Study on the Sustainable Development of Street-stall economy in Smart Tourism Cities in Guizhou Province

: The street-stall economy, as part of individual’s ordinary lives, not only embodies urban characteristic culture but also drives informal employment, so it is essential to urban construction. As Guizhou Province, a national smart tourism pilot city, integrating the street-stall economy into the city blueprint is conducive to promoting employment and sustainable development of smart tourism cities in the region. This paper aims at analyzing the current situation of the street-stall economy in tourism cities through a questionnaire survey, and the market situation of the street-stall economy based on Porter's Five Forces Model in Guizhou province, thus putting forward suggestions for the sustainable development of the street-stall economy in Guizhou’s smart tourism.


Introduction
With the deep integration of Internet technology and social development, mobile payment and big data comes to pervade every aspect of our lives.Smart tourism, which is centered on the use of information technology in the new era and oriented by the needs of market participants, has attracted the public's attention.Those tourist cities relying on tourism development, influenced by the latest entry and exit tourism policy and cross-provincial one in China, are recovering in an orderly manner.Amid urban economic recovery and uncertain employment, the low-cost and low-threshold management model of the street-stall economy gives people with survival needs the opportunity to seek livelihood, and can help cities effectively reduce stress from employment pressure and address the dilemma of the increasing unemployment rate.Taking Guizhou Province, the national smart tourism pilot city, as an example, to ensure urban employment and promote social and economic development, Guizhou has orderly promoted the "street-stall economy".Zunyi City has announced relevant policies which emphasize standardized and flexible management,and outstand local features to meet the actual demands and promote orderly economic and social development.
To promote the construction of tourist cities in Guizhou Province and stimulate employment and the economy, it is of practical significance to take the street-stall economy as one of the breakthroughs.However, most of the current literature focuses on governance and digital empowerment, which plays an important role in promoting urban governance effectiveness and the digital economy.Yet, few studies are conducted on the impact of the stall economy on smart tourism cities from the current mainstream research direction of the street-stall economy.Therefore, this paper focus on the research of the sustainable development of the street-stall economy, an important breakthrough in the construction of tourist cities and comprehensively analyze the current situation of the street-stall economy in Guizhou smart tourist cities through the questionnaire survey, data analysis, and Porter's Five Forces Model.This paper also seeks to explore the innovative development of the street-stall economy in smart tourism cities, promoting the sustainable development of tourism cities in Guizhou.

Questionnaire design and research description
In the development of the local stall economy under the construction of smart tourism cities, the primary factor to achieve high-quality development is the support of local residents for it, what is called social recognition.Secondly, for the sake of creating a characteristic and branded stall economy, it is also necessary to closely combine the willingness of stall owners and and characteristics of the city to explore the current direction of the stall economy in Guizhou tourist city construction.Thirdly, the current consumer's evaluation of the economic services of street stalls should be taken into account, so as to find the crux of the matter, identify advantages and disadvantages, and make full use of the strengths and avoid the weaknesses.Based on the these factors, this paper integrates this three parts and designs a questionnaire to investigate the target group of local inhabitants in Guizhou.Besides, this survey mainly focuses on areas with relatively developed local tourism industries in Guizhou,such as Guiyang, Liupanshui, Zunyi, and Anshun, a total of nine places.
Early stage of questionnaire formation, big data information were collected and preprocessed.Subsequently, the draft questionnaire was worked out in accordance with the data preprocessing results.After the interview with local tourism practitioners, the survey questionnaire was optimized and distribute online questionnaires through the community and other channels.According to the latest data of the questionnaire, as of January 17, 2023, the actual number of questionnaires filled in was 184, excluding bad samples with duplicate data, the number of valid questionnaires was 156, and the questionnaire recovery rate reached 84.7%.The reliability test of the sample data by Stata's alpha test indicates that the average Cronbach's α coefficient is 0.7783, which can meet the reliability standard requirements of the questionnaire sample.

