Tourism Image Orientation and Marketing Promotion Strategy

for Resource-based Cities

Xie Xiangxiang

Management School of Jinan University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510632, China

Tourism College of Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan, 570228, China

Keywords: Resource-based Cities, Tourism Images, Orientation, Marketing Promotion.

Abstract: The amount of resource-based cities is huge in China, while mineral resource exploitation in the past

has led to serious pollution. Therefore, reshaping the tourism image as well as developing the tourism

products is a good way of economy transition from the aspect of sustainable development. It is obvious

that resource-based cities have sufficient natural resources and unique history of civilization. However,

we should not overlook the contamination resulted from the long-term development of them.

Meanwhile, defects of urban planning and design should not be ignored. Hence, some urban complex

should be reconstructed to create better tourism images of resource-based cities. Besides, we should

not only make the most utilization of historical and cultural resources, but also develop the industrial

structure optimization and upgrading.

1 INTRODUCTION

In the past, the gradual formation of resource-

based cities in China relied on their inherent

natural resources. Currently, there are about 120

resource-based cities in China, occupying about 20

percent of the total number of cities, where over

one-thirteenth of China's population live. It has

come to a consensus that over-exploitation of

inherent natural resources in resource-based cities

is incorrect. But it has become a major problem in

China and the world to promote the development

of resource-based cities in the process of economic

structure transition and industrial structure

optimization and upgrading. It can be gradually

found from the wide social practice that

development of resource-based cities should pay

attention to the development of tourism resources.

If they want to experience the real way of tourism

development, they need to reshape a more

favorable tourism image. Most resource-based

cities combine the development of industrial

resource with petroleum and mine resource. Then

they developed into large cities after the

establishment of China. Therefore, they need to

reexplore a better way when they inevitably

encounter more problems of creating good tourism

images.

2 ADVANTAGE AND

DISADVANTAGE OF

TOURISM IMAGES

ORIENTATION OF

RESOURCE-BASED CITIES

2.1 Advantage of Tourism Images

Orientation of Resource-based

Cities

Resource-based cities have relatively sufficient

natural resources, especially for more developed

mineral resources or forestry resources. Therefore,

they can take relatively unique advantages among

the newly arisen concepts of industrial tourism.

Because resource-based cities tend to have these

valuable industry resources, these related

resources have already been concentrated after a

long-term development. With an accumulated

good economic foundation, it can give more

supports in the process of tourism development.

Some resource-based cities have maintained a very

strong vitality for a long time by leading the

promotion and development of mineral industrial

enterprises. Their created values can support the

infrastructure reconstruction of the city, and some

abandoned mines can gradually become a sort of

industrial tourism attractions supported by these

funds.

Besides, resource-based cities have cultivated

a considerable number of talents in urban

development field in the process of long-term

industrial development, who have their own

210

Xiangxiang X.

Tourism Image Orientation and Marketing Promotion Strategy for Resource-based Cities.

DOI: 10.5220/0006022402100213

In Proceedings of the Information Science and Management Engineering III (ISME 2015), pages 210-213

ISBN: 978-989-758-163-2

technologies and skills in industrial production.

Still, they are talented in urban development and

resources utilization, which can be an important

driving force of talents in tourism development of

resource-based cities. Serious pollution of the

environment has occurred in some resource-based

cities because of long-term exploitation of natural

mineral resources. Apart from this, more workers

in resource-based city also have urgent ideas to

push urban transformation under the condition of

urban industrial transition. As a consequence,

these valuable labor resources can be devoted to

developing the tourism resources and reshaping

the tourism images in resource-based cities.

Many resource-based cities are relatively rich

in tourism resources and supplies. Resources of a

tourism-based city contain a variety of aspects,

such as the ecology resources, culture resources

and so on. They have relatively abundant natural

resources, and the long-term resource exploitation

has also made their resources of the urban

infrastructure construction relatively more

sufficient. Many cities with relatively rich mineral

resources tent to form a very unique ecological

environment with the support of many natural

resources, especially in some forestry-based cities

of relatively rich coal resources and forestry

resources, which are likely to own very special

tourism resources such as natural resources, water

environment, topography, etc.. In addition,

industrial tourism projects need to be developed in

the cities of industrial production, which actually

can become hot industrial tourist attractions to

draw the curiosity of tourists. For instance, open-

air mining fields can be constructed in some

resource-based cities rich in coal resources. Some

cities rich in oil resources have oil producing

regions, and some cities rich in metallurgical

resources have metallurgical plants, etc. Hence,

these industrial resources can also be developed as

a kind of very valuable tourism resource.

