Village-themed tourism to improve rural livelihoods

More than 12 million rural people are expected to shake off poverty through village-themed tourism in the next five years, according to senior tourism officials.

Village-themed tourism has great growth potential and will continue to help improve farmers' livelihoods while integrating agriculture with industrial production and the service sector in rural areas, said Wu Wenxue, deputy director of the China National Tourism Administration.

"More than 70 percent of tourism resources are in villages, but only 30 percent of tourists visit villages. There is still space for further growth," Wu said. "In recent years, the average annual growth rate of tourist numbers and tourism income of village-themed tourism has surpassed 20 percent."