Anhui tourism gets boost through govt support

To increase parking for tourists, Shexian county of East China's Anhui province opened 22 parking lots in government buildings to the public for free starting Monday.

As the location of the ancient Huizhou prefecture government, Shexian saw an increase in tourists during the five-day holiday. 

On Tuesday alone the county, governed by Huangshan city, had received over 34,000 tourists, more than six times higher than the same period in 2019 according to county mayor Wang Qiyong.

In addition, the county government's information office updated data on the parking areas 12 times as of Wednesday afternoon via its official accounts on multiple media platforms.

Among the county's tourism sites, Huizhou Ancient Town is one of China's four best-preserved ancient towns and has been free for tourists since the beginning of last year.

The move is part of broader efforts taken by the Huangshan government to reduce dependency on ticket income and diversify tourism to transform the local industry and promote high-quality economic development.

By Wednesday afternoon, the city's tourism sites had received about 1.2 million visits, up 34 percent from 2019's May Day holiday, while overall ticket income had dropped by 7 percent from the same period.

With the flood of tourists, many local governments in Anhui province have taken various measures to cater to their demands and aim to provide better service.

For example, Shuidong township in Xuancheng, with about 19,000 permanent residents, had received more than 50,000 visits in the holiday's first four days.

"We have been well-prepared for the situation and thus recruited some 220 volunteers among township civil servants and village cadres," said Chen Zhangxue, Party chief of Shuidong.

Chen said the volunteers had worked effectively in serving tourists, especially in guiding drivers to find parking.