Aesthetic Values in Sustainable Tourism Development: A Case Study in Zhangjiajie National Park of Wuling Yuan, China 美学价值的重要性—武陵源张家界国家公园的可持续旅游发展

Abstract

Sustainability requires the tourism industry to consider development and protection simultaneously. It provides a healthy and balanced lifestyle for the population and, therefore, has received increased attention in the selected research area. Tourism is one of the industries that needs to put much focus on sustainable development because tourism can bring both positive and negative impacts on the environment and the people. This study looks into sustainable tourism development from a different perspective: protecting and improving aesthetic values. Aesthetic value can influence tourists' perceptions of the tourism destinations, and their excursion experiences. When the negative aesthetic perceptions of the landscape have influenced the tourists, they will transfer these perceptions onto the other parts of the trip, then to the whole destination. The aesthetic value can also influence ethical and economic value. When tourists feel any part of the landscape is ugly, the feeling will cause discomfort and even hatred of the trip. Negative feelings will affect the tourist buying and consuming habits thereby weakening economic value. This study explains the importance of protecting aesthetic value, using an example of the Zhangjiajie National Park in China. The study also gives some clarifications on how to protect and improve aesthetic values for the Zhangjiajie area.

旅游业的可持续性有赖于同时兼顾发展和保育。可持续旅游发展为人们提供健康、和谐的生活方式，因此成为旅游领域的研究热点。旅游可以为人类和环境同时带来好的和坏的影响，因此旅游业的持续发展是不能忽视的。本研究以不同的观点探讨可持续旅游发展－保护和提升美学价值。美学价值能够影响游客对旅游目的地和旅游经验的感知。如果游客认为景观缺乏美感，他们便会把这种负面的感知转移到旅游的其他方面，继而再转移到整个旅游目的地。美学价值还会对道德价值和经济价值造成影响。觉得整个或部分景观不美的游客会感到旅程不称心，有的甚至会觉得旅程很糟糕。这些负面的情绪大大降低了游客购买旅游产品或消费的意欲，因此经济价值会同样被削弱。本研究以中国张家界国家公园为例，说明保护美学价值的重要性，并对保护和提升张家界地区的美学价值提出了几点建议。

Keywords:

• Aesthetic value
• Wuling Yuan
• Zhangjiajie
• tourism development
• sustainable development
• 美学价值
• 武陵源
• 张家界
• 旅游发展
• 可持续发展

Introduction

China has emerged as one of the top tourism destinations in the world in the past 20 years. The tourism industry has great potential to generate foreign exchange earnings and employment, promote societal development, reduce disparities in income between regions, strengthen linkages between different sectors within the nation, and help to alleviate poverty. However, tourism activities have contributed to climate change, caused damage to the natural environment, and affected local culture. Arguments such as this over whether to develop or protect the environment have existed since at least the 1980s, and the issue of sustainable tourism is now attracting more attention from academics and governmental officials.

Tourism development inevitably requires considerable infrastructure, such as hotels, restaurants, shops, and increasingly, more unusual facilities such as sightseeing elevators. Faulty planning of these structures will not only affect natural resources, but will also destroy the appearance of the tourism destination and—in common with most other anthropogenic activities—will have other negative influences on the natural and cultural environment. Once the natural appearance of the environment and the local culture has been negatively affected, the destination loses a significant part of its aesthetic value for tourists, and in turn, the economic value of the destination declines.

In this study, the authors investigate the damage to aesthetic values caused by inappropriate tourism development in the renowned protected area of Wuling Yuan, in China. As the first national park in China, Wuling Yuan has the longest history of tourism development compared to other similar cases. However, it also receives the most serious tourism influences, both positive and negative. Also being a UNESCO heritage site, its sustainable development is very much concerned by the local government, tourism‐related organizations, and the society. Especially because of the commercialization and over‐modernity in the area caused by urbanization and economic growth, the tourism resources there are hugely influenced and even some destroyed. This is why Wuling Yuan is chosen as a case study in this research, in order to give other similar cases suggestions and examples. This study aims to focus on the importance of aesthetic values in tourism development, and provide some suggestions for improving and protecting aesthetic values in developing countries such as China.

