SHENGTAI LUYOU: Cross-Cultural Comparison in Ecotourism

Abstract

We compare the Sinophone term shengtai lüyou and the Anglophone term ecotourism through reciprocal translations of relevant literature and grounded iterative comparisons of conceptual components and practices. The Chinese concept of shengtai lüyou is similar to the Western concept of ecotourism but with key differences: a role in promoting human health; a predilection for human art and artefacts to enhance nature; and no limitations on scale. These differences are reflected both in academic literature and in practical implementation by government agencies and the tourism industry. Shengtai lüyou is thus a cultural analogue of ecotourism, not simply a translation. There are three steps in its evolution. Traditional Chinese culture, different from the West, provided the context. Recent concerns over environmental impacts, management, education and community equity in tourism, parallel to the West, provided favourable circumstances. The Western term ecotourism, introduced into Sinophone literature by Chinese researchers in the mid 1990s, provided a catalyst. Just as China has learnt from ecotourism, the West can learn from shengtai lüyou.

Probing Coastal Eco-Tourism in Pasir Putih Beach, Indonesia

“…The activity develops economics contribution to the local people who live closed to the beach, because they trained to utilize it in the natural way. Besides, the activity contributes funding to conserve the environment along the coastal-zone, and local-community empowerment (Ban & Ramsaran, 2016;Conway & Cawley, 2016;Fitzgerald & Stronza, 2016;Boley & Green, 2016, Halim, 2014Buckley et al, 2008;and Khan, 2003).…”

“…While eco-tourist doing their activity, they care on reducing the negative environmental-impact. Besides, travel-agency and government aware on building environmental care, providing financial benefits to conservation, empowerment of local-communities, respect the local-culture, and supporting human rights (Buckley, Cater, Linsheng, & Chen, 2008;Honey, 2008).…”

From Farm to Rural Hostel: New Opportunities and Challenges Associated with Tourism Expansion in Daxi, a Village in Anji County, Zhejiang, China

“…Green tourism aimed at visiting outstanding natural areas has increased in popularity, especially after 1999, which was declared a 'Year of Ecotourism' by the Chinese Tourism State Administration [9,10]. The importance of planning and scientific research in the development of ecotourism in China has been stressed by different authors [11,12], having detected some shortcomings in the recent establishment of natural parks throughout the country.…”

“…Rooted in Chinese cultural traditions, the definition of shengtai lüyou differs from the Western concept of ecotourism [15], and includes human health in relation to nature being transformed by people [10]. This 'ecotourism' has brought many urban residents to rural areas, offering new development opportunities [16].…”

Environmental and visitor management in a thousand protected areas in China

“…Topics include: concepts and definitions (Zhong and Xiao, 2000;Zhao, 2002;Buckley et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2012;Yang et al, 2000); ethics (Xu, 2003); geography (Yang and Yin, 2002); evaluation (Xu and Yang, 2005); awareness (Cheng, 2005); economics (He et al, 2008;Yang, 2012) case studies (Yang et al, 2000;Hang et al, 2011); conflicts (Wang et al, 2012;Zhang et al, 2014); and community interest and outcomes (Liu et al, 2012;Zhang and Lei, 2012). Overall, however, only 3.7% of tourism research in China is on ecotourism, including tourism in parks (Bao et al, 2014).…”