Integrated Development of Rural Tourism and Rural Poverty Alleviation in the Context of Rural Revitalization: A Case Study of Enshi Prefecture, Hubei Province

School of Economics, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434023, China

Abstract As a good mode of getting rid of poverty, poverty alleviation through tourism can transform the advantages of local resources into industrial advantages, mobilize the local economic vitality, and effectively improve the income of farmers. Through the investigation and study of rural poverty alleviation through tourism in Enshi Prefecture, Hubei Province, this paper analyzes the model of poverty alleviation through tourism formed in Enshi Prefecture, and puts forward the corresponding recommendations according to the problems encountered in the process of poverty alleviation through tourism.

Key words Rural tourism, Rural poverty alleviation, Integrated Development, Enshi Prefecture

1 Introduction

The "targeted poverty alleviation" put forward in 2013 has attracted wide attention from all walks of life. Scholars have discussed how to help the poor in rural areas from the perspective of society, economy, government norms and so on. The 19th CPC National Congress clearly put forward that the key point of China’s rural areas in the new period is to implement the "rural revitalization strategy". At present, China has a number of important projects on poverty alleviation. Among them, poverty alleviation through tourism is a way to adapt measures to local conditions and make use of the advantages of resources to promote local economic growth, so as to promote poor residents out of poverty[1].

At the present stage, the traditional contradictory relationship between ecological environment protection and economic development is the dilemma faced by many poor areas. It has become an important policy to develop and set up a tourism real economy in poor areas rich in tourism resources, so that tourism has become a pillar industry. The tourism industry has strong comprehensiveness, high correlation and long industrial chain, which has a good agglomeration function and platform function to the structure and the people’s livelihood. Zhang Kanghua believes that the development of rural tourism for poverty alleviation can help poor areas to create new economic growth points[2]. Through the study, Yan Li and others found that the development of rural tourism for poverty alleviation can help the poor to expand new channels to increase income[3].

Under the strategy of rural revitalization, through the analysis of the research model and development problems of poverty alleviation based on rural tourism in Enshi Prefecture, Hubei Province, this paper summarizes and puts forward the integrated development strategy of rural tourism and rural poverty alleviation.

2 The realistic basis of promoting poverty alleviation by rural tourism in Enshi Prefecture

Enshi is located in the southwest edge of Hubei Province, and it has peculiar peaks and rocks, unique scenery and rich forest resources. It enjoys the reputation of "forest in western Hubei". At the same time, it is also an old, remote, and poor area, and is one of the country’s poverty alleviation and development areas. Enshi City is the main battlefield of poverty alleviation in Hubei Province, with 146 000 poor people in the city. In order to get rid of poverty, Enshi must rely on its own favorable resources and implement the strategy of combining tourism with poverty alleviation. In this regard, Xiong Linhai and Xu Yanmei found that rural tourism is a way to teach poor persons to fish so that they will never go hungry, and it is a long-term and effective way to help the poor[4]. In 2016, Wuhan City, Yichang City and Enshi Prefecture in Hubei Province received a large number of tourists. In terms of the foreign exchange earnings brought by tourism, these three regions are also among the top three in the province, while Huangshi City and Ezhou City have fewer tourists. Among them, Enshi Prefecture has experienced good tourism development in the whole province. In 2016, the total number of tourists in Enshi Prefecture reached 322 736 (ranking third in the province), with a growth rate of 18.85% (ranking first in the province). At the same time, foreign exchange earnings reached 70.927 8 million USD, ranking third in the province, with the highest growth rate (Table 1). This shows that Enshi’s tourism development prospects are broad, and the development of tourism can bring great economic benefits to the local.

3 The practice of promoting poverty alleviation by rural tourism in Enshi Prefecture

The policy of poverty alleviation through tourism has been well applied in Enshi, and three models have been formed in practice: rural tourism+rural household model; rural tourism+enterprise+rural household model; rural tourism+government+rural household model.

