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Destinations known | Domestic tourism the focus of China’s 14th five-year plan, which foresees more sports, countryside trips, ‘red tourism’ and … better bathrooms

  • The 14th Five-Year Tourism Development Plan envisions the industry to be bigger than ever, with different parts of China having different roles to play
  • Rural tourism, including cultural and outdoor recreation, will be developed – cycling trails and parks will be promoted as mini-breaks grow in popularity

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Tourists at Yalong Bay National Resort in Sanya, Hainan province, China. The country’s 14th Five-Year Tourism Development Plan looks to develop the domestic market – particularly rural tourism, including cultural and outdoor recreation. Photo: Getty Images

Tourism boards the world over consider themselves salespeople of “products”: the essence of a city or region turbocharged with retail experiences, theme parks, resorts and the like.

China’s 14th Five-Year Tourism Development Plan, issued by the State Council on January 20, fits the bill. Absent is the notion that tourism should entail dropping in on a place as unobtrusively as possible, to experience how the locals live perhaps, and in its stead is the idea that “new development concepts must be implemented” so that “mass tourism consumption needs will be better satisfied”.

To be fair, the report – at least the English-language digital version of it – does stress the need to protect the environment, conserve cultural history and improve the livelihoods of those whose backyards are being visited, but the idea that more is necessarily better pervades.

So what is envisaged for the industry in China? During the 2021 to 2025 period, the country will “fully enter the era of mass tourism”, and the domestic market – particularly rural tourism, including cultural and outdoor recreation – will develop significantly.

Huangshan, Anhui province, is one of the areas singled out as being of high tourism value. Photo: Getty Images
Huangshan, Anhui province, is one of the areas singled out as being of high tourism value. Photo: Getty Images
Not surprisingly, given the closure of international borders by Covid-19, domestic tourists are the focus, and much of the report is concerned with making internal travel as seamless as possible: transport and traffic monitoring, meteorology, surveying and mapping, 5G mobile communication, big data, and cloud computing are all identified as tools with which China can make the movement of the masses as friction-free as possible.

Also urged is the upgrading of car parks, roads, camping grounds, tourist service centres and toilets – there are several references to toilets in the report, and quite rightly, too! Many a holiday experience has been ruined by a filthy bathroom.

Mark Footer joined the Post in 1999, having been the magazine and book buyer for Tower Records in Hong Kong. He started on the business desk before moving, in 2006, to Post Magazine, of which he was editor until 2019. He took on a secondary role as travel editor in 2009.
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