On the Development of Modern Tourism in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province

Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province is the largest community of the Yi ethnic group in China, which has developed a rich culture over its long history. Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture also boasts the modern aerospace industry, unique landscapes of mountains and valleys, and featured modern agriculture. All these provide the prefecture with rich tourism resources. Since the mid-1980s, modern tourism in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture has gone through three stages.(a) Infancy stage(the mid-1980s to late-1990s): In this period, tourism as an industry was small in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture and was mainly engaged in the reception business.(b) Operation stage(2000 to 2016): In this period, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture began to develop nature tourism relying on its magnificent mountains, which promoted economic development in certain areas.(c) Region-wide development stage: In 2017, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture began to seek regionwide development in tourism in response to rural revitalization. Since then, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture has witnessed a profound transformation in its tourism industry. The region, focusing on developing regional featured agriculture, has made great efforts to promote rural development and agritourism, with the aim of enabling rural residents to benefit from the development of the modern economy and rural areas to achieve dual development in both traditional production and modern economy. This paper reviewed the development course of modern tourism in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in order to reveal the relationship between the market and the policies. Though tourism market explorations usually come before policy introduction, the policies are necessary to regulate the market for its sound development. In addition, this paper further investigated the profound impact of modern tourism on Liangshan’s social development.