Aesthetic Values

Modern society tends to put a price on everything and turn both tangible and intangible items into commodities. However, values in our society cannot simply be calculated in monetary terms. Money can of course make economic values tangible and accountable, but this is not the only form of value: Simmel (1990) argued that money is entirely a sociological phenomenon, a form of human interaction. Smith and Duffy (2003) point out that economic value cannot explain our sentiments for a person, or how we feel about beautiful scenery. Broader, generic values are made up of economic, ethical, and aesthetic values. Economics concerns itself with valuing the material things we produce and consume in everyday life; aesthetics concerns itself with appreciating and passing judgment about a thing's beauty; and ethics concerns itself with evaluating the moral worth of an item, an action, or a person. Figure 1 shows the three spheres of values and their interrelations. It shows that the three kinds of values differ from each other; but they also overlap and have impacts on each other.

Figure 1 Value interrelations(Smith & Duffy, 2003).

All visual images can express some meaning to people. For example, traffic lights not only give a visual impression of red, green, or yellow, but also make people's driving behavior conform to the directions given by the lights. There are many studies in tourism that relate to ethical and economic values, but few academics have paid attention to the importance of aesthetic value in tourism. The aesthetic vision believes that all visual impressions have both meaning and value. According to Maquet (1986, p. 32), what matters is the ”object as visible„, not its actual existence, which makes ownership of it possible. Aesthetic perception therefore depends on both the aesthetic object and the beholder, and aesthetic value is concerned with the visibility of the object, not with the fact of its existence.

In tourism, aesthetic value is commonly used for judging natural reserves and is also one of the criteria for judging cultural resources, as cited in the UNESCO criteria for assessing potential World Heritage sites. Aesthetic value is the ”feeling„ people have about certain landscapes. The scenery can resonate with certain emotions for them, and each individual may place a different aesthetic value on the same scenery based on their different value system. This resonance can cause the tourist to transfer such visual experiences into a certain kind of feeling, and into one page of his or her memory bank. To ensure good memories for travellers and tourists, the aesthetic perception has to be incorporated into tourism planning. However, tourism professionals and planners often neglect the dimension of aesthetic perception in tourism planning; much tourism planning in China has ruined the aesthetic value of scenery by allowing large tourism installations to be superimposed upon it.

Case Study of Wuling Yuan

Wuling Yuan is located in the northwest of Hunan province, China. The Wuling Yuan Scenic Area consists of three parts: Zhangjiajie National Park, Suoxiyu Nature Reserve, and Tianzi Mountain Natural Reserve, covering a total area of 350 square kilometers (Wulingyuan Scenic Areas, 2003). Geologically, Wuling Yuan consists of quartz and sandstone structures which include some 3100 narrow sandstone pillars and peaks (of which over 1000 rise to at least 200 meters) (Wulingyuan Scenic Areas, 2003). Along with the extensive forests, these structures, with their associated deep valleys, streams, waterfalls, and grottos, make for spectacular views (Wulingyuan Scenic Areas, 2003). Figure 2 shows a natural view of Wuling Yuan. The area also protects several rare species of fauna and flora. In 1992, UNESCO added Wuling Yuan to the list of World Heritage sites. Zhangjiajie National Park, in the southwestern part of Wuling Yuan, is its most important component, and the best known to tourists. Tourism is the biggest industry for Zhangjiajie City and the Zhangjiajie Tourism Bureau is the government agency making tourism policy and regulation across the whole region. Established in 1982, Zhangjiajie was the first national park of its kind in China and contains thousands of plant varieties, including rare species of gingko, sequoia, and Yunnan catalpa. The park is also home to hundreds of animal species, including clouded leopard, tarpon, macaque, giant salamander, and pangolin (Deng, Qiang, Walker, & Zhang, 2003).

Figure 2 Beautiful view of Wuling Yuan.

Tourism Development and Problems of Zhangjiajie National Park

Before the 1980s, Wuling Yuan was simply an inland mountain area sparsely populated by ethnic minority groups and with an impoverished economy. After about 20 years of tourism development, the area has undergone dramatic changes. In 2004, the number of tourists to Wuling Yuan reached 12.69 million, generating tourism expenditure of around US $6.9 billion (Li, Yin, & Quan, 2005). Zhangjiajie City, the principal gateway to Wuling Yuan, has been awarded the status of ”Excellent Tourism City,„ the highest destination status awarded by China National Tourism Administration (Chen & Liu, 1990). Zhangjiajie has become one of the leading tourism destinations in China, and has conferred prosperity on the whole area.

