Tourism carnival a boost for Guangxi's rural economy

The 2019 Enjoy Guangxi-Rural Tourism Carnival kicked off in Jinxiu Yao autonomous county, South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on May 10 and will last until June 15.

The event has the theme of "Discover rural tourism to promote poverty alleviation", and is composed of 14 theme activities, including rural tourism shows, the Yao's Boji Banquet, a kind of traditional banquet by the Yao ethnic group in Guangxi, and promotional activities of the Yao's traditional medicine. 

Relying on its rich and unique tourism resources, Guangxi has set up a batch of tourism demonstration sites and characteristic towns in recent years. The region is now in possession of more than 500 national tourist attractions at or above A level and nearly 70 ecotourism model areas. Its booming tourism industry has grown into a new growth engine in the region's poverty alleviation efforts.

The region's rural tourism has proved to be popular among tourists, attracting 78 million visitors in the first quarter of 2019 and generating rural tourism revenues of 53.14 billion yuan ($7.73 billion). 

Guangxi's Jinxiu county, which is blessed with a well-preserved ecological environment, has made full use of its Yao folk culture and rural ecological landscape to promote homestay businesses and cultivate a development framework featuring its own characteristics.

The county witnessed a tourism and consumption boom in 2018 with a total of 5.57 million visitors, up 29.9 percent year-on-year, and a tourism revenue of 48 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 36.96 percent. The county's tourism industry has lifted 3,905 people out of poverty from 2016 to 2018.