The purpose of this thesis is to find out if China’s efforts to assimilate Tibet by implementing a strict tourism policy are genuinely intended to value local culture or if the introduction of...Show moreThe purpose of this thesis is to find out if China’s efforts to assimilate Tibet by implementing a strict tourism policy are genuinely intended to value local culture or if the introduction of tourism in Tibet merely is a government tool to provide the urban middle-class Han Chinese with a ‘natural theme park’ regardless of the environmental and/or cultural impact. The latter hypothesis is generally being supported by western critics, the former being a widely accepted statement in China (excluding its autonomous regions) and pro-Chinese elsewhere. As is the case with many Chinese state policies, their true intentions are debatable which I aspire to settle. To assess this, I have critically examined both theories in relation to projects and practices in the Tibetan tourism industry led by the Chinese government. Tourism nowadays comprises a spectrum of categories. Not every type of tourism is applicable to Tibet or simply has not set foot on Tibetan soil, so it is important to determine which tourism types are to be found, which ones are popular and which ones have potential. Therefore, categorizing the types of tourism in Tibet, which will be judged by the popularity among domestic tourists, have provided a basis in terms of scope. Other essential aspects, such as target audience, decisions by the Chinese government of when to invest in tourism projects and with what reasons, have been looked at extensively. Tourism-oriented projects and tourism-related implementations of roughly the last thirty years have been analyzed separately as case-studies, within the frame of three prominent types of domestic tourism in Tibet, Nature-based tourism, Active tourism and Cultural Tourism, in order to redefine the aforementioned aspects. This study found out that there is a significant inconsistency in government claims regarding Tibetan tourism policies. Although profound conclusions are beyond the bounds of possibility, a clear trend in rephrasing and/or radical change of reasoning in why the state invests in multimillion dollar Tibetan tourism projects may indicate China’s true intentions of exploiting the Tibetan land. Furthermore, this thesis increases our understanding of the term ‘invented tourism’, tourism-related implementations in Tibet and the general focus of the Chinese government in regard to tourism project investment.Show less
