By Keqiao Cheng, EDITOR

According to the news from Chongqing Agriculture Commission on December 20, Chongqing has made rapid development in rural tourism. Chongqing expects to receive over 200 million people in agricultural and rural sceneries by the end of 2018. The comprehensive revenue of this sector will be over RMB 60 billion.

The leading industry of this year

Deputy Director Gao Xingming of Chongqing Agriculture Commission introduces that Chongqing considers leisure agriculture and rural tourism as a leading industry this year. Therefore, it has made rapid progress in the aspects of the industry’s structural adjustment, the agriculture-tourism integration, and the improvement of the living environment. Therefore, it has advanced the all-round upgrading of this sector.

Through the optimization of grain and cash crops as well as industries, Chongqing’s ratio of grain crops to cash crops has reached 47:53. With the accelerated establishment of the system of “Traceability for Anti-Counterfeit Labels”, there have been a total of 3,866 non-pollution, green and organic products with geographical indications in Chongqing. It has promoted the processing of agricultural products and the intensive processing of superior resources, plus the implementation of “Internet + agriculture”, this speeding up the integrated development of agriculture, culture, and tourism, and facilitating the comprehensive upgrading of Chongqing’s leisure agriculture and rural tourism industry.

Over 200 million tourists by the end of 2018

There have been pilot projects carried out along the high-speed railways, rivers, expressways and suburb ring roads as well as surrounding tourist attractions. Based on that, it strives to set a model for the overall planning of rural household wastewater treatment, “Toilet Revolution”, the improvement of village appearance, and resource utilization of agricultural waste. More than 90% of administrative villages have realized effective management of household waste in Chongqing. Meanwhile, the popularizing rate of sanitary latrines in rural areas has reached 72.59%.

To strengthen the promotion of rural recreation, Chongqing has convened 13 press conferences for “Beautiful Villages in Chongqing” this year. It has released more than 600 routes and over 2,000 spots for leisure. The relevant districts and counties, combined with their local development, have conducted a variety of diversified publicity activities. Also, they are generating a favorable environment for industrial development.

In 2017, Chongqing received over 170 million visitors for rural tourism. It is predicted by the end of 2018, the number will be up to 200 million, with a comprehensive income of RMB 60 billion. There have been 12 national model counties of leisure agriculture and rural tourism in Chongqing. Also, there're 14 national famous tourist towns and seven villages with characteristic landscapes. This industry has attracted a total of 1.3 million employees, thus providing jobs for 1 million farmers, and helping 330,000 poor people to remove poverty and increase income.

Source: Chongqing Daily