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Abstract This paper investigates the process of tourism-driven urbanization as a local strategy of town development in China. Existing literature has highlighted the role of industrialization in the urbanization process of China's small towns, but here it is suggested that tourism - a development initiative based on the creation of space for consumption, rather than production - can also foster significant expansion of urbanized built environment and remarkable transformation of local socio-economic structures. The case study suggests that, in contrast to the recent process of industrialization-based urbanization in China's small towns, tourism urbanization in Zhapo Town, Guangdong Province has been a highly localized development initiative characterized by the absence of foreign capital investment. Tourism-driven urbanization in Zhapo has involved several processes whose joint effect has reproduced the local socio-spatial organization: the rapid of expansion of urbanized built environment; a unique pattern of land use and land development; the booming of tertiary economic sectors; and the emergence of a flexible regime of labor force. In the meantime, the research also contests Mullins' (1991) classical theorization of tourism urbanization, and suggests that recent tourism-driven urbanization process in Zhapo Town is not the product of the post-modernization of urban cultural manifestations, but is situated within the context-specific space of China's modernity and is based on relatively standardized provision of tourism-related service and the mass consumption of nature. Highlights ► The research investigates town development in China with the perspective of tourism urbanization. ► Tourism in Zhapo town has triggered significant changes in urbanized built environment. ► Tourism urbanization is accompanied with local socio-economic restructuring. ► Tourism urbanization in Zhapo is situated within the space of China's modernization.

Thématiques n° 2, 3 [ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Ye Hua, Dennis Wei Paru dans : Habitat International, Volume 36, Issue 3, July 2012, Pages 396-405 This research examines government policies and urban transformation in China through a study of Hangzhou City, which is undergoing dramatic growth and restructuring. As the southern center of the Yangtze River Delta, an emerging global city region of China, Hangzhou has been restlessly searching for strategies to promote economic growth and survive the competition with Shanghai. This paper analyzes Hangzhou's development strategies, including globalization, tourism, industrial development, and urban development, in the context of shifting macro conditions and local responses. We hold that urban policies in China are situated in the broad economic restructuring and the gradual, experiential national reform and are therefore transitional. The paper suggests that China's urban policies are state institution-directed, growth-oriented, and land-based, imposing unprecedented challenges to sustainability and livability. Land development and spatial restructuring are central to urban policies in China. Last, while Hangzhou's development strategies and policies to some extent reflect policy convergence across cities in China, local/spatial contexts, including local settings, territorial rescaling and land conditions, are underlying the functioning of development/entrepreneurial states. Highlights ► This paper analyzes government policies and urban transformation in Hangzhou city. ► Urban policies in China are transitional. ► China's urban policies are state institutions-directed and growth-oriented.

[ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Wilco Chan Paru dans : International Journal of Hospitality Management, Volume 31, Issue 4, December 2012, Pages 1130-1142 Abstract Achieving effective and objective energy benchmarking for hotels is integral in fostering the sustainable development of the lodging sector. In this work, we reveal the major and minor streams of hotel energy benchmarking and ascertain that the most popular approach in benchmarking is normalized energy use intensity (EUI) based on floor level. Previous efforts to establish EUI indicators using subsystem average, data envelopment analysis (DEA), and regression technique are also studied. We propose that hotel energy benchmarking based on floor area is useful from the top-down management perspective. However, on a practical perspective, energy benchmarking based on facilities should be the first priority for hotel management or owners. Compared with the general energy benchmarking in the building sector, we find that the hotel sector lags behind in the adoption of computer modeling for benchmarking. By conducting in-depth interviews with hotel engineers, system designers, and professors to identify the challenges faced by current hotel energy benchmarking, we gain deeper insights on the development of hotel energy benchmarking that reflect the current situation in China. A taxonomical approach focusing on four directions of hotel energy benchmarking is thus proposed. By coordinating with various types of stakeholders and implementing the proposed development plan, the local Construction Ministry, Tourism Bureau, and Energy Improvement Office can realize this conceptual hotel energy benchmarking in China.

This paper describes the structure and challenges facing the domestic Chinese hotel industry at the start of the second decade of the twenty-first century. It notes the progress that has been made and the increasing internationalization of the industry and Chinese chains as they commence to raise capital overseas and begin a period of mergers and acquisitions of foreign based chains. An analysis of the balance between demand and supply is provided for different cities throughout China. The challenges facing the Chinese domestic industry and for foreign chains operating in China are classified and a commentary is provided for each of these categorisations.