Tourism has been registered as more a cultural event than an economic activity. A memorable trip is a tour of culture and spirit. The cultural needs have represented the fundamental impetus for tourism. To launch a tour is out of material needs, However, spiritual and cultural needs lie a deeper cause. During the trips, people are involved in the culture, perceive the beauty and absorb the nutrition when visiting historic relics and viewing local conditions and customs. The visitors, for example, come to Beijing, where they climb the Great Wall and view the Palace Museum, for a long history and rich deposits of Chinese culture.
Cultural resources are the core of tourism, whose potential is subject to the charm and attraction of culture. Therefore, culture holds the key to the quality of diverse tourism resources. The cultural connotations and deposits will add lustre to the tourism. As an old Chinese poem goes, “No matter how high the mountain is, its name will spread far and wide if there is a fairy”, culture is the reflection of nature, which is granted with vigor and vitality. When reviewing the tourism development, culture has become the first resource of modern tourism. The regions feature strong tourism attraction and competitiveness are endowed with unique cultural quality and charm.
Cultural environment is the basic requirement for tourism. The improvement of tourism quality demands the support and guarantee of cultural quality. The tourism has represented the interaction among human beings, between the individuals and society and between human and nature. The level of civility of citizens and the moral and ethical standards of the whole society will exert great influence on tourist’s feeling directly and its fame. The cultural environment, social order, quality of service within a region will leave a deeper impression on tourists than its beautiful landscapes. To this end, it has become a basic requirement for upgrading the quality of tourism and a key factor to increase regional popularity and competitiveness to build a favorable cultural environment and improve the civility of citizens.
Cultural exchange is an important function of tourism, The tourism development will promote the communications and exchanges between different civilizations or cultures. Tourism is regarded as the exchanges transcending the time and cultures, accompanied by the spread of culture throughout the history. Every tourist is a carrier of culture and cultural envoy enhancing communications and exchanges. With the improvement of the modern transportation, tourism has been seen within a larger region, which will promote the integration of colourful civilizations. It is expected to bring new nutrition and add new vigor for cultural development, provide a broad platform and build the bridge of friendship for enhancing mutual understanding between peoples and enhancing consensus.
In today’s world, as the economic structure is undergoing profound changes, tourism has also entered into a stage of major adjustment and deve3lopment with a trend of deep integration of tourism and culture. The fusion of tourism brand and cultural brand has become a impetus to encourage tourism visits; the integration of cultural consumption and tourism consumption has become a important engine to enlarge tourism market; the integration of cultural innovation and tourism innovation has served as an strategic support for advancing the upgradation of industry and improving competitiveness; the integration of tourism industry and cultural industry has become a source to increase economic effects and create social values. It is truly acknowledged that the deep integration of tourism and culture is an indispensable requirement and fundamental path of transforming the model of tourism development.
Tourism is a cultural phenomenon in essence. A sentence is concluded to interpret the relations between culture and tourism: culture is the soul of tourism and tourism is the important carrier of culture. To some extent, culture devoid of tourism will lose its vitality while tourism devoid of culture will lose its charm. The tourism has also represented a large cultural market as they are independent to each other.
With the acceleration of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and the improvement of civilian’s life, .people have an increasingly strong desire for spiritual and cultural life. Moreover, the spiritual and cultural consumption will see a larger proportion in the future with a trend of diversity, multiple tiers and many aspects. Both material and spiritual needs and needs for development will be met through tourism. During the tourism activities, people are involved in culture, perceive the beauty and absorb cultural nutrition.