Trailblazing tomorrow's tourism

There are major changes on the mountainous horizon of Zhangjiajie, where the local government is developing new strategies to bolster the city's allure and capacity as a tourism destination.

Director of the Tourism Bureau of Zhangjiajie, Ding Yunyong, says the city currently faces a number of challenges as a holidaymaking hub, including inadequate transportation and infrastructure, and insufficient space in the city.

"Right now, more tourists want to come than we can accommodate," Ding says. "If we improve the conditions of the airlines and railways, we could increase the number of tourists to an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 per day."

Tourism is big business in Zhangjiajie and the local government hopes it will become even bigger in the future. The sector accounted for 57.8 percent of the city's GDP last year, when more than 1.68 million tourists visited the area.

According to director of the Marketing Division of the Hunan Provincial Tourism Bureau Gong Tiejun: "Zhanjiajie and Changsha will be the two places where we will focus our efforts in the near future."

One of the problems Zhangjiajie is currently facing in terms of transportation is that the highway from the provincial capital ends there. "The highways have not yet formed a network, and if we could build highways linking Zhangjiajie to Chongqing and Guiyang, we could increase tourist traffic," the official says.

But in addition to resolving the city's transportation woes, the tourism bureau hopes to make improvements to the city itself.

It has drafted a wish list of tourism-related facilities it hopes to construct, including an exhibition hall, theater, golf course, cinema and museum.

Ding says one of the most important undertakings would be expanding the size of the city because Zhangjiajie currently isn't spacious enough now to accommodate both the local and tourist populations.

And elbowroom is becoming increasingly precious as businesses such as restaurants are being relocated from scenic areas to downtown to protect the surrounding environment.

In addition, much of the town is now under construction, as officials are preparing to absorb the spillover tourists of next year's Beijing Olympics. "That will be a great opportunity for us to promote the city to the outside world," Ding says.

Last year, 1.29 million, or 77 percent of tourists who visited the city were foreigners.

Today, the overwhelming majority of foreigners who tour Zhangjiajie are Korean. Ding says this is due in part to exchanges and deals made among both countries' governments and travel agencies, and the ready availability of Korean-language information and restaurants.

But he believes that at this point, most Korean tourists have already visited the city. So, the tourism bureau is honing its marketing on tourists from the United States, Europe and Japan. The bureau hopes to appeal to tourists from these countries using new, "creative marketing" techniques, Ding says.

Last March, the local government organized a stunt show in which the Russian Air Force flew SU-27 and SU-30 fighter jets through Tianmen Cave. And next month, French urban climber Alain Robert, who calls himself "Spiderman," will scale Zhangjiajie's monolithic peaks at the government's invitation.

(China Daily 10/17/2007 page22)