New guidelines on the sustainable development of rural tourism have been released by the authorities in China.
The guidelines put forward five major measures, including strengthening planning to achieve coordinated regional development in rural tourism and improving infrastructure and public services.
The others are enhancing the quality of products and the level of service and management, innovative marketing, and paying more attention to the benefits of rural residents to help poverty alleviation via rural tourism.
The guidelines were released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the National Development and Reform Commission and 15 other departments.
Tourists learn how to make local tea in Huichang, east China's Jiangxi Province, November 16, 2018. /VCG Photo
They also put forward other supporting measures such as improving the mechanism for financial investment, and further guarantees for land use for rural tourism, among others.
According to Ning Zhizhong, chief designer of the tourism research center at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, around 70 percent of the country's tourism resources are in rural areas, proving that the potential for rural tourism is huge, and including rural tourism in regional social and economic development is significant to the prosperity of rural industries.
The guideline will help create a win-win situation where the rural population leads better-off lives, investors are granted their due rewards, and the rural environment keeps improving, said Wu Liyun, an associate researcher at the China Tourism Academy.
(Cover: Residents perform a dragon dance in Guilin, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, November 9, 2018. /VCG Photo)