Necessity
In recent years, due to the negative impacts of the street-stall economy on urban spatial planning and governance, provinces in China have mainly adopted the "blocking" policy to rectify the street-stall economy.However, as one of the important forms of informal employment, the street-stall economy provides more benefits than adverse influences under the current urban development and the level of social science technology and productivity in China.Above all, with regard to macro policy, since December 2012, Guiyang was identified as the second batch of "National Smart Tourism Pilot Cities" by the China National Tourism Administration.Guizhou Province has launched regional cooperation with major digital tourism platforms devoting to create a smart tourism city, which provide an effective path for Guizhou to achieve high-quality development of cultural and digital tourism.Concerning the cultural value, the street-stall economy, mirroring urban culture, can directly reflect the disenchanted hustle, bustle of the secular life and local customs, which is a vital development mode to condense the benefits of social culture and economic development.In terms of social needs, as a highly flexible way of employment method, it is also significant for urban low-income groups to meet their survival needs and help solve the problems of people's employment, survival, and livelihood, especially when the unemployment rate in Guizhou has risen in the past two years.
Guizhou Province is a tourist attraction with a long history and culture, which fuses the cultural atmosphere and natural scenery.It is not only connected with Yunnan, Sichuan, and other major tourism provinces but also enjoys high-quality tourism resources such as minority characteristic and unique food culture.Guiyang City ranks 11th in the 2022 National Tourism City Brand Influence Report, testifying to the city's influential tourism characteristics in China.Having said that, compared with the tourism development in neighboring Chongqing, Sichuan, Yunnan, and other resorts, it has started late and lagged behind.In order to promote the construction of smart tourism cities in Guizhou, it is necessary to make rational use of local resources according to local conditions and seek new opportunities for the development of tourism cities. Integrating the street-stall economy into smart tourism cities plays a positive role in accelerating the transformational development of tourism.The integration of the two is conducive to reducing the waste of urban tourism resources in Guizhou Province, promoting the economic development of scenic spots, strengthening the construction of urban tourism brands, and promoting the spread and heritage of cultural identity. [2]

Feasibility
The first condition for building the street-stall economy in smart tourism cities is that the city has affluent tourism resources and a broad tourism market, as well as proven Internet information technology.Guizhou is located in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, making the forest coverage rate of 60%.With a special karst landform, it is endowed with rich natural geographical landscapes.Additionally, Guizhou, as the gathering place of the Miao nationality, is a multi-ethnic province where Buyi, Dong, and other ethnic minorities improve and prosper together, and the habitat of ethnic customs and cultures.In terms of transportation, Guizhou has made a historic leap from high-speed growth to high-quality development in recent years.With the high-speed mileage of 8000 kilometers, it has created a comprehensive three-dimensional transportation system, which has rapidly reduced travel time.Moreover, Guizhou Province is striving to create innovative, intelligent, and green development of transportation, focusing on building a new integration of highway transportation and related industries which lay a solid foundation on transportation network for developing the street-stall economy in smart tourism cities. [2] In terms of policy, Guizhou has implemented preferential tourism policies in recent years.According the Implementation Plan for Supporting the High-quality Development of Culture and Tourism in Guizhou put forward by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the State Administration of Cultural Relics in 2022, the government has increased its support for local tourism and made great efforts to promote the construction of smart tourism cities in Guizhou.
Besides, according to the questionnaire survey of residents in Guizhou, 69.29% of the available samples have expressed support for the development of the street-stall economy in Guizhou tourist attractions and surrounding areas, meanwhile 70.83% of the residents also have supported the integration of street-stall economy with Internet, digitalization and other information technologies in these areas.Residents are favorable to promote the street-stall economy in smart tourism cities in Guizhou.Based on this, Guizhou has announced government planning and policy support for the street-stall economy of smart tourism cities.As this is driven by technologies such as big data, the Internet and the transportation system, and supported by people.The street-stall economy of smart tourism cities in Guizhou not only meets the basic conditions for development but also has broad prospect.

