The activity of Wuhan City to create China's Excellent Tourism City, which started in 1996, had a good ending last year: the "creating excellence" work successfully accepted national acceptance. While I was pleased, I took a closer look at the "report card" of the acceptance assessment and found that there were also shortcomings: the total tourism revenue accounted for only 2 points in GDP; the foreign exchange earned from tourism only scored 4 points. From the perspective of the contribution of various industries in the city to the economy, tourism The huge “gold mine” of the industry still needs to be excavated.
Ranking of tourism among cities across the country, where is Wuhan? The Urban Construction and Transportation Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference made a comparison of 10 major cities including Wuhan, Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen in 2000. Five indicators showed that there is still a certain gap between Wuhan's tourism industry and other cities.
1. The overall development of tourism industry. Wuhan’s total annual tourism revenue ranks sixth among the 10 cities. Shanghai ranked first with 90.9 billion yuan, followed by Beijing, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou. Among the five cities with similar economic development levels to Wuhan, Nanjing ranks in front of Wuhan, with an economic development level of 15.6 billion yuan.
2. Number of tourists. The number of tourists in a city is an indicator that measures the development level of a city's tourism industry and the overall attractiveness of the city. Beijing ranked first with 102 million domestic tourists in 2000, followed by Shanghai, Chengdu, Hangzhou and Shenzhen. Wuhan ranked sixth with 19.5 million passengers.
3. Inbound tourism situation. Wuhan ranks ninth with 260,000 annual arrivals, only higher than Shenyang. Shenzhen has the largest number of arrivals.
4. Foreign exchange earnings from tourism. Wuhan's foreign exchange earnings in 2000 were US$98.47 million, an increase of 32 percentage points over the previous year, but still ranked ninth. Not only is it far lower than major tourist cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, it is also lower than Xi'an, Nanjing, and Shenyang, with their tourism foreign exchange income exceeding US$100 million.
5. Tourism management and publicity investment. Beijing's promotional funds are more than 30 million yuan a year; Shanghai's finance department allocates 50 million yuan in special tourism funds and 10 million yuan in publicity expenses each year. Wuhan's publicity expenditure in 2000 was 2 million yuan. Shenyang, Nanjing, and Chengdu, which have similar economic development levels to our city, spent more than us.
A good idea: prescribe 7 flavors of "medicine"
Famous snacks and Jingchu-style catering are shrinking year by year, and the nationally renowned "Lao Wancheng Sour Plum Soup" trademark has been registered by Zhejiang... When talking about the current situation of tourism product development in our city, some CPPCC members felt deeply saddened. They said that in Wuhan, which has a history of 3,500 years, a large part of its rich tourism resources are "unknown to the public", and the existing scenic spots are not developed and utilized at a high level, and there is a lack of competitive products.
In order to solve the current situation of the tourism industry holding the "golden rice bowl" and begging for food, members of the CPPCC put forward 7 suggestions:
1. Integrate the tourism circle and establish the concept of grand tourism. The urban tourism circle with the city and suburban attractions as the core; the sightseeing tourism circle with the famous scenic spots in the province as the core; and the central China tourism circle composed of the surrounding provincial and municipal attractions.
2. Launch Wuhan tourism products. Focus on the four core tourist areas in the city, including the Yangtze River Coastal Style Tourism Area, East Lake Natural Scenery Tourism Area, Guiyuan Temple, etc., and the Hankou Shopping and Tourism Area, as well as the suburban Huangpi Mulan Tourism Area, Wuhu Agricultural Ecological Area, etc. 4 high-quality tourist routes have been developed and improved.
3. Accelerate the transformation of traditional tourism products. Plan to integrate Wuhan central scenic areas such as Yellow Crane Tower, Shouyi Cultural District, and East Lake Scenic Area, and do a good job in the subsequent development and planning of scenic spots.
The committee members’ construction projects are analytical, profound and inspiring. They have received attention from relevant parties and will surely promote a new round of development of our city’s tourism industry.