The social impacts of tourism — A case study in Dali,Yunnan province,China |
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| Authors: | Fan Dai Jiang Bao |
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| Institution: | (1) Department of Geography and Planning, University at Albany, State University of New York, U.S.A.;(2) Centre for Urban & Regional Studies, Zhongshan University, 510275 Guangzhou, PRC |
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| Abstract: | Ancient town Dali is located in northwest Yunnan Province. With its ancient history and natural scenery, it is preserved as
one of the first 24 historical and cultural towns in China. Dali has become one of the most popular attractions for foreign
tourists since it had its first foreign visitors in 1983. As a result, English came into the life of the local people. This
paper presents and explains the results of questionnaires and interviews about Dali people’s attitude toward learning English.
Three types of questionnaires were designed to local businessmen, local residents and foreign tourists. Interviews were also
given whenever possible. In this study, businessmen in Dali were divided into two distinct groups. One group had their business
in “Foreigners’ Street”, which was in front of Hongshancha Hotel where many foreign tourists stayed. Another group had business
in Fuxin Street, which was vertically across “Foreigners’ Street”. The 41 shops and restaurants in “Foreigners’ Street” served
mainly foreign visitors, and most of them had English names and advertisements. The 353 shops and restaurants in Fuxin Street
mainly catered for domestic visitors but also served more and more overseas ones. Subjects from local residents were mostly
young people because aging ones were apparently not much affected by English. The results of the study showed that the oral
English levels became lower from “Foreigners’ Street” to Fuxin Street to local residents, due to declining frequency of contact
with foreign people. There were also distinct differences in general English level, the understanding of the importance of
English, the purposes of communicating with foreign tourists, the willingness and purposes of going on learning English between
businessmen in “Foreigners’ Street” and Fuxin Street: people in “Foreigners’ Street” had more positive feedback than those
in Fuxin Street because their constant contact with foreigners required them to speak better English which enabled them to
exchange with foreigners in many aspects, which in turn help them to know more about other cultures. On the other hand, Fuxin
Street businessmen would catch up with more and more prospective contact with overseas people. Though local residents had
nothing to do with foreign tourists, they met them in the street every day and might have to talk with them in unexpected
ways. They lived in a place where they saw English advertisement every day. Accordingly, study results showed that they were
very much motivated to learn English. They showed even stronger desire to learn more English than businessmen in “Foreigners’
Street”, though many of them were too young to tell why English was so important for them. This is an indication that English
has become part of the necessary education for young people in Dali. With the development of tourism, Dali is gradually becoming
a place where Chinese culture and western culture meet and coexist.
This project was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China. |
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| Keywords: | tourism social impacts ancient town Dali |
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