Tourism industry

As an old saying goes, there’s heaven above our head and Suzhou and Hangzhou beneath the sky. Hangzhou boasts heavenly natural scenery and profound cultural heritage.

It is not only a city with a digital economy, but also a city of tourism, with more than 10 well-known scenic spots scattered across the city, including three 5A level scenic spots: West Lake, Qiandao Lake and Xixi National Wetland Park. The tourism industry has become one of the pillar industries of Zhejiang’s capital city.

Hangzhou has put more emphasis on rural tourism in recent years, and developed various attractions in country areas, including the Tonglu Fuchun River Slow Life Town, Jiande Aviation Town and Chun'an Qiandao Lake Leshui Town. All kinds of boutique bed and breakfast (B&B) places and A-level village scenic spots are new highlights of the vigorous development of rural tourism in Hangzhou.

According to the tourism commission of Hangzhou, from January to June 2018, the city's rural tourism received 28.67 million tourists, an increase of 13.57 percent year-on-year, and achieved income of 2.546 billion yuan ($379.08 million).

According to incomplete statistics, in the first half of this year, the number of visitors to the Social Resources International Tourism Access Points, such as the Wanshili Silk Museum, the Canal Barn Museum and the Nongfu Springs Chunan Factory, exceeded 30,000, with international customers accounting for a considerable proportion of that number.

In 2017, the added value of the tourism and leisure industry in Hangzhou totaled 92.8 billion yuan, accounting for 7.4 percent of regional GDP. Tourism revenue reached 304.13 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.3 percent, of which tourism foreign exchange income was $3.54 billion, a year-on-year growth of 12.5 percent.

About 163 million tourists visited Hangzhou in 2017, with 16 million being domestic tourists received and 4 million being foreign visitors. At the end of 2017, there were 767 travel agencies of various types in the city, as well as 143 star-rated hotels, three 5A-level scenic spots and 88 A-level scenic spots.