Sustainable Tourism on Hainan Island: Analysis & Implications

This case study examines Hainan Island as a tourist destination, analyzing its attractions, the dynamics of tourist visitation, and the issues arising from tourism and development. It identifies challenges such as language barriers, unorganized tourism management, and cultural misunderstandings while also highlighting the positive economic impacts and infrastructure improvements resulting from tourism. The study further discusses the social, cultural, environmental, and economic impacts on the host community, including community alienation, environmental damage, increased living costs, and social security concerns. It concludes by proposing four policy implications for achieving sustainable tourism outcomes: collaboration, coordination, information exchange, and clear responsibilities, emphasizing the need for stakeholder involvement and effective communication to ensure the long-term viability and positive impact of tourism on Hainan Island. Desklib provides similar solved assignments and study tools for students.

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Destination Hainan Island in China
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Introduction
Hainan Island is an ocean island located in the southernmost province in China. It has an area of
35, 354 square kilometers (YU 2011, p. 90). Its nature-based beauty, outdoor recreation, and
sporting activities have gained it recognition around the world. Hainan’s plentiful sunshine
boasts a remarkable diverse ground for animals and plant life. The paper aims to outline the
tourist attractions and analyses some of the impacts and issues related to tourism and
development in Hainan Island. It also illustrates the policy implications in achieving sustainable
tourism outcomes. Hainan Island tourism destination was previously a domestic tourism
destination before developing to an international destination.
Tourism has been the primary industry of the Hainan’s tourist destination. People tend to have
preference when making decisions on the destinations to visit. The visitor’s preferences reflect
the needs of tourists. It not only predicts the tourists’ behaviors, but also helps personnel’s to
develop favorite tourism products (Li SM & Tian 2014, p. 57). Most of the Hainan island tourists
are domestics making at least a good percentage of visitors and the Hainan government has tried
to boost the destination to an international venue. Hainan has put great emphasis on globalizing
the destination. By October 2017, Hainan had reached 887,700 overseas tourists, 57.1 percent
increase year-on-year UNWTO (2013). The data shows the increase value of the destination and
the economic growth it has attained over the years. It has improved its services renovating itself
and attracting international tourists. The graph below shows statistics of growth from the year
2009 to 2016. The evidence concludes that, the involvement of government and creation of

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awareness of destinations is key to its success. The growth is determined by the effort of the
stakeholders to boost the destination.
Tourists attraction are essential to tourist destinations. Hainan island tourist attractions include
the splendid botanical garden, coconut trees, and monkey island. It is also nature-based with
around 4,680 species of vegetation with over 600 wild plants grow only in Hainan. There are
over 561 species of animals including 102 types of wildlife under state species protection.
Animals such as Hainan Eldi’s deer and Black Crown Gibbon monkey are only exclusive to
Hainan. Motivation helps categorize the attitudes of visitors towards an attraction. Hainan Island
also draws visitors as it surrounded by the South China Sea and geographic region separates it
(Airey & Chong 2010, p. 298).
When planning the resource management of the destination, tourism is also used. The destination
has beaches, for example, the holiday beach which is 6 kilometers long. The beach consists of

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sunbathing area, sea sports area, seafood, culture, and leisure area. All these attract a different
group of tourists depending on their needs and what kind of attractions motivates them. The
Roman-style Hot Spring Paradise is one of the tourist attractions which can accommodate over
1800 audiences, with different activities and performances, including water ballet, skydiving,
singing, and dancing. There is a vocation center In the leisure area, with various kinds of camps
and hammocks where visitors enjoy a quiet and comfortable night at here to achieve satisfaction
and value for their money. According to Yu (2011, p. 95) a big area is covered with forest with
beautiful nature-based tourist attraction sites. There is Qiongshan city which is 222 meters above
the sea level. These scenes provide a relaxation mode for tourists and attract more tourists to the
destination for holidays. The launch of international direct flight has boosted the tourist
destination (Ambrosie 2010, p.40)
The destinations are also prone to issues related to the tourism industry. The visitation of people
from different countries and backgrounds involves the interaction of different cultures, political
and economic activities to the region. Below are some of the issues related to the Hainan tourism
destinations. Both the local and international tourists visit Hainan Island. It leads to different
issues or challenges such as language barriers requiring multilingual tour guides to assist the
visitors from different walks of lives ranging from different countries such as French, Russia,
English speakers, Spanish and many others. All these people require translation of the Chinese
language in order to communicate. There are other factors affecting and boosting the tourist
destination Hainan.
Political environment

