Dai Bin: Rural tourism has become an important lever for rural revitalization

Recently, Dean Dai Bin of our hospital wrote an article for the Economic Daily titled 'Rural Tourism Becomes an Important Driver for Rural Revitalization'. The full text is as follows:

Rural tourism is a tourism activity that takes place in rural areas. It is a spatial concept relative to urban tourism, and all activities such as sightseeing, leisure, health preservation, summer escape, entertainment, and consumption behaviors that occur in rural areas belong to the category of rural tourism. According to data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, in 2019 before the outbreak of the epidemic, the number of rural tourism visitors in China reached 3.09 billion, accounting for half of the domestic tourism visitors.

Rural tourism has distinct spatial differences and life experiences, with natural scenery different from cities, unique folk customs, local ingredients and traditional farmhouse dishes, and residential courtyards integrated into daily life. Tourists visiting rural areas can enjoy flower viewing, picking, fishing, participate in agricultural, handicraft, and intangible cultural heritage activities, and immerse themselves in the beautiful life of the countryside.

With the deepening of rural revitalization work, rural tourism has become an important lever and feasible path to promote the prosperity of rural industries, ecological livability, civilized rural customs, effective governance, and prosperous living. As of now, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has announced 1399 national key villages for rural tourism and 198 national key towns (townships) for rural tourism. According to the summary statistics of provincial tourism administrative departments, a total of 60000 administrative villages across the country have carried out rural tourism business activities. The tourism industry has strong economic attributes, high degree of marketization, and great industrial influence. The rapid development of rural tourism not only promotes local consumption, employment, and investment, but also plays a comprehensive driving role in cultural exchange, conceptual change, and other aspects. In 2019, 109 rural tourism monitoring points (villages) across the country received 25.17 million tourists, with a tourism revenue of 2.39 billion yuan, an average income of 21.927 million yuan per village, and an average income increase of 5100 yuan per farmer. The average number of tourism employees per village in 109 rural tourism monitoring points across the country is 349, with an average of 6.93 employees per household. Among them, 92.4% have received junior high school education or above. By engaging in the tourism industry, farmers not only broaden their horizons but also improve their overall quality. For example, Xu Xiuzhen, a farmer tour guide known as the "Moon Mother" in Guilin and Yangshuo, learned to communicate with foreign tourists in multiple foreign languages such as English, French, German, and Japanese through her role as a tour guide. There are many similar examples.

In order to meet the quality needs of tourists for rural tourism, rural tourism monitoring points have accelerated the construction of cultural infrastructure such as radio, television and the Internet, and increased investment in public services such as libraries, cultural centers, intangible cultural heritage protection and inheritance. In 2019, the cable TV household registration rate in rural tourism villages included in key monitoring reached 86.2%, the mobile phone penetration rate reached 92.3%, and the free WiFi coverage rate in rural tourism operating venues reached 90.4%. In order to better meet the quality needs of tourists for the reception environment, local governments, village collectives, and rural tourism operators have increased their investment in the living environment. This has not only improved the level of rural tourism reception, but also accelerated the modernization process of rural areas, making green mountains and clear waters truly become golden and silver mountains. For example, in the initial stage of rural tourism development, due to differences in concepts, villagers did not understand the idea of rural tourism operators building toilets in guest rooms. Later, through the demonstration of village cadres and returning operators, it was seen that guest rooms with modern bathroom functions were more popular among tourists, and the rental rate and satisfaction rate also increased significantly. Villagers' concepts also changed accordingly, and their enthusiasm and initiative to improve the rural tourism reception environment were fully mobilized. In 2019, the coverage rate of centralized collection points for household waste in rural tourism monitoring points nationwide reached 91.9%, the proportion of households connected to domestic sewage treatment facilities was 63.1%, and the penetration rate of flush toilets reached 72.5%.

In 2023, the No. 1 central document of the Central Committee proposed to implement the high-quality project of rural leisure tourism and promote the integrated construction of key rural tourism villages. In the current and future period, the key tasks for the high-quality development of rural tourism in China mainly include the following aspects: firstly, strengthening the market cultivation, image construction, and promotion of rural tourism; Secondly, we will improve the reception facilities for rural tourism, adapt to local conditions, innovate leisure, vacation, health care, study, ice and snow, and summer tourism products, and enhance the service quality of rural tourism; The third is to attract higher quality tourism elements, especially capital, technology, and professional talents, to gather in rural areas and enhance the modernization level of rural tourism.