Zhangjiajie to hold first Hunan Tourism Development Conference
2022-06-14
Why Zhangjiajie?
Zhangjiajie becomes the city where to host the first tourism conference after fierce competition among 14 cities, which attributes more to its determination than to its industrial strength.
Zhangjiajie has more than 300 tourist attractions, including 31 A-level scenic spots. The completion rate of national tourism demonstration zone has reached to 50%, ranking first in China. The inbound tourists come from 133 countries and regions. The number of inbound and outbound tourists annually ranks first among the airports in Central China, with a flow of more than 80 million tourists.
Zhangjiajie is one of the most influential top 10 cities in culture and tourism abroad, and the only city in Hunan Province to maintain a surplus in service trade. It has 300 thousand employees in tourism, accounting for about one-fifth of the total population.
Its tertiary industry led by tourism contributes 69.6% to economic development. It has 818 intangible cultural heritage items in 10 categories, and 30% of them are promoted on the tourism market. Zhangjiajie's performances are wonderful, among which the Charming West Hunan and Fox Fairy are listed as key national cultural tourism projects, with its annual number of tourists ranking top in China. During the 14th Five Year Plan period, 108 cultural tourism projects will be launched in Zhangjiajie, covering the whole tourism industry chain.
Zhangjiajie is known for a leading city of tourism industry in Hunan Province. If its tourism is affected by the epidemic, it will suffer a great loss. It once closed all tourist attractions for two times due to COVID-19 epidemic. More than 90% of the tourism market suffered through difficult times, and more than 80% of the tourism practitioners were unemployed or chose to change the jobs.
Especially after the Nanjing’s epidemic spread to Zhangjiajie in July last year, Zhangjiajie was once under lockdown, cancelled 14,700 travel groups and 207 thousand people, and withdrew the fare of 220 million yuan. By doing so, it safeguarded the whole country for better epidemic prevention.
After the epidemic was controlled, Zhangjiajie restarted the market, showing a steady recovery in tourism industry.
Zhao Shaohua, general manager of private CITS in Zhangjiajie, told reporters that all the tourism practitioners pay great attention to the relevant news. “When news came that the first conference for tourism development in Hunan Province would be held in Zhangjiajie City, we were so excited. It will exert a far-reaching influence on the tourism development of Hunan Province, and will be a landmark in the tourism development of Zhangjiajie. The conference will be ardently expected by all the people in Zhangjiajie,” he said.
How to hold a successful conference?
At the second day after officially getting the right to host the conference on March 20, the reporter visited relevant departments, tourist attractions and projects in Zhangjiajie for the preparation work.
In the municipal party committee office, the staff were preparing for the conference; at the construction site of 72 Stilted Buildings project, the number of workers has increased significantly; in the core scenic area of Zhangjiajie, the training of tourism service was proceeding and will last for two months.
Before getting the right to host this conference, Zhangjiajie has already carried out all kinds of work in an all-round way.
The executive committee of the conference was established, and 11 working groups were set up to refine the arrangement and clarify the objectives, tasks, standards, responsibilities and completion time limits.
We formulated corresponding emergency plans to ensure the conference with adequate preparation; allocated 200 million yuan of financial supporting funds; launched ten policies and measures to support the recovery and development of entities in tourism markets, including the increase of financial assistance to enterprises and the reduction of the tax burden; introduced policies to support the development of tourism industry and accelerate the Smart Tourism; improved other policies, including tourism publicity and flight landing subsidies, so as to ensure the driving effect of the conference for tourism development.
By adhering to the philosophy of "project first", we sorted out 135 key cultural and tourism projects and established a classified management list; strengthened some measures to ensure that 20 key tourism projects would be fully completed and put into operation by the end of June, and Zhangjiajie’s super brain data management platform and other 32 key tourism projects will be fully completed and put into operation by the end of December; increased the promotion of 15 key investment projects.
For the first conference for tourism development in Hunan Province, Zhangjiajie will hold nearly 30 international and domestic activities about tourism from March to the end of the year, and launch ten quality tourist routes.
Liu Ge'an, secretary of the CPC Zhangjiajie Municipal Committee, said that they would host the first conference for tourism development with the highest standard, the largest investment, the fastest speed and the most beautiful display, setting a standard and sample for the high-quality development of tourism in Hunan and highlighting Zhangjiajie’s leadership of tourism in Hunan. “We will live up to our mission to raise the strength and wisdom of Zhangjiajie, and provide services for the holding of the first conference for tourism development in Hunan,” he said.
