There are over 130 national and provincial tourist holiday resorts in China，one-third of which are lake resorts. After eleven years of development，many lake-holiday resorts have reached stagnation，while some are still in the development stage. Why？Referencing four case studies of both foreign and domestic lake resorts，the authors of this paper point out seven important factors influencing sightseeing tourism and several factors that hinder the development of domestic holiday resorts.