Forest Tourism in China: Consistent double-digit growth in visitors, revenue

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More and more visitors to China are opting to spend holiday time in the country's forests. Whether for health benefits, or simply for a fun adventure, revenue from forest tourism has more than doubled in the past 5 years. So what's spurring this growth, and just how big is the market size for forest tourism? CGTN's Wei Lynn Tang has more from the southwest province of Guizhou.

Over half of China's Guizhou province is covered by forests, many of which are still in their primitive state.

In 2018, forest tourism in the southwestern region saw more than 200 million visitors, raking in an income of 150 billion yuan, or 21 billion US dollars.

Fanjing Mountain is one of China's latest additions to the UNESCO World Natural Heritage list.

VISITOR FROM GERMANY "We did a lot of hiking here in China, in Sichuan, Yunnan, a lot of special places and mountains, but this -we haven't seen something like that before."

Across China, its forest tourism industry saw a gross output of 1.5 trillion yuan in 2018, that's about 224 billion US dollars, and a 30 percent increase from the year before.

Meanwhile, 1.6 billion trips were made to the forest last year, 15 percent higher than that of 2017. Even then, this only accounted for nearly 30 percent of total domestic travel in China.

Forestry officials tout the growth potential for forest tourism as "limitless".

CHEN ZHENGWEI, SENIOR ENGINEER FORESTRY BUREAU, ZHENG'AN COUNTY, GUIZHOU PROVINCE "Living conditions are now good in China, with people pursuing health benefits. Especially via forest tourism, which offers a good ecological environment, visitors breathe in fresh air with negative ions. This will have a positive impact on curing small diseases."

Chen says forest tourism in Zheng'an county, including Jiu Daoshui forest park, saw a 43 percent rise in revenue.

Much of the income, he adds, comes from sources besides ticket sales.

CHEN ZHENGWEI, SENIOR ENGINEER FORESTRY BUREAU, ZHENG'AN COUNTY, GUIZHOU PROVINCE "The proportion of non-direct income is definitely higher. For example, we get income from specialty forest food, such as bamboo shoots, tea, and various souvenirs, they make up almost 80 percent of our total income."

Experts say the boost in forest tourism has also spilled over to that of tertiary industries.

Fanjing Mountain, for one, limits its visitors to 10 -thousand a day. But the number of tourists and tourism income has grown by double digits in the county it is in.

Commercial growth aside, the pursuit of a healthier lifestyle and happiness is just one forest trip away. WLT, CGTN, Guizhou province.