Since may 8th, national 4A-class scenic spots in Yichang including Jiuwan River Tour Site and Jiuwanxi Drifting have been into the list of annual pass usage. The Three Gorges Dam Area Tour Site was free to national people since Sep 25th, 2014, thus excluded from the coverage of annual card. Now with this card in hand, you can enjoy unlimited travels around 24 scenic spots within a year.
　　The annual card is becoming more and more popular among the people, which is  in line with the trend of growing self-driving-tour scale and the new image of Yichang tourism that is known as “a happy land outdoor and a paradise for driving tour”.
　　“with an annual card in hand, trouble never troubles you.” The card was available to the public in April, 2008 and now the number of the card has been up to over 200,000. It has turned into a household tourism product and benefited thousands of people in Yichang.
　　Annual card for Yichang Tourism has been updated many times, successively adding function of online renewal, reporting the loss and combination of tour card, telephone card and bus card. On June 29th, 2010, Yichang formally opened a direct tunnel for usage of the card in accessible scenic spots, thus solving transportation problems the citizens face with in traveling and building an expressway between scenic spots and tourists.
　　 Meanwhile, the annual card has been sold officially in Jingmen City since December 28, 2013, which has broken the regional restrictions and laid a promising foundation for promoting tourism cooperation between Yichang and Jingmen, as well as greatly uplifting Yichang tourism to a new level.
　　Scenic spots involved in the annual card have been expanded according to the principle of joining in batches and improving in steps. The rule that 100 yuan for unlimited travels in 16 scenic spots has been into 24 three-star or above spots, which marks that Yichang tourism has gradually entered the era of using card.
　　At the time that entrance fee of qualified five-star scenic spots is growing round after round, Yichang tourism annual card is real inspiring by integrating the resources of fine-quality scenic spots and providing preference that is close to the single entrance fee of scenic spot.
　　The annual card, as Yichang tourist development platform for short-distance travel promoting long-distance travel, is a good way to advertise to surrounding cities. It not only promotes Yichang people to travel in Yichang, but also drive them to market Yichang tourism, spreading tourist the concept of Fall in Love With Yichang to other cities.
　　Scenic spots involved in annual card get profits from both popularity and economic benefits. They not only obtain the potential customer market, but also have their eating, drinking, transportation, shopping and entertainment programs fully developed by improving, upgrading and delicately constructing themselves. The issue of the annual card promotes the comprehensive prosperity of Yichang tourism and the integrative development of relative industries, and represents the new mode of innovative marketing of Yichang tourism.
　　In recent years, Yichang has promoted its transition from tourist city to city tourism constantly, by seizing the major strategic opportunity of the open and development of the Yangtze River Economic Zone, promoting the breakthrough of riparian regions deeply, accelerating the construction of national tourist resort area and the key city of three gorges city agglomeration, improving transportation infrastructural construction actively and making efforts to achieve the integration of scene and city.
　　Centering on the target of “constructing the national first-class and international renowned leisure vacation travel destination and hydro-power and tourism world city”, Yichang builds the strategic brand of “Fall in Love With Yichang” and takes “Three Gorges Tourism Annual Card” as a chance to comply with the new trend of industrial convergence development, enhance the cooperation of tourist industry and culture, sports, agriculture and other areas and promote Persified development of tourism industry. Yichang tourism is gradually moving toward a new height. （Correspondent Fan Ruiqing, reporter Zhen Yunli）