Cultural travel gets boost from policies and demonstration zones

Cultural events are seeing an increased presence in the travel market, as the Chinese government has picked up on the trend of growing public demand for quality cultural and tourism experiences and launched a series of favorable policies.

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

As a result, the domestic tourism market saw 474 million trips during the holiday, which was up 34.3 percent year-on-year and 19 percent 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 around the nation have been selected as candidates for such zones.

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

The country is also planning up to five pilot 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 on the establishment of such routes. The routes will 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 and agricultural and industrial heritage, to museums and memorial halls, natural landscapes and scenic spots, are also expected to be integrated into the project.