Social recognition
According to the sample survey of residents in Guizhou, 33.33% of the residents advocate that the street-stall economy is deeply important to the local economic development; 39.74% of the residents consider that the street-stall economy is important to the local economic development, but it is not particularly important; 17.31% of them reckon that the street-stall economy has little effect on the economy.In the survey of the importance of the street-stall economy in the development of local scenic spots, 32.69% of the residents regard it is very important; 41.03% of the residents feel that the street-stall economy is important, but not particularly important; 20.51% of residents believe that the street-stall economy has little effect on the development of scenic spots.As for two dimensions --the development of scenic spots and economic development, more than 70% of the residents believe that the development of the street-stall economy has a positive role in promoting the construction of local tourist cities, which means that local residents in Guizhou widely agree that street-stall economy plays a role in social production and life.Furthermore, according to the residents' experience and willingness to set up stalls, 32.05% of the residents have been engaged in or are now being engaged in informal employment such as the street-stall economy, which shows that Guizhou residents are highly inclusive of the development of the street-stall economy.This indicates that residents are inclusive to the development of the street-stall economy in tourist cities and is sustained by the masses.

Employment status of stall owners
Regarding the types of stalls that residents are currently engaged in or want to engage in, among the residents surveyed, the type of special clothing and bags remains at the top, accounting for 31.13%,followed by the food which accounts for 25.17%, and daily necessities accounting for 21.19%, while the rest are the cultural goods and electronic products which respectively account for 16.56% and 5.96%.This reveals that residents are more willing to engage in work related to local customs and folkways, especially jobs relevant to residents' characteristics that can reflect local cultural characteristics, which demonstrates the residents' enthusiasm for spreading national culture and their strong willingness to participate in the construction of characteristic tourism cities.In addition, through the analysis of the income of the residents engaged in the street-stall economy, 40% of the residents surveyed have an income of 2000-4999 yuan, and 32% have an income of 5000-7999 yuan.For residents who are willing to engage in the street-stall economy, 44.5% of them have a current income between 2000-4999 yuan, and 37.6% between 5000-7999 yuan.According to the statistical bulletin of human resources and social security in Guizhou Province in 2021, the average annual wage of urban employment in the whole province is 81570 yuan, and it can be inferred that the average monthly wage is between 5000 and 7999.At present, most of the residents who are engaged in the stall and have the willingness to engage in the stall have a lower salary than the average urban income.Therefore, combined with urban tourism, promoting the high-quality development of the street-stall economy helps to improve the average living standards and income of residents engaged in the street-stall economy, and cultivate a new group of consumers and tourists for the construction of tourist cities in Guizhou.
In addition, according to the analysis of the education level of the residents currently engaged in the street-stall economy, 38% of them have a bachelor's degree, 28% have graduated from secondary school or below, and 26% have a junior college degree.Among the residents who are willing to engage in the street-stall economy, 46.5% have a bachelor's degree, 37.6% have a junior college degree, and 14.8% have a secondary school degree or below.At present, with the popularization of education in China, the education level of residents engaged in street stalls and those willing to engage in street stalls has been continuously improved, but according to the current survey, more than half of them still have a bachelor's degree or lower.Therefore, to integrate with the construction of smart tourism cities in Guizhou, it is important to improve the street-stall economy, optimize the service experience, and constantly train and introduce talents.

Service satisfaction
In terms of service satisfaction, the analysis is mainly conducted from 7 aspects in two directions: the economic environment quality of scenic spot stalls and service experience.In the environmental quality assessment of the street stall economy in scenic spots, based on the calculation of the 7-point Likert Scale, the statistical score of the sample is 5.3, which reflects that local residents in Guizhou are strongly satisfied with the street stall status quo.Among them, in the four aspects of congestion, convenience, orderliness, and environmental satisfaction, most local residents in Guizhou are very pleased with the quality of its environment.In the evaluation of the service experience of street stalls in scenic spots, based on the 7-point Likert Scale, the statistical score of the sample is 5.18.Guizhou residents generally approve the service level and attitude of service personnel of the street stall economy.Among them, the service attitude, service ability and overall satisfaction of the staff are also highly recognized.According to the above content, it can be inferred that in the construction of a smart tourism city, the current street stall economy is under the supervision and orderly control of the Guizhou government.The service experience and product quality provided in tourist attractions and nearby related points are widely supported by the individuals of Guizhou.In addition, the current level of development and degree of exploitation have not given rise to a relatively bad impact on the precious local tourism resources.However, with the high-speed development and construction of Guizhou, the environmental quality and service experience still need to be constantly optimized and improved in the future.Not only should them be vigilant against over-exploitation and over-commercialization of scenic spots, so as not to seek immediate economic growth at the cost of destroying the green mountains and national customs. [1]Guizhou also demands for paying great attention to the discipline and ability training of service personnel at all times, for the sake of strengthening the competitiveness of the street-stall economy and providing a reserve force for the sustainable development of Guizhou tourism.

