Ninth International Conference on Tourism & Leisure Studies

Abstract

The research is a part of a Ph.D. dissertation in Environmental Design and Planning that investigates the problem of “overtourism” in the classical gardens of Suzhou, China, which were designated as UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) in 1997. Suzhou classical gardens as one of the most popular destinations in China have been suffering “overtourism” problems since 2000s, and the tourism rebound after COVID-19 even makes the situation worse. Overtourism is a new umbrella term that encompasses multiple interrelated issues associated with intensive tourism. Alienation of residents and changes of urban setting are two of the major issues. The research employs land use analysis to examine these two issues in the gardens’ neighborhoods and thus explore how tourism influences the land use of WHS’s buffer zone. The research adopts multiple case study approach, with four rival cases in a “two-tail” design focused on two gardens that are heavily impacted by tourism, and two that are only slightly impacted. The researcher conducted field research in Summer 2023 in Suzhou, China and collected land use data on site. In this conference, the researcher presents land use data of four gardens’ neighborhoods in both visual maps and statistic, including data of Residential Area, Residential-Commercial, Airbnb-lodges, Tourism-Commercial, Garden and Park, Museum and Temple, and Public Service. By depicting a more detailed and accurate community-level information than online map resources, this research unfolds an on-going land use situation of WHS buffer zone that influenced by tourism and visualizes the overtourism issues for further research.