Strategies for Sustainable Tourism

Abstract

Emerging out of the first phase of the Mogao Grottoes visitor study were limiting conditions for visitation, from which the strategies for sustainable tourism to the grottoes were developed in the second, response phase of the methodology. To achieve highest visitation requires operational changes that are challenging, but management tools (computer simulation models, reservation, and visitor management systems) allow site managers to create tours responsive to changing conditions and varied visitation demands on a daily or seasonal basis. Management actions that respond to monitoring include simple methods as well as technologically sophisticated ones such as automated monitoring stations that alert staff to harmful humidity and carbon dioxide levels. To compensate for a potentially diminished visitor experience during peak visitation, interpretive programs, varied exhibitions, films, and virtual cave tours have been developed and a new Visitor Center constructed outside the site’s boundary. Such programs, in addition to new presentation, lighting, and interpretation of the cave interiors, will diversify the visitor experience and dovetail with changing visitor demographics and patterns of travel that are already making themselves felt in China.