Suppliers
The development of the street-stall economy in Guizhou tourist cities mainly depends on the suppliers who are connected by stall owners as the center.With the rise of e-commerce and the government's support for the street-stall economy, such plans as Alibaba's support plan for the street-stall economy and JD's "spark" plan have provided multiple guarantees to the supply of goods and funds of the street-stall economy, which has created new path of development for the traditional single-line operation mode of the street-stall economy -purchasing-stall-selling.This enables the stall owners not only to operate based on their personal pratical experience and feelings, but also to provide them with diversified choices and purchasing channels, and even financial services with practical significance such as supply chain finance.With the development of preferential policies and the interconnected economy, fast information circulation equips vendors with an extensive supply of information.Therefore, for the current street-stall economy in Guizhou, suppliers have a wide range of commodity choices; a low concentration of suppliers of products and services and more alternatives means that the bargaining power of the street-stall economy to suppliers is weak.

Purchaser
The most important feature of the street-stall economy lies in the price, which is generally oriented to consumers in the middle and low wage levels.With the development of the e-commerce economy and the support from the government, the street-stall economy is picking up momentum.Due to the saturation of low-end industrial chains of various stall economies in the construction of tourist cities in Guizhou, the competition among them is becoming increasingly fierce.Yet, some buyers have more initiatives to make purchases and enjoy more bargaining power.With the intelligent construction of tourist cities, the street-stall economy driven by digital information technology will tend to spawn high-end stall economic models, such as creative parks, water markets, trunk markets, etc.This leads to the improvement of product quality and service quality, especially the support from brands to the street-stall economy in tourist cities.In the high-end market, as more market information is grasped and products incline to diversify, the bargaining power and initiative will shift from buyers to vendors, while the buyers' bargaining power will gradually decrease.Moreover, as the consumers of the street-stall economy are mainly families or individuals, they are apt to choose different goods according to their purchasing power and willingness, so they are less likely to bargain. [5]

Existing competitors
The primary competitors of stall owners are the neighboring counterparts, especially those offering more alternatives, while stalls that sell similar goods tend to target the same consumer, which gives rise to the competition in price, product quality, and service quality.Neighboring stalls that are mutually reinforcing will engage in benign competition and even bring about win-win cooperation.Secondly, the competitors facing the street-stall economy also include owners of brick-and-mortar stores.Compared with physical stores with fixed shops and regular customers, stall owners are facing more uncertainties due to weather, passenger flow, and other variables.Thirdly, in addition to offline competitors, online transactions will also pose a threat to the street-stall economy.With the rapid development of Internet technology, the logistics system, and the wider audience, the e-commerce economy and online transactions have become consumers' top choices.However, the street-stall economy is constrained by geographical factors, environmental factors and other realistic conditions, which makes it less flexible than the e-commerce economy.

Potential vendeors
The street-stall economy, as an industry with a low entry threshold and operating costs, provides multiple types and quick returns of funds.Especially with the strong government support and corporate sponsorship, numerous potential vendors will participate in the street-stall economy.Therefore, as Guizhou's tourism economy develops rapidly, no matter who comes in, they will seize the original market and pose a threat to street vendors.The potential participants can be unemployed people, as they will start with the street-stall economy in order to guarantee their income, seek financial sources, and meet basic survival and living needs.This is also because they are hit by an increasingly depressed market economy and the saturation of some industries in recent years.
Furthermore, to accumulate relevant entrepreneurial experience, improve individual ability and carry out activities quickly and conveniently, young people seeking entrepreneurship, such as college students, will start from the street-stall economy on account of the low entry threshold.

