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September 23, 2015

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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

Rural tourism thrives as travelers get back to nature

A decade ago, “poverty” was the key word to describe Laoling Village, Deqing County, Zhejiang Province. Today though, the secluded village nestled among the beautiful Moganshan Mountains is prospering from a boom in rural tourism, which has gained attention from foreign investors as well as officials within the United Nations.

Much of the growing market for rural travel in places like Deqing is concentrated around simple Chinese-style bed-and-breakfast facilities — known simply as “farmer’s homes” — many of which are run by local families and situated amid picturesque landscapes.

With time though, a growing number of foreign investors have stepped forward to fund boutique hotels and other upscale hospitality projects in the area’s quaint villages. There are now said to be more than 70 foreign-funded bed-and-breakfasts operating in Deqing, with investors from as far away as Sweden, the UK and France piling into the promising new market.

Indeed, during the three-day holiday at the beginning of this month, Deqing’s farmers-homes-turned-hotels reportedly welcomed over 10,000 tourists and some 9.6 million yuan (US$1.5 million) in revenue.

The development of the local tourism market has grown so fast that the 2015 International Rural Tourism Conference was held in Huzhou City — which includes Deqing County — earlier this month. During this conference, a letter from the United Nations World Tourism Organization UNWTO), the UN agency tasked with promoting sustainable and responsible tourism, was read to the assembled audience.

“Your effort is regarded a national example of excellence, by using rural tourism as an effective engine of regional, and national development,” the document stated.

“Before, traveling in the countryside meant eating some local food and living in a farmer’s house. But now, it is a way to experience traditional culture,” said Xu Fan, an expert with the UNWTO.

Shi Peihua, director of the Tourism Planning and Research Center at the China Information Center, agreed. “Scenery is no longer the only attractive thing. The community’s culture matters a lot to visitors,” he said.

“Experience is the focus of rural tourism now,” said Lei Jun, an expert on rural tourism from Taiwan. According to Lei, travelers opt for bed-and-breakfast-style hotels like those available in Deqing because they represent the host’s taste and style and allow for more interaction with local people.

Lei went on to add that greater contact between urban tourists and rural hotel-operators has an added benefit of making farmers feel more recognized and respected. In the end, this may also ease issues related to the resettlement of rural residents into China’s growing cities.

According to official figures, an estimated 60 percent of Deqing’s residents have benefited in some way from rural tourism. Many benefit directly from renting out their homes, while others families have found new sources of income working in foreign-funded hotels or selling local produce to travelers.

Also at the recent conference in Huzhou, the city was named as one of the world’s top 10 rural tourism destinations, along with Wuyuan in Jiangxi Province, Sa Pa in Vietnam and Belgrade in Serbia. Together, tourism officials from these locations released the “Deqing Declaration,” which aims to promote international rural tourism in a sustainable and scientific way.




 

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