Rural tourism in Pu’er drives 10,000 out of poverty

Pu’er City in southwest Yunnan has in recent years coupled cultural tourism development with targeted poverty alleviation, giving a strong push to poverty-relief efforts based on cultural tourism. So far, over 1,900 poor villagers are directly employed in the rural-tourism sector, which helped drive around 10,000 out of poverty. 

According to Qian Qin, deputy director of the Pu’er Bureau of Culture and Tourism, the city has diversified its business modes of rural tourism, designing fine tourist products that are healthy and nourishing. Based on rich resources in tea, coffee and herbal medicine, Pu’er developed planting and deep processing, adopting the “company plus base plus family” business mode. In refining manor-tours, the city has popularized farming activity, sight seeing and vacationing leisure among consumers. 

Over the past five years, 39 impoverished villages in Pu’er have been turned into models in rural-tourism operation, with 1,313 households receiving 940,000 plus tourists. The gross tourism income reached 118 million yuan. Around 1,900 poor villagers are employed in rural-tourism, which helped drive around 10,000 out of poverty. 

Meanwhile, Pu’er staged 4,053 cultural shows in rural areas, benefiting a population of 2.4 million. Libraries across Pu’er welcomed 3.5 million readers, with 2 million books in circulation. More than 500 training lectures were organized to benefit the public, of which the sessions on Pu’er rural tourism have gained fame. 

Qian said Pu’er will improve the weak links in facilities of rural cultures and better supply the cultural products. By digging out more quality resources of rural culture, the city will enhance service facilities and systems and create unique products for rural tours. In hosting the training sessions, Pu’er aims to upgrade tourist services and the quality of rural tourism.

Source: Yunnan Tourism and Culture Times;  Online photos; Trans-editing by Wang Shixue