Rural homestay co-working space becomes a golden seed of prosperity for a Miao village in Guizhou
"We have caught up with the mobile internet era. By running a 'palm-top rural homestay', business is much better than that of an ordinary rural homestay," said Yang Changzhong.
Yang Changzhong is an ordinary villager of the Miao ethnic group in Wudong Village, Leishan County, Guizhou Province. Nowadays, he never lets go of his phone, constantly posting updates about his rural homestay and refreshing the related comments from time to time.
"If I farmed crops, my annual income would cap out at just over 5,000 yuan," Yang Changzhong said. He had previously received a few tourists here and there, but it never amounted to much. Last year, he registered the Wudong Ecological Rural Homestay WeChat account, and after advertising online, his income reached more than 50,000 yuan.
Wudong Village is a typical Miao ethnic village in the mountainous region of Guizhou. Its distinctive Miao cultural charm and sound ecological environment attract a large number of tourists every year. As more and more villagers opened rural homestays in the village, Yang Changzhong thought of a "co-working space" as a way to leverage the clustering effect of these homestays and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.
After discussion, he decided to join with other rural homestays to adopt an "online plus offline" approach, building a "co-working space" on the internet to develop together as a group. Yang Changzhong would be responsible for contacting tourists online, while the village's rural homestays would set unified reception standards offline, dividing the work and cooperating to jointly receive tourists.
For example, when receiving a large tour group of more than 20 people, one homestay would be responsible for a grape-picking experience activity, another for a rice-field fish-catching experience activity, and all the village's rural homestays would jointly organize a bonfire party, providing tourists with food, accommodation and touring in a "one-stop" service, achieving mutual benefit and win-win results.
According to the rules agreed upon offline, prices for homestay rooms, fish catching, potato digging and other activities are all open and transparent, eliminating from the source the phenomenon of tourists being overcharged. This summer, Leishan was hit by consecutive rainstorms and floods. Even with serious road damage, Yang Changzhong still received several large bookings online.
"Rural homestays that can register online must have both hygiene and business licenses; neither can be missing," said Li Qifa, a village official stationed in Wudong Village, Leishan County. A prosperity leader like Yang Changzhong can drive at least 5 or more rural homestays to develop together.
Today, the "co-working space" that Yang Changzhong planned and built has become a "golden seed" for shaking off poverty and achieving prosperity in Wudong Village, Guizhou.