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The state promoted the characteristics of cultural industry development and guidance of other
policy documents to guide the Hainan tourism internationalization, standardization, and
upgrading. The laws objectives are to build China tourism special zone as an international tourist
island. It aims at attracting different tourists from all over the world.
Economic Environment Analysis
The tourism industry has developed rapidly, and the need to strengthen the province economic
industry has continuously improved the tourism products and services. There is improvement in
infrastructure in order to enhance the visitors experience and ensure a repeat visit.
Special economic zone
The region was assigned special economic zone in the year 2000 to accelerate the development
of the regional tourism industry. It came with numerous special policies such as landing visa-free
and other policies. It was aimed at attracting the attention of investors and generating tourists
related suppliers in the global perspective. It is one of the key factors that enable destination
Hainan accessible to the global world increasing the tourist's visitations.
Tourism Resources
The destination is easily accessible to the Chinese citizens. The destination has only two seasons
that is spring and summer making it lack seasonality and tourists can travel at any time of the
year. It also has unique natural resources such as the grassland, coastal areas and mountains
make it competitive in the market. It leads to relaxation culture making it preferred by most
locals as their holiday destination (Chaperon & Bramwell 2013, p.139)
The management of tourism-related enterprise

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The business in the region can be described as unorganized, small size and has no competitive
advantage. It is managed by unqualified managers leading to unqualified managerial situation
leads to an unstandardized industrial entry admission with high personnel turnover. Most
suppliers target short-term profit leading to carelessness to the tourism industry in the region.
The Quality of service
Less consideration is given to long-term development strategy in the business plan in the holiday
attraction destinations. They do not offer quality services in the tourism product. The employees
who contact the tourist directly do not offer the quality service as required restricting the healthy
improvement of the local tourism business. The services reflect the negative image of Hainan
destination. Misunderstanding of different culture and customs restricts the quality of providing
personalized services (Sun, Liu & Zhang 2017, p. 159).
Insufficient professionals with foreign language skills
Hainan province has less foreign language tour guides. The language barrier creates a huge gap
among the visitors, and it becomes a challenge to foreigners visiting the destinations. There is
need to fill the gap and have more tour guides speaking different languages and attracting
international tourists too.
Infrastructure and public service development.
According to Liu, Tzeng & Lee (2012, p.420)tourist information did not exist for a long time in
the Hainan destination. The information is necessary as it can provide multifunctional services
for the tourists. It does not only provide information on the reception of business visit, but also

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the products are well illustrated, reception of tourist visit since the development of infrastructure
is imminent.
Competition among tourism destinations has increased
Competition has increased among both domestic and international destinations. The gap is
considerable among different tourist destinations globally, and international competitiveness of
the tourism resources has increased.
Negative and positive impacts and changes of tourism activity on the host community at the
location.
Social and cultural
It leads to community alienation and the focus is mainly on the tourists. The needs of the tourists
are given more attention as they bring in the economic growth leaving the community alienated.
It also leads to bad behaviors among the community members such as doing drugs as they
imitate the tourists who come with different ways of conducting things (Allen, Qian, Zhang, C &
Zhao 2012, p.30).
Environmental and economical
Tourism also leads to traffic congestion, destruction of heritage and environmental damage. The
tourists come with a lot of environmental pollution having effects on the people of the local
community. The community can resist tourism in their communities in an attempt to save their
cultures.
The national council of the People ’s Republic of China issued the first strategy development in
the 1990 and the second national policy at the beginning of 2010. Hainan government has also

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issued some policies in an attempt to achieve the goal of being an international tourism
destination. It has led to tremendous changes generated in the tourism destination in the tourism
economy, infrastructure, society, and tourism environment. Below are some of the impacts of
tourism on the host community Wu, Morrison & Leung 2012, p. 850)
The tourism economy
The tourism industry development brought an economic miracle to Hainan since the
establishment of the special tourism zone. It has affected the locals due to the economic results
of development investments and different expenditures Wang & Xu 2014, p.102) The domestic
and international tourism is the major strength of the Hainan region. The housing price increased
rapidly after the policy issuances. It becomes too expensive for the local community to continue
living in the destination. The living cost increased rapidly according to the national bureau of
statistics of China. The overall prices of commodities increase with a percentage of 7.6% which
is way higher than the average level nationwide (Chong, Lam & Yan 2012, p. 132)
Social security
Reports on media and publications have mainly focused on cheating scandals on restaurant, taxi
and tourism agencies. Tourism has led to restaurants to provide poor quality ingredients with
high prices and customer’s safety if they refuse to pay or try to contact help. It has damaged the
image of Hainan tourism destination among the locals (Wang 2013, p 226). Tourism has led to
increased criminal activities in the region.
Some of the positive impact of tourism my include revitalizations of traditions, expansion of
perspective, increased environmental awareness. Infrastructure construction

