Yunnan Provincial Tourism Development Commission Helps Tasa Village in Honghe Develop Tourism and Get Rich

The Yunnan Provincial Tourism Development Commission, aiming at the goal of poverty alleviation and prosperity through the Honghe County tourism grand loop, defined a "tourism+" industrial development pattern.

"Now there are more and more tourists, red rice has become a rare treasure for city people, and the price has risen quite a bit. Once our Lüshuge Scenic Area is built, I can make more money selling red rice and renting out spare rooms than by working away from home," introduced villager Li Longshan.

Tasa Village in Jiayin Town, Honghe County, Honghe Prefecture, is rich in tourism resources. The Hani Long Street Banquet, mushroom houses, Twelve Dragon Springs, cherry blossom terraces and other cultural and natural landscapes remain intact, making it a key area for the development of Honghe County's tourism industry. Since the Yunnan Provincial Tourism Development Commission was assigned to assist the village in August 2015, in accordance with the local industrial development plan, aiming at the goal of poverty alleviation and prosperity through the Honghe County tourism grand loop, and after carefully analyzing and assessing the local resource endowment conditions, it defined a "tourism+" industrial development pattern from multiple aspects including tourism elements, market supply, demand forecasting and development prospects.

During more than 300 person-times of return visits and 20 rounds of research, the Yunnan Provincial Tourism Development Commission identified the crux of the village's poverty, gave full play to its own strengths and advantages in tourism planning, and on the basis of coordinating well-known experts within the province to conduct a special review of the planning for the Samaba Scenic Area and the Dongmen Horse Caravan Ancient Town in Honghe County, allocated more than 300,000 yuan in planning compilation fees, and compiled and approved through review the "Lüshuge Terraced Field Scenic Area Tourism Master Plan" and the "Tasa Tourism Village Construction Detailed Plan" for Tasa Village, Jiayin Town. The rural tourism layout of "one core, three zones, four rings, one line and multiple nodes" in this area not only planned the village's future development blueprint from a high starting point, but also defined the ways for villagers to participate in tourism development. For example, in the construction detailed plan, the street construction forms and residential house renovation methods directly provided reference templates for farming households to participate in the construction of folk-custom inns.

At the same time, in order to improve the ornamental value during sightseeing, the Yunnan Provincial Tourism Development Commission also organized expert service teams from Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, Kunming University and Yunnan Tourism Vocational College to go to Honghe County to conduct special research on the integrated development of tourism with advantageous cultural resources such as the World Cultural Heritage Hani Terraced Fields, the national-level intangible cultural heritage Hani multi-part singing, Lezuo dance, and the locally unique horse caravan culture, Tusi culture and Yiche customs.

In addition, in response to the problem of insufficient support from tourism talent, the Yunnan Provincial Tourism Development Commission allocated a special fund of 300,000 yuan for short-term education and training of tourism talent, and Yunnan Tourism Vocational College proposed a long-term support policy of tuition reduction or exemption for impoverished students. The provincial Tourism Development Commission also reformed the traditional thinking and methods of poverty alleviation, changing flood irrigation into precision drip irrigation. In response to the difficulty of selling Honghe County's especially excellent agricultural products, by adopting the method of ordering trade union condolence goods, it purchased 300 portions of local agricultural specialty products such as red rice, kudzu root powder and chicken (duck) eggs produced by local farming households, and arranged dedicated personnel to participate in guiding farming households in commodity processing, production, packaging and sales. This directly helped farming households clarify the core keys and matters needing attention in the production process of tourism commodities, and further consolidated the basic driving force for impoverished farming households' self-development. At the same time, regarding the practical living difficulties of impoverished farming households, it sent more than 40,000 yuan in condolence money and 906 pieces of clothing and bedding to impoverished households; donated 910 books and sports and cultural supplies to Tasa Central Primary School; donated 185 sets of desks and chairs to Lüshuge Primary School in Jiayin Town and Chaoyang Primary School in Baohua Town; and mobilized tourism enterprises to donate more than 50,000 yuan to Tasa Village in Jiayin for the construction of a drinking water project for people and livestock.

The 2015 "National Rural Tourism Poverty Alleviation Observation Report" shows that rural tourism is becoming the main channel for farmers' employment, an important growth point for increasing farmers' income, and an important force for rural poverty alleviation. In order to consolidate the foundation for development, the Yunnan Provincial Tourism Development Commission seized the opportunity of the implementation of Yunnan Province's three-year action plan for the transformation and upgrading of the tourism industry, actively coordinated and allocated tourism project funds, listed Tasa Village in Jiayin Town as a tourism village, listed Zuofu Village in Jiayin Town, Tasa Zhongzhai, Lüshuge Village and Longma Village in Baohua Town as tourism characteristic villages, and listed Lüshuge Village as a provincial-level demonstration village project, with the projects involving a total of more than 8 million yuan; made every effort to strengthen tourism infrastructure construction, building 2 ecological parking lots and 8 star-rated toilets along the tourism loop in Jiayin Town and Baohua Town, involving a total of 8.8 million yuan, while other projects and funds are also in the process of coordination and advancement. By actively promoting projects to lay the foundation, it focused on solidifying the foundation for tourism development.