Cultural tourism pays off for Gansu

The fourth International Cultural Industry Conference and the eighth Gansu Cultural Expo concurrently opened in Dunhuang on Oct 14.

Gansu Party chief Wang Sanyun, provincial governor Liu Weiping, and senior officials from the central government's cultural, information and cultural heritage ministries attended the opening ceremony of the two events.

Governor Liu said at the opening ceremony that the International Cultural Industry Conference has won global attention and influence with its emphasis on pluralism, internationalization and marketization. The theme of this year's conference was "Promoting the Silk Road culture and displaying Gansu's charm".

"The guests attending the conference expect to take this conference as an opportunity to reach a consensus over the win-win cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, inject new vitality into and make new contributions to the regional cross-cultural communication," Liu said.

Diplomatic envoys and officials from Grenada, Pakistan, Cambodia, Belarus, France, Italy, Thailand, Iran, Hungary and Brazil, as well as governors from other provinces, regions and cities related to the Silk Road Economic Belt took part in the opening ceremony.

A cultural industry projects promotion and agreements signing ceremony on Oct 15 saw the inking of 113 project agreements worth 45.35 billion yuan ($7.1 billion).

The projects cover a wide range, including cultural tourism development, museum construction, intangible cultural heritage protection, cultural creativity and entertainment industries.

Lian Ji, director of the information office of Gansu provincial government, said Gansu, as an important historical region for the prosperity of Chinese civilization, has seen rapid development of its cultural industry since 2012, with revenue growing more than 25 percent annually.

"The merging of culture and tourism has markedly boosted the growth of Gansu's tourism," he said. "In the first half of this year, Gansu's tourism revenue grew by more than 27 percent, double the rate of the national average growth. Tourism revenue rocketed at more than 30 percent in the Hexi Corridor and more than 40 percent in the city of Dunhuang year-on-year."

(China Daily 11/25/2015 page7)