Nowadays, Yichang is determined to construct itself into a world-class tourism destination and cultural tourism city by developing the New Area of the Three Gorges Tourism and cultural tourism industry with the output value of 100 billions RMB, aiming to be a city with rich culture in Hubei Province. Via combining tourism with culture, Yichang will optimize spatial distribution of cultural tourism, improve the service functions of cultural tourism, speed up the transformation and upgrading of tourism industry, contributing to the rapid development of cultural tourism industry with the output value of 100 billions RMB.
Combining Tourism with Culture
Building a World-class Tourism DestinationAt the beginning of this year, Yichang Government decided to include cultural tourism in the plan of an industry with the output value of 100 billion RMB. It is of great importance to adequately develop the special cultural resources, enhance the profound meaning of tourism culture, which are the priority of the plan.
“Culture is the essence of tourism while tourism is the carrier of culture. The regional, historical and cultural things are easier to attract tourists’ attention.” said Liu Bing, Director of Yichang Tourism Bureau. In his opinion, combining tourism with culture is the key point in the plan of building the tourism industry with the output value of 100 billion RMB, as it can exert the polymerization effect adequately.
“For example, the old streets in the Three Gorges Folk Custom Tourist Site are the combination of folklore architectures and folk culture, showing the essence of ethic culture by the performance of Bachu Culture including singing and dancing. Additionally, Chexi Folk Custom Museum and Folk Culture Village in Changyang County are also successful examples.” said Liu Bing.
Facts have proven that the integration of culture and tourism resources has further promoted the Yichang City’s grade. In 2012, Yichang has been awarded as “the Most Popular Tourism Destination of the Year” in Hubei Province on the “China Tourism Billboard”.
According to the plan, the gross output of Yichang cultural tourism industry willreach 100 billion RMB by 2016. The scale, quality and benefit of Yichang cultural tourism will be prior in the central regions and comparable cities along the Yangtze River, being the city with rich culture in Hubei Province and a world-class tourism destination and cultural tourism city by 2020.
Integration of Resources
Enhancing Core Competitiveness
There are many tourism sites in Yichang, including the Three Gorges Project, the Qingjiang Gallery, the Quyuan Memorial Temple, the Zhaojun Village, the Ancient Capital of Ba Kingdom and the legends of the Three Kingdoms…According to the statistics from Hubei Provincial Tourism Bureau, there are 27 scenic spots of or above 3A class in Yichang, among which 3 are 5A scenic spots ranking 1st in Hubei Province. The statistics from National Tourism Bureau shows that Yichang is among the top ones in the Prefectural 5A Tourist Attractions in China, together with Luoyang and Guilin.
In order to strengthen the capacity of scenic spots in Yichang, at the Three Gorges Dam the elevators have been built and the Visitors’ Center has been expanded. Additionally, many 5-star and 4-star hotels have been built to improve the infrastructure of Yichang tourism reception.
With the year-to-year improvement of integral image of the tourism industry and service quality of tourism, “soft” environment has been enhanced gradually. Yichang has been awarded as “National Civilized City, National Environment Protection City, National Sanitation City, National Forest City, National Safe City”.
In the past five years, Yichang strongly promoted the exquisite construction of scenic spots. The total investment of the tourism infrastructure projects has amounted to over 20 billion RMB, with the average annual growth of more than 30 percent. The core competitiveness of Yichang tourism industry has been gradually improved.
Integration of Advantages
Seizing the Opportunity for Development
Statistics from Yichang Tourism Bureau indicates that in 2012 Yichang received 26.3934 million tourists at home and abroad, with the year-on-year growth of 36.73 percent. The tourism revenue totaled 20.038 billion RMB with the year-on-year growth of 41.83 percent. Especially after the operation of high-speed railway from Wuhan to Yichang, the cultural tourism industry has been dramatically boosted.
“Integration of brands, eco-background, city support, transportation network and the period of strategic opportunity are the five advantages to develop cultural tourism industry with the output value of 100 billion RMB.” said Liu Bing. At present, tourism in Yichang has become mass consumption. “After the running of high-speed rail, Yichang has completed its three-dimensional transport network including highway, railway, aviation and waterway. As the center of “Yichang-Jingmen-Jingzhou” city-group, Yichang has formed stronger attraction, influence and radiation ability, providing Yichang tourism a good opportunity for development”.
In recent years, Yichang tourism industry has seized the opportunity of ecological tourism circle in Western Hubei to develop large-scale tourism enterprises, supported key enterprises to deeply develop cultural tourism products and promoted capital-oriented resource integration. Tourism has been invested more than 8 billion RMB in two years, improving the transformation and upgrading, with the establishment of 10 strong subjects of tourism, such as the Three Gorges Tourism Corporation, Gezhouba Hospitality International Corporation ect..
Affiliate Marketing
Creating a Tourism Brand of “Falling in Love with Yichang”
In 2012, Yichang Government decided to start a tourism brand－“Falling in Love with Yichang”, creating an alliance of affiliate marketing cooperated with 7 key scenic spots and Yichang Transportation Corporation. This changed the situation that only scenic spots played roles in tourism marketing.
Liang Yi, Deputy Director of Yichang Tourism Bureau, said that at present each scenic spot was too weak to face the national market. However, collaborating marketing can solve the problem that Yichang was short of tourism talents, influence of tourism brand, and repeating wastes on tourism resources.
There are no vacant beds in star-rated hotels in Yichang on weekend, as group tour, self-driving tour and weekend’s excursion are popular this year. In this situation, a survey made by Hubei Tourism Bureau and Tsinghua University shows that tourist satisfaction in Yichang still ranks top in Hubei Province.
In order to expand the origin market, alliance of affiliate marketing has planned a series of marketing campaigns.
As a cultural tourism brand, “Falling in Love with Yichang” combines culture with tourism closely and each activity is a reflection of culture.
Industrial Cluster
Promoting Industry Transformation and UpgradingIn the first half of this year, the number of domestic and foreign tourists counted 16.3795 million, and tourism revenue reached 11.862 billion RMB, increasing 28.37 percent and 32.83 percent respectively year on year.
“Although Yichang is rich in tourism resources, there are still some problems. For example, tourism resources are dispersive and tourism products are tedious.” said Liu Bing.
From August 21st to 22nd, Huang Chuping, Member of the Standing Committee of Hubei Provincial Committee, Yichang Municipal Party Secretary, pointed out that we should make breakthrough to develop tourism industry and clusters of cultural tourism industry with the output value of hundreds of billions RMB, following the principle of global outlook and being first-class domestically, as it is the period of important strategic opportunity.
Liu Bing, Director of Yichang Tourism Bureau, said: “we will promote the deep development of cultural tourism industry according to the requirement of Yichang Municipal Party Committee and Government”.
On one hand, Yichang will promote the construction of Pinghu Peninsula Cultural Turism Industrial Park, Piano Cultural Industrial Park, Guan-gong Cultural Industrial Park and Tujia Ethnic Cultural Industrial Park, forming an industrial cluster. On the other hand, Yichang will implement the major project promotion strategy to establish the platform of investment and financing for cultural tourism development, enlarge the scale of trade and investment promotion of tourism. Yichang will focus on the construction of major projects to form a open, cross-regional, high-grade pattern of cultural tourism to make Yichang tourism correspond with international tourism and build the best unique ecological tourism environment.
(Reporter Lei Yu, Correspondent Peng Shiqi)