Scenic area alliance wins big slice of tourism market

( chinadaily.com.cn )

Updated: 2013-10-14

The Hubei Provincial Tourism Bureau held two meetings ahead of the seven-day National Day holiday, to discuss the promotion of a new regional alliance constituted of three major local scenic areas: the Three Gorges, Shengnongjia Nature Reserve, and Wudang Mountains.

The meetings led to policies that resulted in excellent results, as the number of tourists visiting the three scenic areas increased significantly during the holiday, compared to the same period of last year.

During the first six days of the holiday, a total of 1.13 million visitors arrived at six tourist attractions of the three alliance member scenic areas. And all the major cities of the alliance, Yichang, Shiyan, Xiangyang, Enshi, and Suizhou, were popular tourist destinations.

One of the most successful initiatives involved Yangtze River cruise tour packages, which involved two major scenic areas, the Three Gorges Dam and Shennongjia Nature Reserve, and also included accommodation for one night. The scenery of Shennongjia also attracted a large number of self-drive tourists from around the country.

In addition, there was a surge in the number of visitors arriving at Wudang Mountain Scenic Area, with the record for a single day on Oct 3 reaching 46,200. The management of Wudang took several measures to avoid traffic jams.

Edited by Niva Whyman and Le Qin