Journal of Advances in Economics and Finance

Download PDF (1036.8 KB) PP. 147 - 155 Pub. Date: November 1, 2018

DOI: 10.22606/jaef.2018.34006

• Chuntao Wu¹, Mai Xianmin^2*, Tingting Yuan¹, JingTing Yuan^{1
  1}School of tourism, Sichuan University, P.R. China
  ²School of Urban Planning & Architecture, Southwest Minzu University, P.R.China

This paper studies the effects of tourism development on innovation and diversification of ethnic handicrafts in a newly development natural disaster tourism site – Beichuan Qiang Tourism Area in Sichuan, China. Beichuan was one of the worst-affected regions during the Great Sichuan Earthquake of May 12, 2008. Fieldworks including site visit, participation and observation, semi-structure interview with the local elites and tourists’ questionnaire survey are methods used by this paper. The results indicate that tourism development has leaded to a diversity of the embroidery handicrafts and is re-shaping the embroidery industries now. It is argued that local Qiang embroidery enterprises should decrease the cost and tailor the products to increase the sales. The higher quality and authenticity of embroiders’ product should be emphasized so that tourists can see the reason for the higher price of the local hand-made products.

Earthquake recovering; Beichuan; Qiang Embroidery; natural disaster destination management

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