Nowadays, people are spending more time on tourism for holidays, relaxation and leisure, and they require better environments of tourism destinations and higher quality of urban facilities and services. To meet the extended demands of the tourists, the tourism industry of Yichang is being transformed and upgraded through a series of projects.

　　In recent years, many measures have been taken as stimulus for the improvement of scenic spot construction; additionally more and more state financial investment for tourism development has been utilized for improving and upgrading scenic spots and attractions which aim at self-transformation into 5A-class tourism destinations. Some scenic spots and attractions, for the purpose of improving their attractiveness, have also invested greatly for transformation and upgrading with more consideration of the tourists’ participation, relaxation and leisure.

　　For example, Qingjiang River Gallery as a scenic destination of Tujia ethnic culture has been successfully constructed into a 5A-class scenic site with an investment of around $2.5 billion US dollars at the end of last year. Some other scenic sites and attractions, such as the hometown of Qu Yuan, a great poet in the period of the Warring States, the Grand Canyon Scenic Site in Wufeng County, Yuquan Temple in Dangyang County, have thoroughly upgraded and transformed with large sums of investments. In total, 55 scenic sites and attractions have been upgraded.

　　Yichang enjoys abundant tourism resources and cultural richness, which deserves a perfect integration with tourism industry development. In transforming and upgrading the tourism industry, great importance has actually been attached to the cultural value of the scenic sites and attractions. In Xingshan County, the upgraded construction of Wang Zhaojun’s Home Village and building of the Wang Zhaojun Culture Expo Park were tightly associated with the local historical culture; in Dangyang County, a chain of tourism projects included pilgrims to Guan Yu, the “Saint of War” in the Three Kingdoms Culture, resorts, business conference services, adventurous games, ancient and modern culture exhibitions and so on. Further construction of the tourist site of the Three Kingdoms Battle Field in Xiaoting District was planned last year and it will be upgraded to a 4A-class tourist attraction of military culture of the Three Kingdoms. Yang Shoujing as a famous cultural figure in Yidu City has inspired influentially the development of Yang Shoujing culture.

　　Tourism performances play an important part in improving and upgrading Yichang’s tourism industry. Tourism enterprises have been sparing no effort in producing high-quality cultural exhibitions. For instance, Yangtze Three Gorges Tourism Company and Qingjiang Gucheng Cultural Tourism Company of Changyang County have spent approximately $10 million and $5 million US dollars respectively on demonstrations of the local culture of Yichang in the form of cultural performances.

　　Transformed and upgraded, the tourism industry of Yichang has stimulated and is further stimulating development of the eco-tourism economy where the scenic sites and attractions are located, in the forms of agritainment, souvenir vending and other tertiary industries. The areas with attractive tourism sites have long benefited greatly from improved development of the tourism industry, such as the areas along the Qingjiang River in Changyang County, the Xiling Gorge section and Chaotianhou Adrifting Area in Xingshan County.