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The increasing demand of tourism led to the Hainan government to invest largely on
infrastructure covering all the areas of public service including education, health, medication,
and transportation. This has improved the lives of the locals with better access to health and
quality education (Krutwaysho & Bramwell 2010, p.680)
Sustainability can be seen as a key driver for public development policies in the tourism sector.
Major fundamental sustainability policies should shift in the direction of tourism development.
For the government of Hainan island to achieve more economic growth from tourism, they need
to be coordinated, exchange of information and clear responsibilities stated. For the destination
to achieve the sustainable tourism outcomes for the destination, the policies below needs to be
implemented.
Collaboration
A socio-political goal such as sustainability relies on the support and commitment of all the
parties’ involved. It entails a process of transparency collaboration involving relevant
stakeholders which will ensure the acceptance of policies and assist in their implementation. The
collaborative arrangements for sustainable tourism are usually part of conflict resolution;
problem-solving and capacity building process that are central to sustainable development. For
example, the criminal activities in Hainan tourism destination can be solved by involving the
community in the policy implementation where they could state their interests to avoid conflicts
with the tourists (Bramwell 2011, p.462)
Co-ordination
Another policy is coordination which aims at bringing together the key actors in the tourism
industry in Hainan Island to facilitate efficient and effective communication. This will ensure the

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provision of quality services to the tourists and ensures the visitor return again to the same
destination. Coordination will also ensure that new opportunities are developed, and they provide
leadership to coordinate the tourism industry reducing uncertainty and confusion in tourism
policy.
Decentralization and community participation
Decentralization aims at generating local solutions to connected to the problems associated with
destinations. It emphasizes more on the role of local or community level organization in the
sense that the community is seen as the adequate level at which dialogue and collaboration can
bring about conflict resolution and consensual decision generate local solutions that may well be
more closely connected to the problems (Pastras & Bramwell 2013, p.430)
Information
A sustainable tourism policy addresses different issues which contribute to the process of re-
thinking society and development which affects all parts of the society. Sharing information with
the community plays an important role in enabling access to different information relevant to the
development of tourism destinations (Logar 2010, p.132)
In conclusion, Hainan Island has a rich diversity of attractions and tourism resources; The
government of China discovered the potential economic and social contributions of the tourism
industry and had been making efforts to turn Hainan into an international resort destination. The
announcement by China’s State Council of the ambitious national policy plan to elevate Hainan
international tourism island to world-class international tourism destination by the year 2020 had

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a great impact on the destination. The development of the full regional tourism is treated as a
major scenic spot to planning and construction in Hainan.

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List of References
Airey, D., and Chong, K., 2010. National policy-makers for tourism in China. Annals of Tourism
Research, 37(2), 295–314.
Allen, F., Qian, J., Zhang, C., andZhao, M., 2012. China’s financial system: opportunities
and challenges, 31 (1), 29–31
Ambr osie,L., 2010. Tourism policy research: avenues for the future. International Journal of
Tourism Policy, 3(1), 33–50
Bramwell, B., 2011. Government, the state and sustainable tourism: a political economy
approach. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 19(4), 459–477.
Chaperon, B., and Bramwell, B., 2013. Dependency and agency in peripheral tourism
development. Annals of Tourism Research, 40(1), 132–154
Chong, T. T., Lam, T., andYan, I. K., 2012. Is the Chinese stock market really inefficient? China
Economic Review, 23(1), 122–137.
Krutwaysho, O., and Bramwell, B., 2010. Tourism policy implementation and society. Annals of
Tourism Research, 37(3), 670–691.

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YU, H 2011, 'Developing China's Hainan into an International Tourism Destination: How Far
Can This Go?', East Asia: An International Quarterly, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 85-113. Available from:
10.1007/s12140-011-9143-2. [1 June 2018].
Li SM and Tian ZM (2014) An analysis on influencing factors of the degree of network attention
of tourist destination based on Baidu index : a case of Qingdao. Journal of Capital Normal
University (Natural Science Edition) 01(35), 56-59.
Liu, C., Tzeng, G., andLee, M., 2012. Improving tourism policy implementation—the use of
hybrid MCDM models. Tourism Management, 33(2), 413–426.
Logar, I., 2010. Sustainable tourism management in Crikvenica, Croatia: an assessment of policy
instruments. Tourism Management, 31(1), 125–135.
Pastras, P., and Bramwell, B., 2013. A strategic-relational approach to tourism policy. Annals of
Tourism Research, 43(2), 390–414.
Sun Y, Zhang HL, Liu PX and Zhang J (2017) Forecast of tourism flow volume of tourist
attraction based on degreee of tourist attraction of travel network: a case study of Baidu index of
different clients. Human geography. 03(32), 152-160

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The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), 2013. World tourism barometer, 11. Retrieved
Junel 2, 2018, from UNWTO website:
<http://dtxtq4w60xqpw.cloudfront.net/sites/all/files/pdf/unwto_barom13_05_oct_excerpt_0.pdf>
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Wang, D., and Ap, J., 2013. Factors affecting tourism policy implementation: a conceptual
framework and a case study in China. Tourism Management, 36(6), 221–233.
Wang, C., andXu, H., 2014. The role of local government and the private sector in China’s
tourism: the issue of sustainability. Tourism Management, 45(12), 95–105.
Wu, B., Morrison, A. M., andLeung, X . Y., 2012. Frame analysis on golden week policy reform
in China. Annals of Tourism Research, 39(2), 842–862.

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