Study on livelihood transition of local residents in the tourist resort area of Jinshitan,Dalian

As a new type of urbanization in China,tourism urbanization has been an important driving force for the livelihood transition of local residents. However,research has not adequately analyzed changes caused by tourism on traditional livelihoods. Here,we used the sustainable development of livelihoods analysis framework of DFID to analyze changes in traditional livelihoods caused by tourism. Taking Jinshitan resort as a case study and combined with longitudinal sequence survey data from 1992 to 2012 we analyzed the transformation process of livelihood of local residents over the past 20 years. We found that dramatic livelihood changes have occurred in Jinshitan. On the whole,livelihood of local residents has changed from farmer to citizen. First,local residentsu0027 livelihood capital increased under a background of tourism development and its structure changed dramatically from pentagonal to square with a loss of natural capital. Second,livelihood strategies have diversified due to multiple off-farm growing,and this is more severe with the decline of traditional faming livelihood activities. Final,the overall standard of living of local residents present the improving trend. However,even though changes in livelihoods may be an indication of the realization of urbanization,this type of livelihood transition reflects an unsustainable development of the resort because of:(1)extrusion of local residents living space and deprivation of the natural assets;(2)low tourism livelihood of local residents;and(3)poverty of local residents seen from the structure of the income which depends mainly on subsidies. Therefore,we proposed the original natural villages should be protected from demolition;(2)tourism resort area residents itself as a mining and development of tourism resources should be strengthened;and(3)a multi- level employment post system for absorbing residents should be developed.