Substitutes
The primary substitute for the street-stall economy is the e-commerce economy.At present, local specialty products can be rapidly purchased through the Internet, such as silver products and medicinal materials with Guizhou characteristics.As a result, the distinctively local commodities sold on the street stalls are prone to be similar, which may fail to meet individual expectations and reduce tourists' willingness to consume, thus posing a threat to the development of the original street-stall economy in tourist cities.In addition, in respect to the buyer's willingness to purchase products, local specialties of the same type in the same region can also be replaced. [5]Taking Xijiang Miao Nationality Village as an example, the local streets, and products sold in the shops as well as stalls on both sides are far from distinctive and different.Therefore, there will be more substitutes throughout the scenic area, which will result in fierce internal competition.

Suggestions on Sustainable Development of Street-stall economy in Smart Tourism Cities in Guizhou
6.1 Grasp the intelligent construction and promote the innovation of the street-stall economy

Change the business model to improve the competitiveness
The street-stall economy requires shifting from the single mode of "purchasing and selling" to more diversified development.First of all, operators should improve their overall quality, give full play to their initiative, constantly learn from all kinds of business experience, acquire business skills and enhance their business ability.Secondly, it is important to make rational use of modern information technology.Equipped with Internet video software, advertising and other marketing channels, the development pattern of the street-stall economy can be more innovative.This means integrating information technology into the business model, with the help of major platforms and software, so as to promote the high-quality street-stall economy with Guizhou characteristics and publicize local characteristic stall economic products and services, thus attracting consumers from all over the world.
In addition, in order to achieve the sustainable development of the street-stall economy in smart tourism city, it is essential to efficiently integrate the available space and resources, and constantly optimize the service experience.Especially in the aspect of supply chain logistics, capital flow, cargo flow, and information flow should be effectively integrated by means of various Internet platforms which provides high-quality blockchain, big data, risk management technology, etc, so as to locate the stalls more reasonably and improve products and services based on the diversified needs of the market and individual needs.To set up an innovative street-stall economy suitable for local characteristics and meet the consumers' needs, the underlying market must be explored to achieve win-win cooperation between the platform and the stall owners and other participants in the supply chains.

Create urban characteristics to gain brand benefits
The street-stall economy, as a business model closely related to the populations, is more down-to-earth than micro-businesses, e-commerce, and even brick-and-mortar stores, highlighting cities' characteristics.Therefore, rational planning of the street-stall economy can embody the charm and characteristics of the cities and help them to build tourism brands. [4]To meet this end, it is necessary to dive into the city's history and explore the red culture, the natural scenery with characteristics, and the customs of different nationalities.Moreover, it is important to highlight the portrait of the city and add national features to the street-stall economy to form a unique city brand, which infuses vitality into the construction of Guizhou's smart tourism cities.

Digital empowerment to accelerate urban construction
Owing to the information technology, and digital intelligent technology, stalls can be operated online and offline by video or live-streaming.Through recording the stalls or live-streaming marketing, it is possible to improve the turnover rate, accelerate the transaction efficiency and expand the rate of return.Guizhou Province can also expedite the digital development of scenic spots, speed up the development of the street-stall economy in tourist cities through online tourism and shopping, and build intelligent tourist city brands. [1]In addition, based on the digital equipment in the scenic spots, the information between mountains and forests is interconnected at a high speed.Through intelligent monitoring systems and alarm systems, potential safety hazards and emergencies are strictly prevented so as to provide a more efficient and safer security system for passengers and vendors, ensure their safety, and improve the quality of urban services.Besides this, in order to improve urban tourism services and deepen the trust of tourists and consumers in commodities and services, it is vital to mark the digital information of products and services sold by stalls and use this digital mark as a medium to tackle information asymmetry between buyers and sellers, which can provide a breakthrough for solving disputes concerning products and services, and optimize the service experience of smart tourist cities in Guizhou. [7]

Guarantee urban employment and cultivate consumers
As one of the important channels of informal employment, the street-stall economy provides a wide range of employment opportunities for unemployed and entrepreneurial residents, which can not only alleviate urban unemployment but also promote the development of tourist attractions, night fair economy, stalls festival and other special activities.Therefore, it is necessary to guide the major platforms and large enterprises to enter the market, provide targeted support to the street-stall economy, ensure a fast and smooth supply chain system of the street-stall economy, and guarantee product quality and logistics efficiency.This can promote the rapid development of the street-stall economy in Guizhou, advance the living standards of residents, increase urban allowance, and ensure urban employment.Besides, stimulating local brick-and-mortar stores to develop the street-stall economy can also consolidate their fixed footfall, attract new buyers, raise their prestige and exposure, and then cultivate a new group of consumer groups to achieve mutual benefit and win-win scenarios for merchants and residents.

