During the Spring Festival holiday, 867 provincially-monitored cultural and tourism venues received more than 5.8 million tourist trips and generated an operating income of 994 million yuan, according to the data from the Hunan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism on February 6. A total of 379 accommodation units received 272,800 tourist arrivals, a year-on-year increase of 18.14%, and the occupancy rate of guest rooms was 51.03%. Short-distance trips were most popular.

The top five most-visited scenic spots in Hunan were Liuye Lake Tourist Resort; Yiyang Wanda Ocean City; Shaoshan Tourist Area; Yiyang Luowen Flower Sea; and, Taohuayuan Scenic Area.

This year the Spring Festival holiday coincides with the Beijing Winter Olympics. Snow or ice-related activities such as snow viewing and rime viewing directly drove holiday tourism consumption. Well-known scenic spots such as Hengshan Mountain in Hengyang City, Ziquejie Terraced Fields in Loudi City, and Yuntai Mountain in Yiyang City held rime- and snow-viewing activities to celebrate the Winter Olympics. Ski resorts and ice skating rinks in the province were very popular. Xiangjiang Joy Town held an event of "mini triathlon on snow".

Aizhai Bridge-Shibadong-Dehang Grand Canyon, Fenghuang Ancient Town, and Pushi Ancient Town in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture held traditional folk activities such as colorful dragon boat racing, lantern riddles guessing, and road boating. The Tongguan Kiln Tourist Resort held a temple fair to celebrate the Chinese New Year, and the HB (Changsha) Movie Town held the "Assisi Chinatown Festival".

Changsha held cultural performances and intangible cultural heritage activities to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Libraries in Changsha, Zhuzhou, Xiangtan, Yiyang and other places launched Spring Festival activities. A total of 189 cultural venues in the province received 340,000 tourist trips, a year-on-year increase of 0.54%.

Living in a farmhouse, eating farm food, and having barbecues, have enriched tourists’ experience of farm life. Rural tourist attractions such as Baogai Ancient Town and Xidu Meihua Village in Hengyang City were popular with tourists. Various activities were held at Huangdu Dong Cultural Village in Huaihua City, including drinking lanmen wine (greeting custom for local people to welcome guests), eating Helong banquets, watching Dong wedding ceremony, and participating in bonfire parties. During the Spring Festival holiday, 52 rural tourist areas in the province received 371,700 tourist trips and the operating income was more than 90 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.74%.

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Xiao Juan

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn