In accordance with the report to the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the country should make great efforts to build a beautiful China, promoting green development, development of recycling processes and low-carbon development.

The tourism industry consumes relatively few resources, has a high driving coefficient, and offers many employment opportunities and good economic returns. It is an ideal eco-friendly, low-carbon industry. In recent years, the Hebei Provincial Party Committee and government have attached great importance to the development of the tourism industry. A tourism industry development conference has been held consecutively for three years. The provincial tourism development fund has grown for the past two years, increasing from 20 million yuan ($3.21 million) to 300 million yuan.

According to the provincial tourism bureau, in spite of global economic conditions, tourism resorts in Hebei received 215 million tourists from home and abroad from Jan to Oct this year. Tourism revenue amounted to 139 billion yuan over the period, a year-on-year increase of 31.27 percent.

Hebei Economic Daily interviewed Li Jinlu, director of the Hebei Provincial Tourism Bureau, regarding how to enhance the status of eco-friendly construction, innovate development methods, transform growth mechanisms and promote industry development.

Reporter: Why is the ecological civilization concept so important for building a beautiful Hebei and promoting the rapid development of the tourism industry?

Li: The report to the 18th National Congress of the CPC has pointed out that in the process of building a beautiful China, the whole country should put great importance on respecting nature, complying with nature and protecting the environment. Placing ecological civilization construction in a prominent position is of great significance for the construction of a beautiful Hebei. It will also help speed up the development of tourism in Hebei province.

Besides creating a beautiful Hebei and rapidly increasing green GDP, we need to also improve the quality of life and health level in order to realize ecological, social and economic benefits.

In the process of tourism development, we must follow due process to design, construct and implement major works and environmental protection facilities. Our goal is to protect the ecological environment of scenic spots and maintain the stability and biodiversity of the ecosystem.

Meanwhile, we must strengthen plan guidance, rationally utilize tourism resources, and adhere to high standards. In order to complete the 12th Five-Year Plan for the tourism industry, we compiled the Overall Plan of the Central Capital Green Economy Circle Leisure Base, the Overall Plan of the Coastal Leisure Base, and the Red Tourism Development Plan of Hebei Province (2011—2015). Hebei’s tourism industry is modeled on tourism development in Beijing. The overall plans include tourism development around Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province, and surrounding areas along the Bohai Sea and Taihang Mountain.

Meanwhile, we have made great efforts to guide the planning and compilation work of local scenic spots. A scientific and reasonable system has been formed that not only strongly promotes effective protection and reasonable utilization of all kinds of resources, but also promotes the sustainable development of the tourism industry and the protection of ecological tourism resources.

Reporter: Since the upgrade of scenic spots plays an important role in building a beautiful Hebei, what has been done in this regard?

Li: Our work is based on the protection of the natural environment and the promotion of sustainable tourism development. This embodies the establishment and implementation of the Scientific Outlook on Development theory. We consider environment protection our most important work. In using tourism resources we hope to ensure tourism moves in the right direction. It can help to build a prosperous life, good ecological environment, and realize unification of rapid and sustainable development.

Project construction is important to tourism development. We constructed boutique scenic areas and accelerated the transformation of old scenic spots. We have invested 12 billion yuan last year in improving infrastructure in scenic areas. This year, we focused on comprehensively transforming and upgrading level 4A and above scenic spots. We did on-site inspections of the corresponding scenic spots in Hebei province and issued rectification notices respectively. We have required relative departments to enhance the quality of scenic spots by resolving existing problems in parking lots, visitor centers, toilets, shopping malls, identification signs and management service. To date, 476 rectification projects have been completed.

We accelerated the construction of modern leisure projects with strategic and structural features. In the first three quarters of this year, the industry received investments totaling 34.86 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.2 percent. Total investment now exceeds 700 billion yuan, including 122 projects whose total investment exceeds 1 billion yuan and more than 300 modern leisure projects. A number of key projects have progressed smoothly and many of them have been put into use, such as Tangshan Bay International Tourist Island, Zhengding Ancient City, Beidaihe New Area and Chongli Ski Resort. The tourism industry combines sightseeing, leisure and eco-tourism to significantly enhance development strength and competitiveness.

Reporter: The ‘hardware’ in scenic areas serves as a foundation to build a beautiful Hebei, and Chinese service represents soft power in tourism development. What should be done to enhance tourism management service level?

Li: We are constantly trying to improve tourism management service by promoting people-friendly concepts. We are committed to regulating organizations and management, and establishing and strengthening the dynamic management system for tourism industries and guides. From May to July this year, in terms of tourism legalization and standards, the Provincial People’s Congress organized an inspection of law enforcement following Hebei Province Tourism Regulations. The congress also put forward opinions and suggestions to promote tourism development. These initiatives effectively promote the sustainable development of tourism. We aim at revising the Hebei Tourism Complaint Handling Approach, Measures for the Administration of Tour Guides of Tourist Spots in the Tourist Area of Hebei Province, and formulating many provincial standards, such as the Rural Tourism Service Quality Standards, Grading and Evaluation Standards for Industrial and Agricultural Tourism Demonstration Sites, and Rural Farm Hotel Grading and Assessment Standards. National and provincial tourism standardization demonstration units have also been established following these standards.

In the first half of this year saw effective regulation of the tourism market. There were 244 law enforcement inspections in the tourism market. A total of 1,175 law enforcement personnel were sent out to examine 988 tourism enterprises. A total of 21 travel agencies and four A-level scenic spots were punished for illegal management. Tourism information development has been accelerated, and a travel service hotline (12301) has been put into use. By cooperating with China Unicom, more than 10 tourism information products have been developed, including e-tickets, e-contracts, travel agency tools and text message systems. We also opened the Hebei tourism virtual experience network to attract more tourists. In addition to activities promoting tourism amongst Hebei residents, we also held an online EXPO to advance the construction of “digital scenic areas”.