Optimize education and recruit talents
To promote the construction of smart tourism cities and create high-quality tourism brand characteristics, high-caliber services and technologies as well as professional personnel are needed.Therefore, in order to seek urban development, it is essential to improve the level of urban education and combine local characteristics with local conditions, develop characteristic disciplines, find successors for Guizhou's characteristic culture and traditional crafts and prepare a reserve force for the development of urban tourism characteristics. [2]Subsequently, with the advent of interconnection technology, if there is a cultural gap between stall operators and consumers, and the vendors have little understanding of digital technology, it will inevitably result in a digital divide, which will hinder the construction of smart tourism cities.Hence, it is imperative to promote the welfare policy of introducing foreign talents and retaining local talents, accelerate the accessibility of Internet technology, bring Internet information technology and other technologies to the Guizhou Province, improve the professional quality of urban residents, enable cities to digitize city and contribute technical support to promoting smart tourism in cities.

Broaden feedback channels and optimize government services
Compared with the traditional street-stall economy which tends to be flexible and mobile, consumers seldom have feedback on the services and commodities they purchase, which leads to the fact that consumers can not get corresponding solutions when facing troubles with commodities, and the stall owners can not optimize their service level and improve their management techniques and service quality according to the feedback.Hence, regarding the policy, the government can divide and manage the corresponding stall areas, and collect online commodity information collection for the stall owners, to realize real-time monitoring of the stalls relying on positioning technology and information technology, and ensure the orderliness of the street-stall economy.Additionally, government departments should take the lead in creating a digital feedback channel to provide targeted services for consumers who have certain needs, which can not only comfort consumers but also promote the self-supervision of vendors.On the other hand, through community services, Apps or group chats, vendors can utilize digital technology to create feedback channels to promote the stall and upgrade their services.

Conclusion
The street-stall economy, reflecting the city culture, is an important means to promote urban informal employment.Considering the gloomy development of the tourism industry in Guizhou, it is of great significance to develop the street-stall economy, build up cultural IP, create city brands, and attract tourists from inside and outside the province, thereby promoting employment and enhancing economic vitality in the province.Suffice it to say that, in case the street-stall economy needs to be integrated into the construction of Guizhou's smart tourism city, it still faces some difficulties.Based on the questionnaire survey, this paper analyzes the current development situation of the street-stall economy in Guizhou Province, and the market situation according to Porter's Five Forces Model, to put forward some development suggestions based on reality, and provide guidance for sustainable development of the street-stall economy in the construction of smart tourism cities in Guizhou Province.It is earnestly hoped that through intelligent construction, innovations can be made to promote the characteristic street-stall economy and propel the development of the street-stall economy in smart tourism cities in Guizhou with the help of policy support and urban planning and construction.Certainly, it is understandable that the sample data collected in this paper in terms of empirical research are still insufficient, the intensity of field research and interviews in need of being strengthened, and the quality of samples collected by online questionnaires require further reviewed.Subsequently, the macroanalysis and problem elaboration of the smart tourism stall economic market demand more effective data and theoretical support.Hence, in the future, more in-depth field research that overseas and inter-provincial tourists could also be included in the sample category wanna be carried out to gather more diversified and effective sample for stratified analyses, so as to propose a more feasible scheme for the construction of the stall economy in Guizhou smart tourism city.

Figure 1
Figure 1 Types of stalls that residents are engaged in or want to engage in Data collection and statistics by authors

Figure 2
Figure 2 Environmental Assessment of Street-stall economy (Informal Economy) in Scenic Spots Data collection and statistics by authors

Figure 3
Figure 3 Service Experience of Street-stall economy (Informal Economy) in Scenic Spots Data collection and statistics by authors