Zhangjiajie signs 12 cultural tourism projects

On March 20, Zhangjiajie signed 12 cultural tourism industry projects at the first signing ceremony for major project investment promotion this year, with a contract amount of 1.77 billion yuan, covering a number of industries such as cultural tourism, low-altitude flight and high-end hotels.

This shows the great confidence of the tourism industry in Zhangjiajie.

From January to February this year, Zhangjiajie’s cultural and tourism industry made a good start. The four scenic spots of Wulingyuan, Tianmen Mountain, Grand Canyon and Maoyan River alone received 1.3538 million tourists, an increase of 38.13% compared with the same period in 2019 and 272.43% compared with the same period in 2022, the highest record for the same period in history.

Since late March, the alternation of rain and sunshine has brought many surprises to visitors from afar. They could enjoy the green and misty landscape.

This year marks a full recovery for Zhangjiajie tourism. Since January, Zhangjiajie has continuously created tourism highlights by promoting coordinated development between urban and rural areas, and integrating scenery, industry, tourism into the city to activate cultural and tourism consumption in an all-round way, and warm up the tourism market.

In mid-February, Zhangjiajie received a large tourist group with more than 5,000 people, which set off a climax of spring tourism reception.

On March 11, Zhangjiajie National Forest Park ushered in its first overseas tour group since the resumption of inbound tourism, marking the beginning of the recovery of the inbound tourism market after a three-year pause.

The night economy recovers along with landscape tourism.

On March 4, the performance “Zhangjiajie Romance Show” was resumed, and performance shows such as “National Welcome Parade” and “Hands Waving Bonfire Carnival” were staged in turn.

The Tianmen Fox Fairy Show, the world’s first landscape musical, welcomed its first performance this year at the Tianmen Mountain Canyon Grand Theater on the evening of March 8, attracting more than 2,000 tourists.

On the evening of March 19, tourists crowded into the Hourong Street night market in the urban area of Zhangjiajie City. The old street rebuilt around tourism consumption last year has ushered in a new life.

“We have always taken promotion and marketing as a powerful means to polish tourism brands and expand the tourism market.” On March 10, in the second online video interview held by the Hunan delegation at the first session of the 14th National People’s Congress, Wang Hongbin, deputy party secretary and mayor of Zhangjiajie City, said that it is a major task to continue to create hot spots and selling points to expand Zhangjiajie’s international circle of friends and make the “International Zhangjiajie” brand famous all over the world.

The hot spots and selling points have been created constantly.

On March 20, the first Sangzhi Folk Culture Tourism Festival in Zhangjiajie kicked off, with a 1.8km long stage group that attracted thousands of tourists.

On March 19, witnessed by picturesque peaks and lucid waters, hundreds of new couples from 13 cities and 1 prefecture in the province made holy marriage vows to each other. The beautiful picture that the red Guochao wedding dresses well match the green scenery quickly spread on major platforms at home and abroad.

On March 14, the blueprint for the construction of the “Zhangjiajie Meta Universe Museum” was launched, which will build new scenarios, new forms, and new models for digital cultural tourism such as Meta Universe Theme, Immersive Experience, Digital Interaction, and Internet-famous Spots through the core leading technologies of the Meta Universe, digital virtual human and twin technology advantages.

The influence of the International Zhangjiajie brand has been expanding.

On February 26, Hua Chunying, Assistant Foreign Minister, Director of the Information Department, and Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, introduced the beautiful Zhangjiajie National Forest Park to netizens around the world on her personal account on overseas social media platforms, which makes Zhangjiajie gain more popularity.

On March 16, the government officials and representatives of travel enterprises visited the Tourism Authority of Thailand. Six travel agencies from China and Thailand signed a cooperation agreement on tourist reception.

Subsequently, a delegation from Zhangjiajie visited Vietnam and decided to open direct charter flights to Zhangjiajie from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in April, with a plan to attract 300,000 Vietnamese tourists within one year. Beside, the delegation will also visit Middle East countries such as the United Arab Emirates to fully revitalize inbound tourism.

With the recovery of the tourism market, Jiang Chaoyang, the front office manager of Qinghe Jinjiang Hotel at Wulingyuan District of Zhangjiajie City, was recalled to his former company two months ago.

Already working in other industry, he quickly returned to his most familiar position. “My years of experience in tourism industry suffice to make me see the situation clearly,” said Jiang. Many of his former colleagues have returned and there are many new faces in the hotel.

“Talents are the key to tourism development,” he added.

Zhangjiajie is thriving due to tourism. In 2019, the number of tourism employees in the city exceeded 300,000, accounting for one fifth of the total population. At the end of last year, Zhangjiajie declared 2023 as the year of full recovery of tourism, and introduced a series of incentive policies, resulting in a rapid recovery of the tourism industry.

Under the dual demand of the market and policies, many tourism workers have chosen to return. Most of the tour guides who had to leave their positions due to the epidemic have raised their small flags again and led their teams in various scenic spots.

“I searched on my mobile phone and stored a lot of information to learn.” Qin Zhiben, a guide of Zhangjiajie Xiangmeng Travel Agency, has returned to work as a furniture sales consultant. The tourism saw a boom during the Spring Festival holiday, so she came back.

She believes that in the past three years of the epidemic, profound changes have taken place in people’s traveling and consumption habits, as well as the pattern of the tourism industry, so there must be new requirements placed on the professional skills and knowledge of tour guides. “Everyone is full of confident and hopes to make up for the losses of the past three years through their own efforts,” she said.

The rapid recovery of tourism has promoted the rapid return of tourism talents. At the same time, there is also a talent shortage.

Half a month ago, the Human Resources Service Center of Zhangjiajie Human Resources and Social Security Bureau received a report from the Travel Agency Branch of Zhangjiajie Tourism Association that there is a talent shortage of about 10,000 people in 300 tourism-related enterprises in Zhangjiajie.

It is hoped to establish contacts with several colleges and vocational and technical schools in the city through the relevant department, so as to solve the problem of personnel shortage by means of internships, campus recruitment, online job posting.