Cultural and tourism consumption continues to unleash vitality in China

Embracing the Year of the Dragon, a magnificent dragon-themed lantern illuminates the ancient city wall of Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, during a vibrant lantern show to celebrate the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year. [People's Daily Online/Bai Ge]

Various regions across China are actively developing consumption growth points such as culture and tourism. Cultural and tourism consumption continues to unleash vitality thanks to the deepened integration of culture and tourism.

Large theme parks are a major engine for attracting visitors and stimulating cultural and tourism consumption. Based on the Zhuhai Chimelong Resort, a large theme park, Zhuhai city in south China's Guangdong Province is making every effort to create unique tourism scenarios and leveraging favorable policies to comprehensively enhance tourism service quality.

In 2023, the city received over 42.61 million tourist visits, a remarkable year-on-year increase of 238.5 percent, with total tourism revenue increasing 364 percent year on year to about 52.92 billion yuan ($7.44 billion).

In addition to Chimelong, comprehensive culture and tourism programs including Hengqin Sumlodol Park and Novotown in the city have also attracted throngs of tourists.

In recent years, Zhuhai has offered more integrated tourism resources through proactive innovation and comprehensive measures, including selecting the top 10 most beautiful rural B&B hotels, developing the nighttime economy, guiding theaters to launch wonderful performances, and rolling out tourism routes to meet the demand of visitors from Hong Kong and Macao.

"Zhuhai will further seize the opportunity of upgrading tourism products to promote the development of the cultural and tourism industries," said an official with the culture, radio, television, tourism and sports bureau of Zhuhai city.

A music flash mob organized by performers of the festival orchestra of the Hainan Island International Music Festival recently popped up at the Qilou old street in Haikou, capital of south China's Hainan Province.

The event attracted crowds of tourists, who pulled out their cell phones to capture the spectacle and warmly applauded the performance, said a female tourist surnamed Jiang from east China's Zhejiang Province, who called it a surprise during her trip.

Today, apart from enjoying the sunshine on the beach, watching performances in Haikou has become a new option for tourists. On Dec. 31, 2023, the phase II project of the Haikou Bay Performing Arts Center opened to the public, and the first performance was held at the performance center.

"While holding more cultural performances, sports events, and conventions and exhibitions, we are also actively advancing the construction of public cultural facilities and improving the distribution of public cultural facilities," said Wang Ke, head of the bureau of tourism, culture, radio, television and sports of Haikou city.

In March 2023, Hainan rolled out measures to promote vibrant cultural and sports activities from 10 aspects. Since then, Haikou has seen the accelerated recovery of its cultural and tourism market.

Last year, 17 concerts and music festivals with over 10,000 attendees per event were held in Haikou, receiving over 350,000 spectators.

Known for the long history and rich culture of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, has offered a Tang-style theme block called "The Longest Day in Chang'an" based on its namesake TV series.

The vibrant theme block was teeming with tourists donning traditional Chinese attire. Tourists could have an immersive experience reminiscent of a day in the dynasty here, including enjoying Tang Dynasty songs, dining, participating in recreational activities and interacting with the performers who play celebrities from that era.

In recent years, Xi'an has launched several immersive culture and tourism programs. From January to October 2023, Xi'an received around 260 million tourist visits, a year-on-year increase of over 27 percent, with tourism revenue soaring 57 percent over the same period of the previous year to 310 billion yuan.