Measurement and regulation of socio-cultural impact of tourism inagro-cultural heritage site- A cause study of Longji Ping'anzhai Terrace in Guilin, Guangxi

There today exists a high level of awareness about the general impact of tourism on travel destinations and especially that of historical and cultural sports. This paper focused on resident perception of socio-cultural impacts of tourism using a case study of Ping’an Village, a rice-terrace agro-cultural heritage site in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. This study investigated the atti-tudes of residents toward socio-cultural changes induced by tourism and discussed the relationship between resident perception of the changes and developments in tourism. Measurement indicators for the field investigation focused on three broad factors: social structure (including interpersonal relationship, tourism immigrants, etc.), social environment (moral effect, social security, etc.) and cultural structure (language, customs, traditional crafts, etc.). Based on local interviewee perceptions and preferences to tour-ism-induced socio-cultural changes in agro-cultural heritage sites and also on the depths of the interviews, questionnaires and statis-tical analyses, conclusions were drawn on resident attitudes toward the socio-cultural changes caused by tourism. Results showed that tourism development had great impacts on the socio-culture of agro-cultural heritage sites. These impacts were generally positive, such as increased family income, surge in tourism immigrants and better infrastructure. Resident attitudes toward tourism-induced socio-cultural changes varied in characteristics. In general, residents held positive attitudes toward these changes. Tourism-induced socio-cultural changes directly influenced local resident attitudes toward future developments in tourism. As long as correct guidance and regulation existed in the development of tourism, tourism-induced negative impacts on socio-cultural changes reduced or were even eliminated. This change promoted better developments in tourism related to agro-cultural heritage sites. In order to further re-gulate and control negative socio-cultural impacts of tourism on local residents, appropriate countermeasures and suggestions were put forward. For administrative departments and professional institutions, scientific planning was necessary to protect tourism sites via effective management and monitoring system. The media, tourism association and public institutions were the identified sectors that could effectively monitor the development of tourism. The education sector needed to strengthen the education and training of local residents for comprehensive understanding of socio-cultural impacts of tourism on their livelihoods. For the tourism enterprise and investors, there needed be more responsibility for the protection of local culture. The government also needed to establish man-agement regulations and services standards for tourism. Tourists needed to learn about local culture before entering valuable heritage sites. Tourist capacity also needed some attention and upgrade. It was as well necessary for local residents to comprehensively evalu-ate and understand developments in tourism, correctly deal with relations between the local communities and tourism development.