Hotels eyeing Yunnan lake area

As Chinese tourism develops, more tourists are avoiding travel agencies and opting for DIY tours, and the hotel industry is having to make itself more flexible in order to adjust, with evidence of this in the Lugu Lake area, near Lijiang, Yunnan province, where the Hanting Hotel opened this past March, the first member of a hotel chain to open in the beautiful scenic site.

This is an example of the growing number of chain hotels that are choosing to settle in popular tourist destinations, and providing affordable accommodation and flexible services for DIY tourists. For example, the Lugu Lake Airport will open this October, saving tourists the trouble of making a transfer.

However, the lake area has outmoded accommodations, catering and support facilities, even while it faces an increase in the number of tourists and it's in urgent need of a hotel and catering upgrade, with only a handful of economy hotels around the lake. So, accommodations can be tricky.

The Hanting, however, sits right on the road from the airport to the lake and provides reliable, comfortable accommodations for people seeking to get a look at the Mosuo culture. There is also the Manxin Hotel, which plans to open up here and is rated as the best chain hotel by users of the tourism website eLong.