2.2 Disadvantage of Tourism Images

Orientation of Resource-based

Cities

Industrial structure appears relatively single in the

process of industrial development of resource-

based cities. In particular, the development of

mineral resources is more valued, so these often

result in the imbalances of industrial structure in

resource-based cities, where daily staffs in

employment and related enterprise components of

companies consist of only mining field. These

factors are bad for the development of tourism

resources in resource-based urban, making

themselves lag behind. Geological disasters are

resulted from long-term over-exploitation in some

resource-based cities, including land landslides.

Also their ecological resources have been under

the condition of depletion, which are not

conducive to large-scale development of tourism

resources in resource-based cities.

A lot of cities with mineral resources or

forestry resources locate relatively remotely,

which are far away from the economically

developed cities in China. So the distance in

physical space will inevitably affect more tourists’

desires to travel in resource-based cities.

Moreover, the development of many resource-

based cities focuses on natural resources, and the

overall layout design of them is based on the

distribution of natural resources. So resource-

based cities are often established in barren areas,

where they have a certain distance from big and

medium-sized cities. Since the distance between a

tourist source region and the destination is too far,

the transportation has become an important

bottleneck factor to tourism transition of resource-

based cities.

Most resource-based cities were constructed

and developed after the establishment of the new

China with less time-honored history. Foreign

tourists had unclear, unfavorable impressions on

many resource-based cities. During the mining

history of the past, all sorts of industrial mineral

resources were relatively scarce in resource-based

cities when the new China was established at that

time. Therefore, these cities responded to the call

of the country, and they carried out a large-scale

development of mineral or forest resources, which

damaged the image of industrial resource-based

cities. Long-term development of industries had

promoted the development of heavy industry,

while causing different effects on these industrial

cities. Especially, foreign tourists were impressed

by problems like relative air pollution, municipal

sewage, etc. From a psychological perspective, it

was a stereotyped prejudice. Although some cities

with development of industrial resources had taken

their own efforts to make comprehensive

improvement of urban environment, and achieved

some success, some foreign tourists still had the

idea that the industrial development and tourism

development were not incompatible with each

other in the past, due to bad image of these cities.

In addition to the bad interpretation of images of

resource-based of the cities, they were trapped into

embarrassment when reshaping their tourism

image.

Moreover, the construction of many resource-

based cities is relied on mineral resources, so the

entire construction of them tends to be

decentralized. The concept of urban planning and

construction was still immature during the period

of early establishment of new China, so many

situations of unreasonable design appeared. Some

mining areas presented a construction mode of

crumby strictures, which just pays attention to the

construction of mines, and ignores the daily

Tourism Image Orientation and Marketing Promotion Strategy for Resource-based Cities

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Tourism Image Orientation and Marketing Promotion Strategy for Resource-based Cities

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demands of people in cities. Finally inadequate

designs in the early stage led to traffic jams in

tourism.

3 MARKETING PROMOTION

STRATEGY OF TOURISM

IMAGES OF RESOURCE-

BASED CITIES

It is better for productive cities based on industrial

resources to consider more about their own

problems about natural resources conservation

when developing their tourism resources. Both

China and countries that developed based on heavy

industries like Germany are facing the difficulties

of tourism development of resource-based cities.

However, resource-based cities can adopt a way of

tourism development in civilization demonstration

type in terms of tourism marketing romotion. That

is to say, they can classify the great numbers of

industrial developing factories into industrial

civilization heritage category, and then integrate

them together to become tourism resources. As to

this strategy, it can refer to the following three

approaches.