Table 1 Current situation of tourism development in Hubei cities (prefectures) in 2016

Cities/prefecturesNumber ofvisitorsIncrease%Foreignexchange earnings104 USDIncrease%Wuhan City2 249 43511.7315 1487.2813.27Yichang City432 85918.8514 770.8918.83Enshi Prefecture322 736-4.837 092.78-4.83Shiyan City188 4405.046 263.206.01Xiangyang City52 9350.263 715.620.63Shennongjia45 2149.83954.0311.27Xianning City22 3255.28832.385.57Jingzhou City20 8472.39510.750.63Jingmen City17 785-0.43847.540.12Suizhou City10 041-1.00339.41-33.16Huanggang City8 576-4.09181.91-3.92Xiantao City1 994-1.24157.33-1.42Xiaogan City764-2.7427.54-3.33Tianmen City666-47.2712.89-47.42Ezhou City603-8.8934.55-9.14Huangshi City218-61.727.14-62.14Qianjiang City1904.553.72-0.88Total3 375 62810.73187 238.9711.99

Data source:StatisticalYearbookofHubeiProvince.

3.1 Rural tourism+rural household modelThe model of "rural tourism+rural households" has been widely used in Enshi. It is an important model for Enshi Prefecture to carry out poverty alleviation by making use of rural tourism. Farmers rely on the advantages to develop related industries in the scenic spot, and provide a variety of catering services for visitors, to obtain certain benefits. This can not only meet the various consumer needs of tourists but also improve employment, so that some people get a job and have a stable source of income. The typical area of this model is Lichuan City, Enshi Prefecture, which actively develops the tourism industry with local characteristics through the construction of homestay tourism. Under this kind of development situation, the resident house becomes the guest room of the tourist, the vegetable garden turns into the flower garden, to let the tourist play and watch in sightseeing[5].

3.2 Rural tourism+enterprise+rural household modelThe model of "rural tourism+enterprise+rural household" is built through enterprises. The enterprise itself has rich capital, excellent talents, advanced management concepts and other advantages. Through these advantages, enterprises can develop tourism projects, create different products, and promote tourists to play. Enterprises can develop according to the needs. Enterprise manor is a form of expression of "rural tourism+enterprise+rural household" model, and has been tested in practice. The enterprise manor is a rural recreation landscape complex built relying on the rural natural landscape and human landscape resources with the functions of sightseeing, leisure and vacation, with the rural natural landscape, rural agricultural production and rural customs as the main body[5]. The most typical area of this model is Xuan’en County, Enshi Prefecture, which, with its good ecological environment and characteristic industries, has embarked on a road of integrated development of tourism and poverty alleviation.

3.3 Rural tourism+government+rural household modelThe model of "rural tourism+government+rural households" is also one of the important models of poverty alleviation and development through tourism in Enshi. The prefecture unifies the interests of tourists, the government and the villagers to form a long-term mechanism for development. The government makes use of its own decision-making power to formulate relevant policies to improve efficiency. The government is in a leading position in poverty alleviation through tourism. According to the distribution characteristics of poor residents, it can choose the location of tourist attractions, so that poor residents have a better chance to participate in the construction, more opportunities to get out of poverty. When the government decides on some major issues, it should conscientiously listen to the opinions of the villagers, so as to arouse the enthusiasm of the villagers to participate in poverty alleviation through tourism. At the same time, the village committee should vigorously carry out training and education activities to improve the awareness and enthusiasm of villagers to participate in helping the poor through tourism.

4 Problems

4.1 There is a shortage of rural tourism management personnelWith the development of urban economy and the widening gap between urban and rural areas, talents gradually flow to cities and towns, while only the elderly or children are left in rural areas. Intellectuals are unwilling to come back and outside talents are reluctant to flow in, resulting in a lack of corresponding management personnel in these rural areas. For agritainment, initially residents did not have management experience, and after renovation and decoration of their own buildings, they began to receive guests, with no experience in management. In terms of checking-in, even the most basic check-in procedures were short, and loss of keys after check-out occurred from time to time. Such a phenomenon leads to obstacles to the development of local tourism, which is not conducive to the implementation of poverty alleviation.

4.2 The spatial distribution of rural tourism resources is not balancedDue to the limitations of natural factors, the overall distribution of tourism resources in Enshi Prefecture is uneven, some areas are rich in tourism resources, and the policy of poverty alleviation through tourism can be carried out relatively smoothly. The list of poor counties in Hubei Province contains eight counties and cities in Enshi Prefecture, but the uneven distribution of rural tourism resources hinders the policy of development of poverty alleviation through tourism to a certain extent.

4.3 The rural poverty alleviation through tourism is hollowedThe phenomenon of hollowing in poverty alleviation by rural tourism is very common. Some local governments and developers use rural tourism to obtain funds to help the poor. During this period, however, developers ignore the complexity of the integrated development of rural tourism and rural poverty alleviation[6]. In particular, the participation and status of poor households in tourism development have not been taken into account in poverty alleviation. In practice, many poor households do not well participate in the construction of rural tourism.

