Zhangye Geopark & Tourism Development
Zhangye Geopark mainly deals with the implementation of the “three tasks” of protecting geoheritage and natural environment, popularizing knowledge of geoscience and improving public scientific & cultural quality, as well as developing tourism and promoting sustainable development of local economy and society, thus actively developing geological tourism resources, and striving to promote new forms of tourism. Zhangye geotourism, accordingly, has become the most popular tourism product and a new highlight in the innovative development of tourism industry.
Zhangye Geopark has successively won the titles of “Top Ten Magical Geographical Wonders in the World”, “One of the 22 Most Memorable Landscapes in the World”, and “One of the 25 Dream Travel Destinations in the World”, “One of the 30 Most Beautiful Places in China” as well as “The Most Beautiful Shooting Location in China”, etc. It was named provincial scenic spot by the provincial government, and provincial geopark by the former provincial land and resources department in 2008. In 2016, it was entitled national geopark by the former Ministry of Land and Resources. The Colorful Hills and the Binggou Danxia scenic spots were successively evaluated as national 4A-level tourism scenic spots in 2013 and 2014.
Aiming at High-Point Positioning and Devoting Every Effort to Establish Grand Geopark
Zhangye aims at high-point positioning, and makes the important policy decision of taking Zhangye Geopark as the leading power to promote the transformation and upgrading of tourism industry. Six important meetings, such as the municipal tourism development conference, have been held on after another to clarify the objectives and tasks of tourism development of the Geopark, thus forming a clear guidance of building the international tourism brand of Zhangye Geopark and promoting the transformation and upgrading of tourism industry in the whole city. Adhering to the guidance of planning, relevant working groups have elaborately organized and compiled several overall plans, such as the detailed constructive program of Danxia tourist attraction in Zhangye, the plan for the development and construction of the Colorful Hills scenic spot, the building plan of Binggou Danxia scenic area, etc, and the 15 special plans, for example, the construction program of Danxia Folk Culture Tourism Village and the detailed building plan of Danxia Qicai Town. Therefore, a relatively perfect planning system has formed. We will persist in allocating high-quality resources to the Geopark, focusing investment on it, integrating project funds into it and offering preferential policies to it, so as to build a distinctive tourism brand for the Geopark. The tourism development of the park, accordingly, has been strongly promoted and achieved remarkable effect. In 2018, Zhangye Geopark received 2.54 million visitors, an increase of 19.6% over the previous year. Among them, 2.33 million visitors were received in the Colorful Hills scenic area, an increase of 18.1% compared with the same period last year; 210,000 visitors were received in Binggou Danxia scenic spot, an increase of 40% compared with the same period last year. Zhangye Geopark has become the largest and fastest-growing scenic spot in Gansu province and the most influential brand scenic spot on the Gold Tourism Line along the Silk Road.
Innovating Mechanism to Promote the Grand Integration of Resources
We have been accelerating the reform of the operation and management mechanism of scenic spots, and further enhancing the vitality of tourism development in the Geopark. Zhangye Danxia Cultural Tourism Co., Ltd. was established in May 2013, and Zhangye Binggou Danxia Cultural Tourism Development Co., Ltd. was launched in March 2016, implying the tourism development of Zhangye Geopark has entered a new stage featuring market-oriented development from government-led development. In January 2018, the Danxia Grand Scenic Spot Management Committee of Zhangye was set up to implement “unified planning, development, management and protection” to the tourism development of the Geopark, contributing to the separation of ownership, supervision and management rights and a new mechanism for tourism development of the Geopark which is characterized by “the guidance of government, the main body of enterprise and the leadership of market”.
Increasing Investment in Implementing Major Tourism Projects
The implementation of key tourism projects has been accelerated, and 22 major ones have been put into construction one after another, for example, Qicai Town, Danxia Expressway, Danxia Landscape Avenue, Comprehensive Tourist Service Center, Plaza and Ring Main Road, Internal Infrastructure Upgrading and Reconstruction, Hexi Folk Customs Expo Park, Danxia General Airport, Zhangye Geopark Museum, Danxia Folk Culture Tourism Village, Huaxia Peony Culture Tourism Park, Silk Road Cultural Heritage Expo City, Binggou Villa and so on, which have received investment of more than 3 billion yuan. In 2018, 15 key tourism projects were newly built and renewed with an investment of 500 million yuan, including Danxia Photography International Hotel, Integrated Service Area of Scenic Spot at North Entrance, Danxia Rail Transit, Danxia Sea of Flowers, Danxia Qicai Ancient Street and Gaolaozhuang Restoration Project of Hexi Folklore Expo Park, etc. A batch of advantage tourism projects have been selected and reserved to attract foreign investment. A number of well-known enterprises such as Gansu Highway Aviation Tourism Investment Group, Great Wall Film and Television, etc, have landed in Zhangye to develop and construct Geopark cultural tourism projects. We have actively promoted the revolution in tourist toilets and have built and expanded 16 toilets with high standards. Linze county and Sunan county raised more than 40 million yuan in various ways to complete the water and power supply facilities of the Geopark. The park’s tourist reception service facilities have been further improved. The external traffic network of the park has been continuously improved. Danxia Expressway and Landscape Avenue were built to realize the seamless connection of the high-speed railway, G30 Expressway and 312 National Highway with the park, providing a “fast lane” to the scenic spot for both domestic and foreign tourists. Danxia General Airport built in 2016 opened a special tourist line, and further enhanced the accessibility of the Geopark.
