Eight examples of pursuing high-quality tourism development in Jilin—Dunhua city

Editor’s note:

Jilin province has been pursuing high-quality tourism development in recent years, aiming to make tourism a new pillar and driving force for its economic growth. The segments it is particularly ambitious in are eco tour and ice and snow tour with a goal to become a world-class destination for such tours. Meanwhile, it is also vigorously developing summer tour and border tour. Against this background, the province called a conference in Changchun on May 22 where eight case studies offered fresh, inspiring insight into how high-quality tourism growth could be achieved in the province. We will introduce the eight cases one by one. The case for today is Dunhua city.

In recent years, Dunhua city of Jilin province has been making an all-out effort to become a national demonstration for all-for-one tourism. Toward this end, it has made a“one cultural and tourism zone +eight bases” development plan, said Feng Yubao, mayor of the city, at the meeting.

In 2017, tourist arrivals in the city exceeded 5 million and tourism revenue increased 30 percent to 6.3 billion yuan.

Going forward, the city will continue to make sweeping reform across the tourism industry in order to develop all-for-one tourism. It will coordinate reform effort by establishing a leading team headed by top Party and government officials. It will also set aside 50 million yuan each year for developing all-for-one tourism.

The city also plans to set up a branch under the public security bureau to handle tourism affairs, a circuit court, and a branch under the market regulation bureau to oversee the tourism market. The three new agencies will join hands in law enforcement and all-round regulation.

Additionally, Dunhua will introduce a mechanism of joint conference on all-for-one tourism and establish regional and cross-regional tourism alliances to form collective strength.

In developing all-for-one tourism, the city works to involve all of its industries. It will make a plan in this regard that highlights big vision and is suitable to local conditions and that will be implemented with determination. With the plan, the city aims to make tourism a driving force for overall economic and social development, urban and rural development, rural rejuvenation, and ecological protection. The city is also adjusting its spatial arrangement and industrial pattern by building a 10.5-billion-yuan cultural and tourism zone surrounding Liuding Mountain and eight bases that are worth 12 billion yuan altogether.

In order to offer a full range of tourism experiences, the city is improving the supply of tourism products. The products will be well-organized, marketable and meet industry standards. Cultural innovation- and industry-themed tours in urban areas will help push forward the growth of rural eco tours, leisure tours and health preservation tours. The city plans to build 36 differentiated demonstrative areas for all-for-one tourism. It will also put into place a three-year action plan for developing rural tourism and the focus will be 20 villages and forest farms for rural tourism and leisure agriculture. Scenic passageways will also be built to connect scattered tourist attractions.

To promote its image as a tourist city, Dunhua will introduce a mechanism that pool together and orchestrate government, corporate and media resources. It plans to hold an average of over 80 events and festivals every year to grow its fame and influence.

To enhance the experience of tourists, the city will also work to further improve related service to all-for-one tourism, covering transportation, catering, accommodation, shopping, entertainment, service trades and public toilets. Dunhua is now China’s only county-level city to receive an award from the National Tourism Administration for pushing forward with the public toilet transformation program.