The first approach of marketing promotion is to

redevelop the regional resources. Some resource-

based cities have a lot of iron and steel smelters,

coal plants and other plants, which can actually be

developed into the exhibition halls. In fact many

mineral processing, plants have been associated

with their age and long history closely, such as the

histories of Daqing Oilfield, “Iron Man” Wang

Jinxi and so on. These can serve as the focus of

further redevelopment of regional resources. In

order to attract people to visit, some mineral

processing plant with no producing function or

steel smelters can be taken as exhibition halls.

Some factories actually have very large areas,

which can be redeveloped to be amusement parks

for children in industrial civilization. They can

serve as changed safe places for children to play

and also help the development of parent-child

tourism. They are good places to show the charm

of industrial civilization, and families can come

together to enhance their own sense of history and

true feelings. Waste locomotives or some tourist

souvenirs with industrial civilization characters

can become peripheral products for marketing and

promote tourism industry.

Secondly, we take an approach of integrated

development for marketing promotion. Some large

industrial cities tend to involve a variety of

industrial civilization, such as iron and steel

smelting, coke or coal resources collecting

methods. Therefore, themes of coal and steel can

draw more tourists to visit in the course of tourism

marketing promotion.Processing plants of coal and

steel can be transformed into cultural centers for

young people to visit. The mottled walls of original

factories can also be changed safely into new

works of art or even youth’s recreational facilities.

For example, the factory warehouse can be altered

into a cultural exchange center for youth.

Symphony performances and legitimate dramas

can also choose steel and coal as the objects of

literary and artistic creation. So tourism resources

can be combined with the original resources to

make more tourists feel the important contribution

of industrial civilization. Meanwhile, it can not

only increase tourists’ knowledge and experience,

but also encourage more artists to show their

talents in these factories. If some industrial plants

cover relatively broad areas, they can become

integrated functional areas based on the practical

construction with community and leisure

functions, so that more tourists are willing to stop

for a short sightseeing. There will be some better

supporting measures for short-term residence such

as supermarkets or some hotels, which can recover

the vitality of the original heritages of industrial

civilization.

Thirdly, we should develop more tourism

products in resource type and industrial type. The

related resource-based cities should employ

professional staff to fully discover their history of

civilization according to their own characteristics.

Although some industrial cities only started to be

developed in a large-scale after the establishment

of new China, the history of human development

existed in some areas of them in the Ming Dynasty

and Qing history of China. Furthermore, some

mining areas even existed in the period of

prehistoric civilization. Through the systematical

management of research group about the

development of tourism resources, these products

can become a kind of very good tourism resource.

The civilization and history of tourism industry are

the main content of marketing promotion and

spread via different media. Particularly in order to

fulfill the current demand of youth’s curiosity, the

tourism city of industrial civilization can be

developed as a kind of pop culture. Then it can

spread through the Internet and other channels and

take effects, so that more young people want to

learn them. These are relied on the sufficient travel

services offered by the cities of industrial

civilization.

In all, as regards to integrated development of

resource-based cities, it basically requires a

combination of the above three aspects to conduct

development and marketing promotion. With the

integrated development, the marketing tourism

products of resource-based cities will be more

attractive.

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4 CONCLUSIONS

China is a country with a vast territory and a lot of

natural resources, and there are many resource-

based cities such as Datong City of Shanxi

Province and Daqing City, with abundant coal and

oil resources, respectively. However, when people

have gradually and widely accepted the concept of

sustainable development, resource-based cities

should reconsider its development model. It is

necessary for China to take the advantages of

different kinds of resources and promote the

industrial structure upgrading of resource-based

cities, so as to step on the real way of sustainable

development. Therefore, in order to make the

industrial civilization become part of civilization

history of human beings, we should take measures

to develop industrial tourism products and

industrial traditional civilization, making them

well known by the public. In addition, they can

provide the way of sustainable development for

more resources-based cities to avoid the

unsustainable situation of resources exhaustion.

Only in this way can we make contributions to

China’s development and prosperity.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work is funded by National Natural Science

Foundation Project of China: Study on

Coordination and Competition of Supply Chain

Based on Travel Agency Production Design,

Project Number. 71161008.

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