Better Tourism, Better Life, Better World project shows cases of Poverty Alleviation through tourism in China. Project includes a documentary series and a photo exhibition.
Mount Xuefeng in Hunan Province, China
Spanning across four cities and ten countries, Mount Xuefeng in Hunan Province used to be known as a “natural barrier”. The villages scattered deep in the mountains have an impoverished population accounting for more than 40% of the province’s total, thus Mount Xuefeng became a main battlefield of poverty alleviation in the province.
Hunan Xuefengshan Ecological and Cultural Tourism Co., Ltd. took the initiative to work with the local government with a scheme to integrate tourism which poverty alleviation in Mount Xuefeng so as to utilize the area’s rich tourism resources for poverty alleviation. Relying on the natural resources, focusing on the impoverished village and aiming to develop eco-tourism and achieve common prosperity, the work was carried on for five years with investments over one billion RMB.
As a result, three national-level 3A scenic areas namely: Huayao Shanbei Terraces, Yangquepo Village and Dahuyao scenic area at Tiger Mountain, Longhul County, have been established, and so have a 4A scenic area-Chuanyan Mountain Forest Park, and two national-level recuperation and poverty alleviation through tourism demo bases. These areas have attracted thousands of tourists, and benefited nearly 100,000 people in the area plus more than 35,000 people from 31 impoverished villages in four towns, whose annual per capita income has reached 10,288 RMB. The poverty reduction rate in the scenic zone is 100%.
