Abstract: In general,the tourism industry in western Hunan has possessed the potentiality to develop into the mainstay industry,but now  sightseeing is still in the leading position.The major problems include:the tourism consumption per person of tourists is low;the contribution of the tourism multiplier to the regional economic development is small;the backward economic structure cannot support the balanced development of tourism industry and the infrastructure of tourism industry is weak.The way to cultivate the tourism industry into a mainstay industry is to develop mew tourism products,strengthen the cooperation of tourism regions,widen the tourism markets,persist in sustainable development strategy of tourism industry under the active push of the government and develop the tourism industry by the idea of “Big Tourism”.

Key words: tourism industry, minority nationalities region, economic development, mainstay industry, way