Tourism development at Zhangjiajie, China : Korean tourists and their impacts

An increase in the number of tourist arrivals is regarded as an important indicator of the development of a tourist site. At Wulingyuan, a World Heritage site in Hunan Province in China, rapid growth in the tourist arrivals from Korea has resulted in the so called ‘Korean Wave’. This chapter identifies the causes and impacts of this rapid increase in the number of inbound tourists and provides a generic model to enhance our understanding of this tourism growth. Korean arrivals have come to dominate tourist arrivals at Wulingyuan. Why? How did it occur? By using empirical data from surveys of local tourist practitioners, this chapter concludes that the initial, pull, and operating forces were generated by the market, but subsequently push and essential forces were supplied by the public sector in order to stimulate tourism growth from Korea. Inbound tourism in China needs to be initiated by market demand, but requires government support subsequently. The combination of market and government mechanisms jointly provides a model for inbound tourism marketing in China and possibly elsewhere.