Chongqing- The 2^nd Yangtze River, Three Gorges Tourism Integrated Promotion Conference, was held in northeast Chongqing’s Wushan County on Nov. 27, gathering government officials, scholars, experts, and travel agencies from around the country to discuss the possibilities and potentials of promoting integrated tourism resources along the Yangtze River Three Gorges area.

The Yangtze River Three Gorges Tourism Integrated Promotion Conference was held at the Rivers & Holiday Hotel in northeast Chongqing's Wushan County.

Present at the conference were culture and tourism authorities from Chongqing Municipality, Hubei Province, Shaanxi Province, Sichuan Province, Shandong Province, Henan Province, and many other counties, districts, and cities along the Yangtze River Three Gorges tourist route and the Zhengzhou-Wanzhou High-Speed Railway route.

“In recent years, the integrated promotion of tourism resources along the Yangtze River Three Gorges scenic area has been steadily pushed forward and with remarkable achievements,” said Xing Jun, deputy director of the Chongqing Municipal Culture and Tourism Development Commission, at the conference.

“Further cooperation between the culture and tourism authorities of Chongqing Municipality and Hubei Province has also accelerated the regional coordination among the counties and districts of northeast Chongqing,” Xing said while referring to the various co-organized activities such as the China Yangtze River Three Gorges International Tourism Festival, the Concert of World Great Rivers, and the Yangtze River Three Gorges International Red Leaf Festival.

Government officials, scholars, experts, and travel agencies worldwide come to discuss the possibilities and potentials of promoting integrated tourism resources along the Yangtze River Three Gorges area.

In 2019 alone, the reservoir area in northeast Chongqing received a total of 123 million tourist visits and topped 112.6 billion yuan in tourism revenue, a 15.7% and 38.5% year-on-year increase respectively; achieved a total of 16.47 billion yuan in the value-added tourism industry, an 8.32% year-on-year increase, accounting for 4.17% of the city’s GDP. Similar growth was also seen in the number of visits for the Yangtze River Three Gorges Cruise Tourism, which amounted to 1.1 million people in 2019, a 10.83% increase year on year.

Near the end of the conference, the northeastern counties of Yunyang, Fengjie, and Wushan signed the 2021 Regional Tourism Integrated Promotion Partnership; more than 20 tourism enterprises and their business partners signed the 2021 Tourism Cooperation Agreement. Tourism spokespersons and ambassadors of Zhongxian, Fengdu, Yunyang, Fengjie, and Wushan also came on stage and gave a vivid presentation of their various cultures and tourism resources.

Representatives from the northeastern counties of Yunyang, Fengjie, and Wushan sign the 2021 Regional Tourism Integrated Promotion Partnership.

As one of the most attractive tourist routes globally, the Yangtze River Three Gorges area is a gold standard brand of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the earliest golden tourist route China has ever presented to the world. The beautiful reservoir area boasts unique geographic features of lush mountains, lucid waters, and grand gorges, with rich cultural and historical deposits along the Yangtze Rivers Three Gorges route.

The first edition of the Yangtze River Three Gorges Tourism Integrated Promotion Conference was also held in Wushan last December, which has kickstarted series of multilateral tourism cooperation projects among the local governments, tourism enterprises, and tourism associations along the Yangtze River Three Gorges area.