However, after it was inscribed on the World Heritage list, tourism development in Zhangjiajie has been criticized by many academic researchers, media commentators, and tourism organizations. The criticisms focus mainly on the massive tourism constructions around the natural attractions. In 1998, a team from UNESCO re‐evaluated the area and produced a ”State of Conservation„ report that criticized urbanization in Wuling Yuan, particularly in Zhangjiajie, as follows:

The mission found this site to be overrun with tourist facilities, having a considerable impact on the aesthetic qualities of the site. The Chinese authorities have not taken any steps to implement the recommendation of the Committee, made at the time of the site's inscription in 1992, to prepare a species status conservation report in order to determine whether the site would qualify for inscription under natural heritage criterion (iv). (World Heritage Committee, 1998, p. 156)

Under the pressure from UNESCO and the national media, the local government launched a series of measures aimed at ameliorating the overdevelopment of the site, and from 1999 started moving residents and pulling down some houses and other buildings. By 2001, these actions had been largely completed. All the tourism facilities within the national park had been demolished, and every resident in the park had been moved elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the construction of the ”Bailong Sightseeing Elevator„ within the scenic district gave rise to considerable argument and discussion. The elevator project started in 1999 and cost around US $15 million. It was promoted as the fastest double‐decker sightseeing elevator and with the biggest capacity of any elevator in the world. In fact there are three elevators altogether, each with a capacity for 46 people. The elevator carries people over a perpendicular height of 335 meters, transporting tourists from the foot of the mountain to the top in only 2 minutes. The structure has received considerable criticism because of the huge damage it has inflicted on the aesthetic value of the scenery, and because of its negative ecological impact on some plants and animals. This type of conflict between human activities and the environment are very typical in Wuling Yuan.

Tourism has undoubtedly become the most important business for Wuling Yuan, and the local government has paid considerable attention to tourism development and its sustainability. However, the large scale demolition of houses and other facilities and the translocation of residents cannot of themselves guarantee a balance between economic development and environmental protection—in other words, sustainable development. It is time to learn from history and devise a better plan for the future of Wuling Yuan. Tourists need to have good accommodation and services at the destination, but they also want to enjoy the natural beauty, which is often their principal motivation in choosing this destination in the first place.

Aesthetic Values: The Core of Wuling Yuan's Tourism Resource

Much research into tourism resources at Wuling Yuan has been carried out, but different tourism organizations and research bodies have used different criteria for evaluation. However, in 2003 the Wuling Yuan Scenic District general plan was approved by tourism experts and the state council after systematic analysis of the area's resources, and it is this plan that provides much of the material for the analysis presented in this study. According to the plan, there is a total of 239 scenic spots in Wuling Yuan; the details of landscape resources within these scenic spots are listed in Table 1. The European Landscape Convention defines landscape as ”an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors.„ From a sustainable development perspective, the protection of this resource requires actions ”to ensure the upkeep of the totality of characteristic features of a landscape justified by its heritage value derived from its natural configuration and/or human activity. This definition reflects the concept of evolution through time and reinforces the idea of landscape as a whole, where natural and cultural components are indissociable. Consequently, landscape should be understood as ”a resource composed of the assembly of natural, physical, cultural, economic, and visual components, and not only as their sum„ (Bulcão, Ribeiro, Arsénio, & Abreu, 2004, p. 48).

Table 1. Types of Landscape Resources in Wuling Yuan Scenic District (Tongji University and Hunan Construction Committee, 2003).

