“One-stop Resort” and “Green Sustainability” Define Rural Tourism
Deqing, September 11, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- From September 10 to 12, the 2015 International Rural Tourism Conference was held in Deqing, Zhejiang. The United Nations World Tourism Organization, Pacific Asia Travel Association, China National Tourism Administration, China Tourism Association's Leisure Agriculture and Rural Tourism Branch, and Taiwan Rural Tourism Association gathered at the Andaman Resort at the foot of Mount Mogan. The three-day conference was opened by CCTV’s renowned host Bai Yansong, kicking off events such as the Huzhou Asia-Pacific Summit, the World Rural Resort Destination Evaluation Standards Seminar, and the First Annual Conference of the World Rural Tourism Alliance.
2015 International Rural Tourism Conference
Summit Venue
Summit Venue
With the improvement of people’s living standards and consumption capacity, the development of China’s tourism industry has gone through various stages. The public’s demand for more specialized tourism products and higher service quality has grown, coupled with worsening urban environments and rapidly accelerating life rhythms. Rural tourism has emerged as a significant direction for transformation. The 2015 Central No. 1 Document proposed: “We must actively develop the multiple functions of agriculture and tap into the ecological leisure, tourism, and cultural educational value of rural areas.” This has driven and promoted the in-depth development of China’s rural tourism market, shifting tourism from pure sightseeing to leisure and vacation.
Rural tourism is a form of stay-and-travel that takes vacationing as its purpose, uses villages and the countryside as its space, and emphasizes non-intrusive culture and non-destructive ecology. Since the 1970s, it has grown rapidly in rural areas of developed countries and has now become an important part of the tourism market. Among these, Deqing’s “foreign-style homestays” (Yangjiale), which rely on rural and mountain resources to create a slow-paced lifestyle, have broken through institutional barriers in rural tourism by developing “attraction-free resort travel” that integrates ecology, low carbon, and leisure. With strong support from the local government, they have actively collaborated with high-end resort hotel brands, providing an innovative model for the development of rural tourism in China and rapidly aligning with international standards.
As a resort hotel brand specifically developed within Atour Hotel Group, the host of this conference, Andaman Resort, is creating a one-stop travel destination with a brand-new international approach. In addition to the basic dining and accommodation functions of a resort, the world’s first Explore Extreme Base settled in the Andaman Resort area on July 9, 2015. It was jointly created by APAX Group, Discovery, and Atour Hotel Group. Covering an area of about 1 million square meters, the base includes the only healthy, low-carbon area rich in natural resources and surrounded by mountains and water, offering more options for rural leisure tourism.
It is worth mentioning that the Atour Hotel Group, to which Andaman Resort belongs, is a leader in China’s resort hotel industry and has long been committed to creating new landmarks for refined, private, understated, and eco-friendly resort hotels. Zhong Weijie, President of Atour Hotel Group, said: “Andaman is a green building project that adopts the highest environmental standards of the U.S. LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Green Building Council. It reduces resource waste and the damage human activities cause to nature, improves resource utilization, enhances people’s quality of life, and promotes harmony between humans and nature.”
The conference also conducted a selection of World Rural Resort Destinations. With the advantages of “one-stop resort” and “green sustainability,” Andaman Resort interpreted the essence and development direction of rural tourism to the attendees. It also discussed topics such as “how to turn one’s own region, scenic area, and city into a truly culturally rich, ecologically protective, and sustainably developed World Rural Resort Destination,” playing a role in promoting the exchange, standardization, and collective advancement of rural tourism development.
Weibo: @AndamanAndaman
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