Strong tourism growth accelerates poverty alleviation progress
The total tourism revenue of Sichuan province reached 892.31 billion yuan in 2017, up 16.1 percent from the previous year.
The western province with abundant tourism resources received 669 million domestic tourists within the year, up 6.2 percent, and 3.36 million overseas tourists, up 9.9 percent, realizing foreign exchange earnings of US$1.45 billion, up 16.7 percent.
In total the province attracted 140.65 billion yuan of investment to develop tourism projects, up 4.2 percent.
Six prefecture-level cities saw tourism revenue of more than 40 billion yuan in the year, with the capital city of Chengdu ranking first, followed by Leshan, Yibin, Mianyang, Nanchong and Luzhou. The number was four in the previous year.
As the concept of macrocosm tourism spreads across the province, rural tourism enjoyed substantial growth. The sector reeked in 228.3 billion yuan, up 13.3 percent, contributing to the socioeconomic development of rural communities and helping underprivileged families and individuals growing out of poverty.
The provincial tourism development coffer offered strong funding support to 86 counties in the province with poverty alleviation tasks, 54 percent of the total, benefiting 126,000 people living at or under poverty line, which account for 11.6 percent of the provincial total.
