Creative destruction and the water town of Luzhi, China

The model of creative destruction describes the evolutionary process of small communities whose development has occurred around the commodification of heritage. According to the model, the desire to accumulate capital drives investment in the production and sale of heritage. These investments tempt the post-modern consumer to search for a nostalgic past and the resulting consumption of heritage provides entrepreneurs with profits for reinvestment. The creation of a commodified landscape will ultimately result in the destruction of the original valued small-town or rural atmosphere. In this paper, the model is applied to Luzhi, a typical water town in China. It was found that the model generally applies to tourism development in Luzhi, although some modifications, particularly the inclusion of the roles of government, are required to reflect the nature of Chinese society. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.