A proposal for enhancing the role of tourist industry in residents conversation in heritage city

Abstract

This paper focuses on how tourist industry, in the context of rapid urban development in China, can support the planning effort of keeping the unique feature of urban history, culture, and revealing urban glamour and characters based on local residents. In many of the historic preservation cases in China, commercial and tourism development are the driving force in preserving historical buildings or blocks for attracting tourists and shoppers. Meanwhile, local residents are not included in this exteriorized urban conversation pattern, some are even moved out to a different part of the city in the name of historic preservation. In other word, this kind of historic preservation district, which should serve the local residents, are turned to commercial transaction aiming at attracting tourist. Therefrom, the sense of identity and sense of belonging of the residents are weakened and the vigor of historical blocks is reduced. As Zhang Song stated in his book ‘For whom, we protect the city’, the purpose of historic preservation is that citizens can walk in and touch the old buildings. Admittedly, tourism is the key role in urban development. Further, to guide tourism serve for local citizens is the urgent issue. That is, local people appreciate the heritage of the city and want to stay and nurture the local character. Meanwhile, tourists who have briefly experienced the history and culture of the place during their visit want to come back or even relocate there. After discussing the connection between heritage preservation, local residents and tourism development using some international cities, for instance, Venice, Shanghai, Lijiang, we propose that healthy heritage preservation integrated with tourism development should aim at developing a livable place for local people. The paper concludes by presenting implementation strategies focusing on continuing the urban heritage and building urban characters in the context of urbanization in China.