Rural tourism in Shanxi enters fast lane

The development of rural tourism in North China's Shanxi province has developed rapidly during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20).

Over the past five years, the number of rural tourist destinations, the number of tourist visits, and tourism operating revenue in the province have all seen rapid growth.

From 2015 to 2019, the number of demonstrative sites and counties for leisure agriculture and rural tourism increased from 21 to 38 and from 138 to 249, respectively. The number of rural tourist visits jumped to 63.86 million in 2019 from 23 million in 2016.

Over 5,900 leisure agriculture and rural tourism enterprises employed 330,000 farmers in 2019 and helped 250,000 farming households increase their incomes and selling agricultural and sideline products valued at 3.5 billion yuan ($540.13 million).

The growth of rural tourism has been due to the successive introduction and implementation of a series of rural tourism policies in Shanxi, such as the "Shanxi Rural Tourism Inn Service Standards", "Shanxi's Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Rural Tourism" and "Tourism-driven Poverty Alleviation Demonstration Village Construction Guide”.

In addition, the province has boosted the development of leisure agriculture demonstration sites, traditional villages, and rural tourism demonstration villages, which have become three major drivers of local rural tourism.

In 2019, Shanxi Provincial Government recognized 100 rural tourism demonstration villages and built 175 rural tourism facilities along the Yellow River, Taihang Mountains and the Great Wall, helping diversify rural tourism in Shanxi by offering sightseeing, summer leisure, farming experiences, and study tours.

In the future, Shanxi will treat rural tourism as a driving force for industrial integration and promote the integrated development of rural primary, secondary, and tertiary industries.