Intensifying Promotion to Build a Characteristic Brand
Based on the promotion of the Geopark’s brand effect, we have made every effort to create a national 5A-level tourist attraction and Zhangye Global Geopark. The task of creating the national 5A-level tourist attraction has been completed in an all-round way. In October 2017, the establishment of the national 5A-level tourist attraction passed the preliminary evaluation of the provincial landscape appraisal committee. Then we submitted the final acceptance application to the national landscape appraisal committee. It was in December 2017 that Zhangye National Geopark was designated by the former Ministry of Land and Resources as the declaring unit of the Global Geopark submitted by China to the UNESCO in 2019. On February 21, 2019, the Executive Board of the UNESCO Global Geopark Network confirmed that Zhangye Geopark will be evaluated as the Global Geopark in 2019. The declaration of Zhangye Global Geopark has made crucial breakthroughs, and the core competitiveness of Geopark tourism has been continuously enhanced. The publicity and marketing of Zhangye Geopark have been carried out through a wide range of channels, for example, by organizing brand festivals, putting in advertisements, arranging brand trains, inviting tour groups & businessmen to verify tour routes, and by news media publicity and reporting, going abroad to make presentation, online product marketing and other ways. The popularity and influence of Zhangye Geopark have been significantly enhanced, and the number of visitors to the Geopark has increased by an average of 30% per year since 2015.
Helping Farmers to Increase Income and Building Great Platform for Getting People Rich
Focusing on improving the comprehensive tourism benefits, we have actively motivated the development of new tourism forms and cultural tourism commodities. Specifically speaking, we have developed and launched dynamic delta wings, helicopters, hot balloons, camel team sightseeing, VR experience and other tourism products, built a number of shopping stores such as Gansu Gift Hall, and have developed and sold more than 200 kinds of special cultural tourism commodities, such as colorful agate and so on. Besides, the large-scale literary & artistic program “Hui Dao Zhangye” is about to perform normally at the Danxiakou Tourism and Holiday Town, further enriching the tourism consumption items. Tourism projects suitable for the participation of the masses have also been forcefully developed to guide people to engage in tourism management and services. A total of 330 tourist shops, inns and catering stores have been built in the Geopark with 5,689 reception beds for visitors and more than 4,000 people employed, thus providing a good platform for people to increase their income and get rich.
Pursuing Quality Service to Optimize Development Environment
We always adhere to the development orientation of “quality tourism”, and focus on strengthening the supervision of tourism market by setting up such branch offices as of police stations, industrial and commercial offices, food and drug regulatory offices in scenic spots to implement comprehensive law enforcement and supervision. We have successively selected 12 managers to receive training in well-known scenic spots such as Zhangjiajie, and organized centralized training for practitioners every year to improve the quality of park tourism service in an all-round way. During the National Day in 2016, the Colorful Hills scenic spot was awarded the “Top Ten Tourism Scenic Spots of National Tourism Service Quality” by the former National Tourism Administration. In 2018, the tourism service quality promotion activity “three contests and three promotion” was carried out in depth in the Geopark, and efforts were concentrated on the market order investigation and rectification, and on the establishment of tourist chambers of commerce in scenic spots, so as to create a harmonious and orderly tourism market environment.
Playing the Guiding Role of Education to Drive the Promotion of Civilization
The vigorous development of geotourism has not only promoted the income increase and wealth creation of the people in communities, but also accelerated the improvement of their civilized qualities. In recent years, 48 training courses of various types were held in the Geopark which witnessed the participation of more than 5,000 people in communities and practitioners. The living environment of local residents has also been greatly improved by guiding the community masses to upgrade their village appearances. For example, Nantai village actively carried out the street governance, the transformation of rural toilets and courtyards, the renovation of houses’ facades and the establishment of public service facilities. The road surfaces of the village have been hardened, forming a convenient transportation network among the houses. Besides, the guarding rails were installed on important roads, and characteristic signboards and streetlights can be found on all of the primary streets and secondary roads in the village. Furthermore, the greening rate of the village has been raised to over 80%, and almost every corner there shows green and vitality, including the way to the village, the streets in it, the both sides of river courses, the areas amid farmhouses and so on. Attaching great importance to keeping environment clean with high standards, people in the village clean the streets and clear the garbage every day. Nantai village, accordingly, has successively won the honorary titles of “The Most Beautiful Village for Leisure in China” and “Chinese Model Village for Tourism” etc.
Zhangye Geopark will seize the important opportunity to build a strong tourism province. Focusing on building the “three brands” of global geopark, world natural heritage and national 5A-level scenic spot, as well as the “three bases”of eco-tourism demonstration base, geoscience popularization education and research tourism base, and geological and geomorphological research base, Zhangye Geopark will continuously intensify its development and construction, and strive to make itself play a greater role in leading and supporting the transformation and upgrading of the whole city’s tourism industry. With unremitting efforts, the Geopark is going to receive more than 4 million visitors by 2020.