4.4 There are insufficient funds for poverty alleviation and there is a large demand for fundsPoverty alleviation and rural tourism are two ambitious projects, and the infrastructure of the mountain areas is poor, which requires us to spend a lot of time, financial, material and human resources to support, and to effectively carry out the policies of poverty alleviation through tourism. If we make full use of the national special poverty alleviation funds to develop tourist attractions, then the poverty alleviation budget is far from enough in the development of tourist attractions, or makes us even unable to carry out work[7]. Therefore, the contradiction between the lack of poverty alleviation funds and the large demand for project development funds is prominent.

5 Policy recommendations

5.1 Doing a thorough survey and making precise identificationThe "precise identification" here is not just to identify the poor, it also includes whether rural tourism can be developed in different regions, or how to develop it. In the specific work of poverty alleviation by rural tourism, the first thing we should do is to identify the tourism resources of a region and judge whether the area can implement tourism, and then the poor households are identified. In this regard, a list of poor households can be built locally through the establishment of a database of poor households. Through the list, we can fully understand the situation of poor people in poor villages. Only by fully understanding the situation of the poor can we better implement the work of helping the poor through tourism and make the effect of poverty alleviation by tourism more obvious.

5.2 Developing tourist attractions according to the local conditions and the overall distribution of poor residentsIn order to develop tourism, it is necessary to fully consider the specific local conditions and develop tourism in accordance with local conditions without harming the development direction of the interests of the local people. The government can increase the investment to develop new tourist attractions and build the corresponding infrastructure. The tourist attractions constructed should not only be close to the areas where poor residents are concentrated, but also take full account of the characteristics of each area. According to local conditions, it is necessary to focus on different resources with different regional characteristics, such as a long history and culture in some places. When developing tourist attractions, we can integrate this kind of human resources into the scenic spots, so that tourists can truly feel the customs and people of this place. Some places have the unique natural landscape, then we should make full use of the strange characteristics of the landscape to attract tourists in the development, and we must not copy the previous construction model. The construction of tourist attractions should be pleasing to the eyes of tourists, it is best to ensure that each poor village can form its own tourism brand, that is, "one village, one product".

5.3 Strengthening the training of tourism talents and improving the level of serviceTalent is the driving force of regional economic development. In poverty alleviation, the development of rural tourism is more inseparable from the innovation of talents. Therefore, in the process of helping the poor through tourism, the first thing we should do is to strengthen the "blood making" project and send talents with advanced management experience and high level of service consciousness for tourism work. There is a need to combine different services with local characteristics, so as to provide a good environment for tourists to experience the project and try the fun. By this way, we can attract more tourists and increase the income of residents.

5.4 Strengthening the construction of infrastructurePerfect infrastructure construction plays a direct and positive role in improving the development level of scenic spots. Based on the current prevalence of self-driving travel, whether the road is clear will directly affect the mood of passengers. There will be a significant increase in the number of holiday visitors, which is a challenge to the infrastructure of scenic spots. The government should focus on solving the problem of catering and accommodation for tourists. In the area of accommodation and catering, emphasis should be placed on the health standards of the tourism environment and facilities. Finally, the scenic spot should make great efforts to build network facilities to provide free wireless network for tourists. While tourists use Wi-Fi, it is also a good publicity opportunity for scenic spots. Tourists can spread all kinds of characteristic scenery of the scenic spot on the Internet and improve the popularity of the scenic spot to improve the market competitiveness.

5.5 Broadening the channels of funds and absorbing multiple subjects for the joint participationFunds have always been the short board of rural development, and poverty alleviation should be carried out in an efficient and secure manner. This needs more financial support, and the stable and good development of rural tourism also needs abundant funds to maintain. Effective poverty alleviation requires not only the initiative of staff, but also adequate financial support. While increasing investment in rural tourism, the government can broaden the channels of capital integration through the establishment of some financial institutions. In addition, in order to implement rural tourism to help the poor, it is also necessary to mobilize enterprises, social organizations and individual citizens to widely participate in the poverty alleviation. Poor residents should actively participate in poverty alleviation through tourism activities, which to a certain extent increases the concentration of funds, and makes the limited funds play a greater role.