	Resources	Zhangjiajie	Suoxiyu	Tianzi Mountain	Total
Natural Landscape	Rivers, lakes, streams, and ponds	10	20	0	30
	Famous springs	2	1	6	9
	Waterfalls	1	4	1	6
	Mountain peaks and canyons	3000	2900	9900	15800
	Rare stones	5000	6000	12000	23000
	Ancient and precious trees	191	850	900	1941
	Ornamental plants and flowers	100	150	500	750
	Rare animals	68	70	120	258
	Typical geology	1	2	3	6
Cultural Landscape	Ancient buildings	5	1	4	10
	Ancient projects and facilities	0	2	0	2
	Ancient tombs	1	0	2	3
	Ancient battlefields	35	37	0	72
	Stone inscriptions	3	4	4	11
	Modern times revolution memorial places	1	0	1	2
	Villages and ethnic minority groups	18	17	4	39
	Local custom and specialities	4	8	4	16

Table 1 indicates the breadth of natural resources of Wuling Yuan which are of conservation value, and many of these also provide economic benefits in terms of land, forest, minerals, and water resources. The authors consider aesthetics the most important value of the natural resources. Domestic tourists are the main customers of Wuling Yuan. Wuling Yuan is an ideal destination to appreciate traditional beautiful landscape—”Shan Shui„ (mountains and waters), which normally could only be found in Chinese printings (Wang, Wang, & Wang, 2006). Tourists choose Wuling Yuan as they are tired of the busy metropolitan life and want to see natural landscape and breathe fresh air.

Wuling Yuan's Aesthetic Value

Tourists come to Wuling Yuan for the beauty of its mountains, forests, and canyons, and the most popular activity is sightseeing. Various experts have tried to describe the aesthetic features of Wuling Yuan. For example, Wu (2001, p. 57) evaluated the landscape as: ”magnificent mountains, peculiar peaks, graceful water, colorful clouds, rare flora and fauna, and fresh air.„ The 2003 Wuling Yuan Scenic District general plan describes the aesthetic values with words such as ”magical, rare, elegant, and wild.„

The aesthetic values of a natural landscape depend on shape, color, sound, and natural change (for instance, according to season) (Huang, 1999). Aesthetic values are not only decided by these features, however; they are also decided by preferences based on personal aesthetic concepts, which are derived from an individual's own philosophies and experiences. But in contrast to cultural landscapes, the aesthetic values of natural landscapes generally have similar effects on different people. Most tourists choose Wuling Yuan as their tourism destination because of its natural landscape and unusual aesthetic scenery. Based On the landscape sensitivity concept (Câmara, 1983; Marsh, 1991), biophysical sensitivity allows assessing the degree of vulnerability of those components of the landscape with respect to impacts of natural origin and pressures of human nature (Ribeiro et al., 2002). Visual quality is an evaluation method that intends to synthesize the scenic value and the cultural character of a landscape as well as their sensitivity to human activities„ (Ribeiro et al., 2002). Landscapes with high visual quality are usually more sensitive and, therefore, more prone to degradation (Câmara, 1983).

Wuling Yuan has many natural resources, each with specific aesthetic features; aesthetic values can only be maximized when all these features can match each other in a harmonious way. How to combine these features and reveal them to tourists becomes a crucial issue in strengthening aesthetic values. The conundrum then arises of creating tourism and transportation facilities which allow tourists to view more scenery, while it may then destroy the harmony of the original views.

Importance of Aesthetic Values in Tourism Development in Wuling Yuan

In Wuling Yuan, as a nature‐based tourism destination, aesthetic value is of prime importance for tourists, who will in effect pay for the intangible, the beauty of scenery, and the creation of good memories. Although many tourism researchers have described the aesthetic values of Wuling Yuan and have recognized their importance in the tourism experience, they generally separate aesthetic values from economic values, neglecting the fact that aesthetic value also has a dramatic influence on economic value and ethical value. As Figure 3 shows, when tourists feel the beauty of the scenery, they will love the place and love the trip, which increases ethical and economic values. If tourists have a good aesthetic experience, they will be more inclined to help protect nature and will contribute to the local community by using local services and buying local products.

Figure 3 The importance of aesthetic value in nature‐based tourism destinations.

Aesthetic values not only promote the growth of economic value in Wuling Yuan, but it also makes the destination better known, as strong aesthetic values attract more interest from the media, researchers, painters and other artists, archaeologists, and general visitors. Aesthetic values can also help to protect the environment since after tourists experience the beauty of the scenery, their ethical values are greatly raised. At that point, if educational messages on environmental protection are given, the tourists are more likely to accept them. This is one way of addressing the conflict between development and protection.

