Abstract:

Because of their historical traditions and customs，and special geographical conditions，ethnic people in minority areas have accumulated a large number of unique tourism resources of humanistic meanings.The combination of unique ethnic culture and landscape gives the historic cities in minority areas a profound cultural connotation and the enormous value of tourism development.However，tourism development in minority areas are more concentrated in ethnic custom and eco-tourism，while the historical and cultural value of those cities remain underdeveloped.In this context，with the ancient city of Songpan in Sichuan province as the research object，the present paper dissects tourism development of this ancient city from “culture” and “spirit” aspects，seeking to provide some lessons that might be helpful for other ethnic minority areas to optimize their tourism resources.

Key words: the ancient city of Songpan, ethnic minority areas, city tourism, humanistic interpretation, concept analysis