourism Research, Xuzhou Normal University, Xuzhou 221009, China
Abstract Various scales of regional tourism spatial structure can be reduced to the core-periphery structure existing in all spatial patterns of tourist resources, tourist flow, tourist products and tourist destination during the process of origination and development of regional tourism. The marginal nature of the peripheral tourism area mainly embodies the transition of the natural conditions, the boundary of the administrative area and the marginal characteristics of economic status, the non-optimal tourism resources, low value-added products and the attached nature of product image as well. There exists a different scale of core-edge structure on spatial pattern of regional tourism development. The edge-typed tourist city is a kind of traveling destination with a multi-criteria, relative and dynamic evolution. The characteristic of the edge-typed is mainly embodied in the transition of natural condition,on the border of administrative region and the verge of economic status, as well as in non-advanced resources. The marginal mix of position, economy, resources, product (tourist route) and image has formed the diversified but frequently neglected tourist cities in China. Former research excessively focused on relationship between core and fringe, a systematic study on fringe destinations are still on its first stage. The systematic study on the multidimensional characteristics and inter-relationship between edge tourist areas demonstrates an inclination of mono-dimension, mechanization and conclusion-generalization. As domestic traveling demand, causing some edge-typed tourist cities to violate regional tourism system, inflates unceasingly, the traveling development compared with the investment is separated from the actually pursuing results and the characteristic. Therefore,the tourism development strategies of those typical places must undergo systematic inspection and research in the relationship between core-edge,border and different regional scale. Their distinctive qualities lie in the traveling sources and the human differences. The development must be done on the base of the actual circumstances, the different market criterion, and the characteristics of product. The authors argue that the fundamental way for those tourism places should be multidimensional image positioning, diversified resources value and diversification of regional cooperation. With these in mind, the authors take Lianyungang City, a typical city of multi-scale edge, for an example, to analyze the tourism development of such places under the multi-dimension and multi-scale characteristics and conditions. In the end, the authors advance regional competition, product combination, image penetration and spatial evolution as corresponding development strategies.
2008, Vol. 23 
