Let life be beautiful like summer flowers: Geotourism will Save the Beautiful Heaven

Tibet, an eminent scenic spots in China, attracts billions of tourism from all over the world each year. With the development of tourist industry, the economy of this area stimulates at top speed. Nevertheless, tourism also brings serious issues to Tibet, such as the environmental problem and the high price of food. In order to solve the environmental problem as well as the price issue and make travel more meaningful, there is no doubt that geotourism is the best alternative for visitors.

The traditional pattern of tourism in Tibet has caused sever environmental issue, which has made great negative impacts on local people. What is most worth mentioning is the land deterioration. Apart from splendid landscape, Tibet is also known as its valuable herb which is able to build people's body stronger and cure some sickness. Since every traveler is eager to purchase these herbs, it becomes a shortcut for local people to earn more money. Unfortunately, if people want to get these herbs, they have to dig the land and uncover the herbs. The more herbs are sold, the more serious the land deterioration is. According to XinHua News reported, there were 1.2 million people dig the herbs just only in San Jiangyuan Reservation,a small section of Tibet, and people have to destroy 60 square meters field to find out 1 kilogram herbs. If we still stick to the traditional pattern of tourism, the land deterioration will never stop and the environmental issue will be too complicated to be recovered. Therefore, people ought to apply geotourism to deal with the environmental problem with a sustainable approach .

Additionally, tourists are force to pay higher price to taste the local food in traditional pattern of tourism but most of the local people are still in poor situation in Tibet. Undoubtedly, travelers have keen interests in local food, like roasted mutton, milk tea and highland barley wine. Lack of information, it is not simple for sightseers to have a chance to taste the food made by local people. As they search famous restaurants via internet, plenty of food shops are available. However, it is not ensured that these shops are serving for authentic local food but what we can sure is that the price are extremely high. Besides, it is reported that most of these restaurants are owned by investors who are not local residents. When travelers stimulate the local economy, the financial situation of local people did not advance as much as we imagined and most of local families are still in poor. For tourists, under the traditional travel pattern, it is unfair that they pay the higher price of food but not actually experience the local food. In view of the disadvantage of traditional pattern, geotourism is believed to a solution of high food price when tourists are served directly by local residents in a proper price.

When it comes to the benefits of geotourism, the most outstanding points is that visitors can fully experience the local culture and the real life of local inhabitants, which makes your journey meaningful in Tibet. Obviously, if people do not get full prepared for sightseeing, tourists will just go there to take some photographs without going insight into this scenic place. Compared to traditional pattern tourism, geotourism is in accordance with the define of travel. The meaning of travel is not to visit popular sights as much as you could, but experience its profound traditional culture personally. In the pattern of geotourism, people are not just eat there, sleep there, take photos and then go back home but wander the scenery spots with well-experienced local guides and learn the progress of cooking local food in residential house. In that way, instead of being urge to complete the sightseeing list without further insight , geotourism will provide a memorable sightseeing which remains in tourists’ mind for good.

In a conclusion, not only can geotourism solve the environmental issue and high food price issue, but it can provide a meaningful tour for visitors. However, geotourism has not been conducted extensively in Tibet and it is high time that people should pursue this new travel pattern. For governments, they ought to carry out some policies to encourage the growth of geotourism with financial support. In addition, I also suppose that tourists should choose preferred geotourism when they plan to have a trip, which is beneficial to both themselves and local area. Only when geotourism has been practiced widely, can Tibet be saved from the environmental issue and high food price issue.

Resource ：

The website adress of XinHua News：

http://news.sina.com.cn/green/news/roll/2012-03-02/095724047176_2.shtml