The business represents a magical new world

I had little understanding of homestays until I went to Taiwan on a one-year student exchange in 2015. I became interested in the industry and was introduced to a magical new world.

In 2016, when I graduated from Henan Normal University, I was lucky enough to meet a designer who was starting a homestay project in Moganshan, a leisure tourism and summer resort in Zhejiang province.

I participated in the construction and decoration of the homestay, which allowed me to learn how to start a project from scratch and the skills needed to run the business.

More than 60 houses of different design styles, including Nordic and Japanese, were constructed on land that lay idle and we also renovated an abandoned factory－we transformed the plant's sewage tank into a swimming pool.

During the reconstruction period, I came to realize that a homestay is not just about building houses or providing accommodations, but also a way of innovating and creating a tourist culture.

I fell in love with the industry at that time.

The following year, I used some savings to open my own homestay in Wuzhen, an ancient water township in Zhejiang.

It was a way of putting what I had learned into practice, broadening my horizons and learning more about the industry.

Later, I returned to Zhengzhou, my hometown, and joined a tourism and culture company as a homestay project planner.

As a result, I have traveled around the country in the past two years. By making full use of the environmental and geographical resources in different villages, including those by lakes, in valleys or by the coast, the company has opened different themed homestays nationwide in recent years.

For example, the homestay in Hainan province is our major seaside project to fill the gaps in the industry during winter.

Although Hainan has outstanding natural views and tourism resources, the quality of service in provincial village homestays is not good enough and the supporting infrastructure, such as expressway gas stations and the catering in villages, also needs to be improved.

I have figured out that the best way to improve the homestay industry and boost village revitalization is to strike a balance between residents, village authorities and investors or developers, such as my company.

Sometimes, it is easy to find a village to transform into a homestay location－the big difficulty is convincing the residents that they will benefit from the business and encourage the authorities to integrate and use idle land.

Usually, when the three parties join hands and reach agreement, a village homestay project is close to becoming a reality.

Feng Yi spoke with Cao Yin.