(Yicai) Sept. 28 -- A number of Chinese cities in different provinces are linking arms to combine resources in order to build internationally recognized tourist destinations to tap into the rapidly growing tourism sector in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chongqing municipality and central Hubei province are linking arms to build the Changjiang National Cultural Park, a world-class tourist attraction at the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, according to the memorandum of understanding penned by the two parties on Sept. 17.

And Kunming in Yunnan province, Guiyang in Guizhou province, Nanning in Guangxi province and another three cities in these southwestern provinces are joining forces to launch the Three Plus Three Golden Circle of World-Class Tourist Destinations on Sept. 25.

The need for resource integration has increased with intensified competition, Pu Yongjian, a senior tourism advisor to the Chongqing government and professor at Chongqing University, told Yicai. Some tourism resources traverse provincial boundaries.

Provinces have different tourist attractions and regional co-operation is becoming more important, said Peng Zhimin, a researcher at the Hubei Academy of Social Sciences. Regions might be protective over their manufacturing sector, but they can often mutually benefit in the tourism industry.

The governments of Guizhou, Yunnan and Guangxi provinces have co-operated in cross-provincial tourism before this, but none of their projects have met the standards of a world-class tourist destination yet, Peng said. There are not enough foreign tourists, their infrastructure does not meet global standards and there are too few foreign-language speaking tour guides, he added.

Tourism is a popular industry, especially with the improvement of infrastructure and the construction of a network of high-speed railways and highways that cross the country, said Peng.

As tourism is becoming more prominent in the national economy, the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee mentioned in a meeting in July the need to promote the consumption of services such as sports and leisure, culture and tourism.

China’s tourism industry bounced back in the first half. There were 1.8 billion domestic tourists in the three months ended Aug. 31, generating revenue of CNY1.2 trillion (USD164.1 billion) and boosting the hotel, food and beverage, transportation and entertainment sectors, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Editor: Kim Taylor