At the Summit Forum of Ancient Town Operation Innovation held on March 31 at Qingyan Ancient Town in Huaxi district, Guiyang, a report on Qingyan Ancient Town's tourism development in 2011-2020 was released.
The report analyzed Qingyan Ancient Town's tourism development from the aspects of scenic area planning, market scale, target tourists, tourist preferences and contribution to rural revitalization.
During the past 10 years, Qingyan Ancient Town's tourist numbers increased from 800,000 in 2011 to 8.7 million in 2019, and the tourism income increased from 100 million yuan ($15.21 million) in 2011 to 1.18 billion yuan in 2019.
In 2017, Qingyan Ancient Town officially became a national 5A-level scenic spot, and its tourism income increased by 67 percent year-on-year in the same year, exceeding 1 billion yuan for the first time.
Qiangyan Ancient Town's core area has expanded from 0.8 square kilometers to 4.8 sq km. The scenic area has also added 23 kilometers of roads, 21 public toilets, more than 2,000 parking spots and 131 guesthouses.
As the infrastructure keeps improving, the average visiting time at Qingyan Ancient Town has increased from two hours to six hours per tourist.
However, the growth rate of Qingyan Ancient Town's tourism income has slowed since 2018. In that year, the year-on-year growth rate was 19 percent, which was slower than the provincial average.
To solve this problem, experts and tourism enthusiasts offered their advice and suggestions at the summit forum.