A Research upon the Interactive Development between the Ethnic Traditional Sports Culture and Sports Tourism Industry in Western Region of China

Based on field investigations,expert interviews and literature reviews,the paper makes an investigation and research upon natural geography environment,ethnic traditional sports culture and sports tourism in eleven provinces and autonomous areas including Tibet,Xinjiang,Qinghai,Gansu and so on. The result indicates that there are favorable natural environment,profound ethnic sports culture connotation,rich sports tourism resources,solid material and social cultural foundation as well as developmental potentials for sports tourism industry in these areas. However,compared with the regions in other parts of China,the ethnic traditional sports culture and sports tourism in the investigated areas are lagged behind. The two main elements,namely the economic development being backward and the awareness of industry culture being weak,limit the development of its ethnic sports tourism.