Progress of Research on Urban Ecotourism

Industrial revolution promotes the process of global urbanization. Urbanization in turn promotes economic development of countries and regions. However, the environmental quality in the cities has degraded because of the mismatch of the structure and function of urban ecosystem. Since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development ( UNCED) in 1992, the international community has paid close attention to urban human settlements environment and eco-city construction has began. Urban ecotourism, as a way of ecological city sustainable management has been developed. This study clarifies the previous researches both at home and abroad on this issue. First, it combs the concept and connotation of urban ecotourism. Secondly, based on previous researches, this paper discusses the differences between urban ecotourism and other types of tourism. Then it summarizes those researches from several aspects, such as urban ecotourism system, demands of tourists, urban ecotourism resources, the planning and developing strategies of urban ecotourism, urban ecotourism's effects and value assessment, finally this paper analyzes the prospect of urban ecotourism research.