Damage to Aesthetic Values in Wuling Yuan

Currently, however, aesthetic values have been seriously damaged in Wuling Yuan. The damage is due to two aspects: tourist activities and the construction of tourism installations. Excessive tourism to Wuling Yuan, especially during the busy ”national golden week„ holidays in May, October, and the lunar Spring Festival, have damaged plants and animals through actions such as trampling vegetation and disturbing animals with excessive noise. Tourist activities also seriously influence the aesthetic values of Wuling Yuan. Tourists complain that the beauty of the natural scenery is blocked by crowds of people and harmed by tourist activity. Because overloading environmental capacity also brings safety problems, the local government has now started using tourist carrying capacity principles to handle these problems.

Even more than the activities of individual tourists, tourism installations create serious and permanent damage to aesthetic values in Wuling Yuan. Many Chinese tourism researchers have made suggestions on minimizing the impact of design and the location of tourism facilities. For instance, Zhu (2001) suggested that the location and design styles of all buildings in Wuling Yuan should blend in with the natural landscape and local culture, and avoid any colossal buildings. However, such suggestions have not been applied by local government and planners. UNESCO experts were of the opinion that the tourist facilities at the top of mountains were the main issue for the environment and sustainability (World Heritage Committee, 1998). Although the ecological impacts are difficult to quantify, the appalling influences on aesthetics are obvious. A photographic journalist from Chinese Central Television (CCTV) reported that ”Wuling Yuan has great natural views, but it is difficult to get a perfect shot because buildings and hotels are everywhere„ (Wang, 2003).

The most serious problem lies in the construction of hotels. Hotels are necessary for developing tourism, but the incompatible styles and location of the hotels have damaged the harmony of the landscape. Some hotels in Wuling Yuan were established in the late 1980s. At that time, the style of ancient palaces was very popular in China, and these hotels were all built in that style. In the late 1990s, the modern style then dominated all hotel design and construction. These inappropriate designs and incompatible styles have affected the original aesthetic value of Wuling Yuan. For example, the hotels at the top of Tianzi Mountain are built in the modern style, with white ceramic tiles and blue plate glass, which causes considerable visual pollution. In addition, the location of some hotels is very sensitive to the environment. For example, there is a group of hotels outside Zhangjiajie National Park, beside the river, which block most of the views of the scenery. The tourists complain that these hotels are too tall and interfere with their scope for photography. The operation of these hotels has also caused a lot of problems: pollution of the river water, deforestation, and destruction of natural habitats. Although these hotels were demolished after public criticism, much of the environmental damage is irreversible.

Besides hotels, the construction of other tourism facilities and artificial scenic spots has also wrought negative impacts on Wuling Yuan's landscape, especially in terms of visual impacts. Fortunately, man‐made scenic spots constructed at Wuling Yuan have been on a fairly small scale, such as Helong Park in Tianzi Mountain (built in 1986), Liuqi Pavilion (1991), Memorial Park at Laomo Bay (built in 1996 and subsequently demolished), Tianzi Pavilion at Tianzi Mountain (1996), Huanglong Cave in Suoxiyu, and the Baofeng Lake scenic spot. In general, these artificial scenic spots have not destroyed the natural landscape except for the Liuqi Pavilion, Tianzi Pavilion, and the Helong bronze statue in Helong Park. These three ”scenic spots„ do not fit into their surrounding natural environments, and destroy the harmony of the landscape. Especially in photographs, these buildings stand out as being anomalous, and ruin the original aesthetic values of the natural landscape.

Amongst large‐scale constructions, the most serious controversy concerns cablecars, particularly the Tianzi and Huangshizai cablecars, both constructed in 1997, and the Bailong Sightseeing Elevator, opened in 2002. Interestingly, though, of the three projects in Wuling Yuan, only the Bailong Sightseeing Elevator has excited substantial criticism from researchers, tourists, and the media. It was judged that the sightseeing elevator had a negative impact on visitors' feelings about the landscapes because as a giant artificial object, it interfered with the beautiful views. Huge pressure from the media forced the elevator to stop running for a year. In its defense, the elevator's designers explained that it allowed tourists to enjoy not only the natural beauty but also the changing landscape as they moved. However, since little criticism has been levelled at the other two cableways in Wuling Yuan, it has to be asked why the public and media were so concerned about the elevator. It is clear that the criteria of media and visitors were based simply on an aesthetic appreciation—a ”gut feeling„—that it interfered with the view and was not in harmony with the environment.

