Water Conservation Scenic Spots in China: Developing the Tourism Potential of Hydraulic Projects and Water Resources

The reservoir-related tourism industry has been developed for leisure purposes since the 1970s and has gained popularity worldwide. To promote reservoir-related tourism in China, the Chinese government launched a “top-down” project titled “Water Conservation Scenic Spot” (WCSS) in 2001. However, because of the lack of reasonable planning, innovative ideas, and effective governance, there are some problems with WCSS constraining its development. To deal with those problems, it is necessary to have a holistic understanding of the WCSS situation. This study analyses the origin, status, opportunities, and challenges of WCSS development in China. The results show a trend of periodic increase in the number of WCSSs between 2001 and 2016, and WCSS development is unbalanced regarding regions and types. Moreover, the main issues for the WCSS include the failure to follow WCSS guidelines in practice, weak awareness of the scientific educational function, monotonous planning and construction, a lack of cultural preservation, insufficient funding, weak marketing, damaging of natural resources, destruction of clusters of animals and plants, land surface erosion, and landscape pollution. These adverse effects can be alleviated by strengthening supervision and fostering balanced development, promoting education and protecting cultural resources, distributing funding and enlarging popularity, controlling the amount of tourism, and avoiding overexpansion. Overall, the findings of this study can encourage the development of WCSSs in the future and are of significance in supporting the reservoir-related tourism industry.