Chinese national parks: Differences, resource use and tourism product portfolios Xiao-Long Ma a, * , Chris Ryan b , Ji-Gang Bao a a Center for Tourism Planning and Research, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China b Management School, University of Waikato, Gate 7 Hillcrest Road, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand article info Article history: Received 25 October 2007 Accepted 18 April 2008 Keywords: Chinese national parks Resource use efficiency Data envelopment analysis (DEA) Spatial characteristics abstract This paper has three purposes. First, it briefly describes some of the economic and cultural features of Chinese national parks that distinguish them from their counterparts in locations such as Europe, even while underlying similarities exist. Second, drawing on these differences it reports research into the efficiency of use of their resources by applying the technique, data envelopment analysis, to data made available for 136 national parks. Third, building on the results it identifies the role of external economies of scale in affecting resource usage and argues that being part of a portfolio of wider tourism locations is a means of improving resource usage. Such conclusions reinforce the role of Chinese national parks in rural economic regeneration through tourism, which arguably has as much importance in Chinese thinking as do issues of environmental protection. Thus tensions exist as to the role of national parks in China, and in their subsequent management. Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The purposes of this paper are to (a) describe some features of national parks in China that may be unique to that country, (b) report results derived from an analysis of resource usage and effi- ciency from the application of data envelopment analysis and (c) use results from that analysis to argue that national parks can form parts of portfolios of Parks and tourism asset structures that create externally induced economies of scale for the Parks while aiding in economic regeneration of rural areas in China. Therefore this paper extends previous studies in two ways. First DEA is applied to na- tional parks, and no prior study using this approach in this context has been found. Second, the initial findings gave rise to examining the geographical clustering of Parks as a determinate of scale economies. This too is a new consideration in the literature, al- though it may be specific to China. Additionally DEA is thought to be an appropriate methodology for the economic and organiza- tional framework within which Chinese national parks are con- textualized for the reasons explained below: that is, parks are economic resources for regional planning that attracts public and private sector capital that needs to be appraised in terms of re- source usage. 2. Chinese national parks – an overview It has become a cliche ´ to note the emergence of tourism as a rapidly growing sector of economic importance in the process of globalization. Many researchers have noted that the tourism in- dustry has a significant impact on regional economic development (Briedenhann & Wickens, 2004; Deying, Yanagida, Chakravorty, & Ping, 1997; Dwyer & Forsyth, 1998; Dwyer, Forsyth, Spurr, & Vanho, 2003; Narayan, 2004; Wagner, 1997), especially in developing countries and regions (Durbarry, 2004). China is no exception to this (People’s Daily, 1998). Of the 31 Chinese Provinces, no less than 25 mainland provinces have identified tourism as a major industry in their economic system and tourist activities and plans have mushroomed nationwide (Sofield & Li, 2007). Additionally the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has forecast that by 2015, China will become both the primary destination and tourist originating country in the world. Given this background, the manner of use of tourism resources will become increasingly im- portant to the economic development of China (Ao & Wei, 2006; Ma & Yang, 2003). National parks, by their very nature, are repositories of out- standing natural scenery and are cultural and/or historic resources both popular and significant as sites of tourism development. In China 80% of domestic tourist trips are to national parks (Qiu, 2006), meaning the Parks hosted more than 1 billion domestic travelers in 2006. However, the concept of a national park in China is relatively new. The first national parks, such as Ba Da Ling Great Wall and Ming Shi San Ling, were designated as such only in 1982. * Corresponding author. E-mail address: doc.maxiaolong@gmail.com (X.-L. Ma). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Tourism Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tourman 0261-5177/$ – see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2008.04.006 Tourism Management 30 (2009) 21–30