It is inevitable that there will be construction of facilities when tourism develops and impacts on the natural environment are also therefore inevitable. For example, cable cars and elevators provide convenience to diverse tourists including children, old people, and people with disabilities (Wang et al., 2006). In the 20 years of tourism development in Wuling Yuan, the most serious influence on the environment has been the damage inflicted on its aesthetic values. After the large‐scale demolition of many buildings in Wuling Yuan, the visual pollution has been mitigated, and in order to ensure sustainable tourism in Wuling Yuan, local governments and tourism researchers now have to devise ways of protecting and improving aesthetic values for the future.

Suggestions on Protecting and Improving Aesthetic Values in Wuling Yuan

Improving aesthetic values at tourism destinations not only attracts more tourists, but if can also protect the environment and connect people to nature. Aesthetic value is one manifestation of the sentiments people hold for nature, and helps people understand, love, and protect it. To achieve sustainability of the environment and tourism, aesthetic values needs to be interwoven into the whole process of planning and development. For instance, the tourism information center in Wanuskewin Heritage Park, Canada, has been designed as an Indian tipi which reflects the local culture and theme of the park, thus reinforcing the aesthetic values of the park. For aesthetic values to be improved at Wuling Yuan, a well‐researched plan for future tourism development is needed. It is suggested that this should include four elements: an aesthetic value evaluation of natural tourism resources; a visual impact assessment of construction projects; promotion of aesthetic knowledge; and a cooperation network concerning aesthetic values.

Aesthetic value evaluation of natural tourism resources

Although most tourism planning includes data on the natural resources used in tourism, very few are evaluated for their aesthetic value. Doing this can help to map out the landscape features of various natural tourism resources in Wuling Yuan and contribute to helping researchers determine the baseline for resource protection.

As previously discussed, aesthetic value is a highly abstract concept based mainly on individuals' feelings and personal preferences. However, in general, people's aesthetic concepts tend to be similar for certain destinations at certain times. Especially at places such as Wuling Yuan, where the principal features are stable natural resources, it is possible to find practical methods for evaluating aesthetic values. In fact, some tourism resource evaluation methods already involve evaluation of landscape aesthetic values, but little attention has been paid to these methods in China's tourism planning because of their complex design and implementation.

This area has been discussed by Priskin (2001), who listed landscape evaluation techniques and three approaches for tourism resource evaluation. One is ”landscape consensus,„ which involves a team of experts who designate areas of high scenic value based upon fieldwork, analysis of aerial photos, and other materials. The second approach involves landscape descriptive studies, where several elements of the landscape or its entirety are inventoried and described by experts. The third approach is landscape preferences that aim to determine which aspects of the environment are seen as attractive. This approach uses large‐scale survey and photographs. For Wuling Yuan, the most effective and practical method is landscape consensus, which is how some types of protected areas in other countries are determined, such as the Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in England and Wales, and the National Wild and Scenic Rivers program in the United States (Priskin, 2001). The third approach is judged to be too time‐consuming for the current situation. However, if too much reliance is placed solely on experts' opinions, errors may occur in the descriptions of landscape aesthetics because of individualism or subjectivity. Therefore, the best way forward for local government is to ask a group of experts during a limited time‐frame to design a set of field tasks, such as taking photos, conducting focus groups or interviews if necessary, and analyzing the results.

There are also several methods for helping the process of analysis, such as ”Scenic Beauty Assessment„ (SBA), ”Law of Comparative Judgment„ (LCJ), and BIB‐LCJ, a new version of scenic beauty assessment suggested by Yu (1988). In the SBA method, the researcher provides scenic photographs to a group of people and asks them to grade the scenery on a scale of 0 to 9 (Daniel & Boster, 1976). Law of Comparative Judgment is slightly different from SBA in that it also asks a group of people to rate photos of the scenery, but it provides a series of photos taken from different angles so that the people can compare these different views (Hull, Buhyoff, & Daniel, 1984). ”BIB‐LCJ„ combines SBA and LCJ, using many photos taken in various places and numbers them randomly by computer. The researcher needs to design a standard that can evenly divide these photos into different groups. Then, the researcher asks people from different backgrounds to score these groups of photos. The researchers can analyze the aesthetic values of these places according to the scores allocated.

