Cultural travel gets boost from policies and demonstration zones

Cultural events have made their presence felt in the travel market, as the Chinese government has picked up on trend of rising public needs for quality cultural and tourism experiences and launched a series of favorable policies.

During Spring Festival, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism had mobilized many regions to tap into local intangible cultural heritage and folk customs to boost tourism spending.

As a result, domestic tourism market saw 474 million trips during the holiday, up 34.3 percent year-on-year and 19 percent up over 2019.

In December, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development announced a plan to build national demonstration zones to further boost the integration of the cultural and tourism industries.

Fifty cities, city districts and counties from around the nation have been selected as potential zones.

The three ministries called on provincial-level authorities to strengthen collaboration on the construction work of the demonstration zones, formulate and introduce supporting measures at the provincial level, enhance supervision and guidance, and regularly evaluate the construction results.

The country is also planning to pilot up to five cultural heritage-themed national-level tourism routes as part of the country's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), according to government authorities.

In May last year, the National Cultural Heritage Administration, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly released a circular about the establishment of such routes, which are designed to revolve around China's immovable cultural relics, including ancient cultural sites, such as tombs and cave temples.

Other elements, ranging from historical and cultural towns and cities, agricultural and industrial heritage, to museums and memorial halls, natural landscapes and scenic spots, are also expected to be integrated into the project, based on the subject of each route.

Guo Na, assistant researcher with the China Tourism Academy, pointed out that the government has introduced policies to promote consumption and drive the high-quality development of the tourism industry.

Plans around policy and institutional innovations have also been formulated to promote the integration of culture and tourism, and to promote the expansion and upgrading of the domestic tourism market, she observed.