Kaiyang county embarks on major drive to develop tourism

Updated: 2019-10-25

Southwestern China's Kaiyang county has made continuous progress in developing its tourism industry by leveraging its unique cultural and geographic advantages, according to local officials.

They said the county – in Guiyang in Guizhou province – enjoys a richly deserved reputation as being the hometown of selenium-rich agricultural products in China and for being in the top 10 most beautiful scenic counties in Guizhou. Selenium is one of the most important dietary minerals for human health.

Kaiyang has identified tourism as the leading industry and gives priority to developing all-for-one tourism in the county.

Officials said it is sparing no effort to boost upgrades to infrastructure and create new tourism products.

Kaiyang has invested about 344 million yuan ($48.8 million) over the past three years in the construction of roads in scenic spots.

During that period, a total of 26 public toilets were built or rebuilt, more than 3,300 parking spots were built, and three tourist service centers were built.

In some of the tourism projects, local farmers turned their land resources into tourist spots, which helped them gain a certain percentage of profits. Officials said they earned an average about 20,000 yuan additionally every year from the initiative.

Meanwhile, the county has greatly promoted the integration of tourism and agriculture, with several sightseeing parks having been built.

Furthermore, Kaiyang has also worked hard at combining tourism with folk culture, sports and health.

To date, all-for-one tourism in Kaiyang county has provided 25,000 job positions directly and 125,000 job positions indirectly.

In 2018, the tertiary or services industry, with its focus on all-for-one tourism, accounted for 32.8 percent of the total GDP.

In the first half of the current year, the county welcomed 11.984 million tourists, an increase of 26.87 percent over the same period of last year. The tourism revenue in the first half reached 9.964 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 34.6 percent.