Yizhou sees 338.44% increase in tourist numbers during holiday

Tourists enjoy a performance at Xiangbei River Scenic Area. [Photo by Qin Fangsi/gxnews.com.cn]

Yizhou district in Hechi, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, welcomed a total of 286,300 visitors during the Spring Festival holiday from Feb 11 to 17, a year-on-year increase of 338.44 percent.

Total tourist spending during the holiday amounted to 128.4 million yuan ($19.81 million), an increase of 419.82 percent.

Since the start of 2021, Yizhou has created seven high-quality self-driving routes featuring different themes such as rural tourism, folk customs and relaxation to meet the diverse needs of tourists.

Tourist attractions such as the Former Residence of Liusanjie and Xiangbei River Scenic Area have gained in popularity.

"Our family chose to stay in Yizhou for this year's Spring Festival as the government has encouraged people to stay in their current place of residence during the holiday," said a visitor surnamed Wu.

"Some villages here have changed a lot and the local tourism environment has become better," added Wu.

Since the beginning of this year, Yizhou district in Hechi has focused on the operational goals of its medical security measures, as well as promoted the full coverage of the insurance and subsidy policy for impoverished people, preventing people that are struggling financially from becoming impoverished due to illness.

Yizhou has implemented the policy of providing financial subsidies to the rural poor so they can participate in the individual payment of the basic medical insurance program for urban and rural residents, increasing the participation rate of urban and rural residents.

The district's medical insurance department has authorized township health centers to be responsible for handling the special chronic disease card for poor patients, including approving the cards after the preliminary review, organizing expert identification, issuing chronic disease cards, and reporting to the medical insurance department for records.

The district has implemented the policy of preferential treatment of basic medical insurance benefits to the poor, as well as increased the reimbursement ratio for impoverished people for outpatient treatment of chronic diseases and hospitalization due to illness by 80 percent and 90 percent respectively. In addition, people can also enjoy policies of pay after treatment and one-stop service settlement for hospitalization expenses in designated medical institutions.

The district has also distributed medical insurance manuals to designated medical institutions and patients free of charge to publicize related policies, established the family doctor contracted service system to improve service quality, as well as strengthened the training of village doctors' operational skills.