Visual impact assessment of construction projects

Man‐made scenic spots, hotels, and other tourist facilities and buildings will inevitably have visual impacts on the landscape. However, with appropriate design and planning, the visual pollution of these important tourism resources can be mitigated. A visual impact assessment should therefore be the first stage of all construction projects; this should use visual absorption capability, which explains the capacity of scenery to withstand external interventions such as human activities. The assessment standards are based on different terrains, different types of vegetation, the self‐recovery ability of the environment, and even natural shapes and colors, all of which have different visual absorption capabilities (Câmara, 1983; Marsh, 1991). The influence of external interventions on these detailed issues needs to be assessed. A visual impact assessment can only be carried out after the aesthetic evaluation of natural tourism resources, since this will provide a comparison between the environment and the construction. This study suggests that Wuling Yuan should carry out a visual impact assessment not only on future construction, but also on current buildings and facilities to decide whether they should be retained or removed.

Promotion of aesthetic knowledge

To improve aesthetic values, aesthetic knowledge should be promoted to tourists. This can be done by communicating effectively with them about the natural landscape and providing them with local geographic and cultural knowledge. Tourist information centers and local tour guides have the responsibility to explain the beauty of the scenery using appropriate aesthetic knowledge and tools such as oral description, exhibitions, and brochures. For example, tour guides can lead tourists to enjoy the scenery from specific angles and relate stories about certain landscapes, while tourist information centers can organize exhibitions of photographs or models to stimulate the aesthetic ability of tourists. Tour guides and staff in the information centers should also receive some education on aesthetics.

Cooperation network for aesthetic values

Aesthetic values need to be considered not only by researchers but also by different stakeholders. The suggestions given above, which should strengthen this aspect of tourism planning and implementation, cannot become reality without the support of different stakeholders, and this support will be much more effective if stakeholders are coordinated in some way. The stakeholder network should involve individuals and representatives of all organizations that have an influence on tourism development in Wuling Yuan, such as government, academia, media, tourists, local residents, businesspersons, local organizations, travel agencies, and hotels. Figure 4 provides a suggested format for a cooperation network in Wuling Yuan. In 2006, Hunan Provincial Government and the Wuling Yuan Tourism Bureau invited national and international experts, including Professor Geoff Wall from Waterloo University, to develop a new sustainable tourism plan considering wide stakeholders in the region. The aim of the plan is to achieve an effective and coherent management, taking into account the dynamic evolution of a landscape as well as its cultural and visual aspects, in order to ensure the conciliation of nature conservation and the presence of tourists.

Figure 4 Cooperation network in Wuling Yuan for improving aesthetic values.

The Wuling Yuan local government should be the central agency and lead actor for the network because it is the policymaker for all resource evaluation, construction permits, or promotional programs for the area. It is also essential that the public supports the improvement and protection of aesthetic values. The role of the media is to promote agreed upon aesthetic values and to inform the public of their importance in Wuling Yuan. Local tourism organizations can help the tourism experts with their research into the visual impact assessment or tourism resource evaluation. In addition, hotels, travel agencies, tour guides, and other tourism businesses have to learn about the aesthetic values, follow government decisions on improving and maintaining these, and provide feedback to the government or the experts. The tourists are both the direct beneficiaries of improving aesthetic values and also the main bodies to produce aesthetic values on landscapes. Through a cooperation network, the opinions of all the stakeholders will interact with each other and provide feedback to the decision‐makers.

To ensure that the network operates in a practical way, it is suggested that the government should initiate it and establish collaboration between the different parties. The government should also organize an aesthetic value evaluation group that involves representatives from different sectors; these should achieve agreement on aesthetic values between stakeholders from different backgrounds.

Conclusion

The above suggestions aimed at improving aesthetic values in Wuling Yuan are brief, and further research is necessary. This study has tried to raise the importance of aesthetic values in tourism development, and discuss some implications. Different destinations, different economic and socio‐cultural backgrounds, and different stages of tourism development need different sustainable techniques. This case study demonstrated the feasibility and relevance of the aesthetic value that could be applied systematically for the development of management plans for protected natural tourism areas where aesthetic landscapes are valuable. It can therefore be expected that understanding aesthetic value as a resource and its integration in the development of sustainable tourism planning will lead to improved preservation and management policies in other destinations.