Chongqing - The Chongqing Municipal Commission of Culture and Tourism Development and the Sichuan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism jointly announced the key priorities for constructing the Bashu Cultural Tourism Corridor in 2023. The two sides agreed to focus on the 28 tasks in 9 areas.

The year 2023 is an important year for the implementation of the Bashu Cultural Tourism Corridor construction plan. Both regions will issue an implementation plan, implementing list-based management and project-based promotion.

"Our next step is to further specify the tasks and promote the high-quality development of the Bashu Cultural Tourism Corridor," said Liu Qi, Director of the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Culture and Tourism Development. At the meeting, he emphasized the keyword "specify" and stated that in the future, Sichuan and Chongqing need to specify their cooperation, the construction of public services, and the image-building process.

According to reports, currently, there are 21 major projects in the cultural tourism field incorporated in the list of major projects for the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, including the National Culture Park for the Long March (Sichuan-Chongqing section) and the National Culture Park for the Yangtze River (Sichuan-Chongqing section). The construction plan and protection plan have been perfected for the National Culture Park for the Yangtze River (Chongqing section) and the Stone Carving Culture and Creative Park, the Bashu Intangible Cultural Heritage Industrial Park, the protection and inheritance of the Sichuan-Chongqing Grotto Temples. 

The total investment exceeds 100 billion yuan(about $14.36 billion), with a planned investment of 11.4 billion yuan this year. "We need the culture and tourism departments of Sichuan and Chongqing, along with relevant districts and counties, to spare no effort in accelerating project progress and promoting the formation of tangible results," Liu Qi added.

Regarding the refinement of public service construction, Liu Qi mentioned that this year, a series of cultural activities would continue to be carried out, including the Sichuan-Chongqing drama "The Twin Cities," the "Skillful Bayu" Sichuan-Chongqing acrobatics and magic shows, the Sichuan-Chongqing opera exhibition, the "ChengYu Family" youth actors exchange performance, and the "Sichuan-Chongqing Laughter" drama and opera program exchange exhibition,  to create Sichuan-Chongqing people-centered brands.

At the same time, efforts will continue to be made to connect the smart libraries and public cultural cloud networks of Sichuan and Chongqing and to achieve "borrowing and returning books across regions," "one-click reservation," and "one-click of buying products." Meanwhile, exploration will be made to carry out Sichuan-Chongqing tourist ticket exchange and mutual exemption activities.

Furthermore, Chongqing and Sichuan will comprehensively promote the publicity of the Bashu region, as well as the interconnection and information exchange among media platforms, and use multiple channels, platforms, and means to jointly expand the domestic and international cultural tourism market, forming a joint force for cultural exchange and promotion. 

Liu Qi mentioned that both sides should further implement the construction plan, comprehensively connect public services, jointly build and share projects, and coordinate the cultural and tourism resources in Chongqing and Sichuan. With Chengdu and Chongqing as the dual drivers, they can promote development in a coordinated manner, strengthen cooperation and integration, and build a new model for the joint development of the cultural and tourism industries in Chongqing and Sichuan.

Dai Yunkang, Director of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, guided the construction of the Bashu Cultural and Tourism Corridor this year in four aspects: deepening pragmatic and efficient cooperation between Sichuan and Chongqing, cultivating structural advantages of Bashu's cultural and tourism industry, jointly creating core competitiveness in Bashu's cultural and tourism industry, and cooperatively laying out key areas of Bashu's cultural and tourism industry.

He said that in promoting the protection and inheritance of Bashu culture, efforts would be made this year to vigorously promote the construction of the Long March National Culture Park (Sichuan-Chongqing section), jointly compile the construction plan for the Sichuan-Chongqing Grotto Temples National Site Park, jointly establish the Sichuan-Chongqing grotto protection and research laboratory and scientific and technological innovation base. 

Regarding collaboratively cultivating the structural advantages of Bashu's cultural tourism, Dai Yunkang first mentioned optimizing product structure. To achieve this, efforts will be made to continue launching new products and scenes, jointly promoting Bashu's cultural tourism brands such as "Charming Cities," "Homeland of Pandas," "Magnificent Three Gorges," and "Grotto Art." Moreover, efforts shall be made to jointly build the Daba Mountain International Resort and the Wuhua Mountain Health and Leisure Resort, jointly create a series of high-quality stage arts with Bashu's unique style and charm and enhance the influence of the "Savor the spice in Sichuan, relish the excitement in Chongqing" cultural tourism brand.

Dai Yunkang noted a need to develop a cluster of key functional areas and cultural tourism industry zones with more significant radiating and driving effects. By exploring the availability of creating special tour routes, such as the Three Gorges-Daba Mountains loop and the Jialing River-Huaying Mountains-Mingyue Mountains loop, we can jointly create the Jialing River Cultural Tourism Scenic Road, forming a new tourism pattern. This collaborative effort will contribute to promoting and developing the Bashu cultural tourism industry, boosting the overall appeal of the region and attracting more visitors from all over the world.

(Zhu Ziyuan, as an intern, also contributed to the report.)