Next internet celebrity city emerges amid China's cultural tourism boom

In response to the overwhelming popularity, Tianshui has swiftly committed to providing tourists with top-quality hospitality experiences. At the city's train stations, visitors can conveniently board chartered buses that transport them directly to restaurant streets. Meanwhile, many locals have volunteered to offer free rides, picking up tourists from the stations.

To sustain the tourist flow, the city also ramped up efforts to ensure food safety and price control. Recommended tour itineraries catering to the diverse interests of visitors, whether they seek local specialties or cultural sites, have been launched for their convenience.

While drawn in by the delectable cuisine, many travelers are also captivated by the city's rich cultural tourism resources, including the Maijishan Grottoes and the temple of the mythical Chinese ancestor Fuxi.

The travel boom has also yielded benefits for other sectors. Fueled by their love for hot pot, people are also buying special ingredients, such as Gangu chili powder.

According to He Zhibin, general manager of a chili pepper processing company in Tianshui's Gangu county, the sales of chili powder products have soared and attracted attention from many e-commerce hosts.

For Zibo and Harbin, the sustained tourism fervor has unleashed the potential of the consumer market, as well as the demand for high-quality cultural tourism offerings.

In the recently released government work report, fostering new areas of consumption growth including entertainment and tourism is listed as one of the tasks for 2024.

China's domestic tourists made nearly 4.9 billion trips in 2023, with total tourism expenditure nearing 5 trillion yuan (about $694.5 billion), according to Sun Yeli, minister of culture and tourism.

This phenomenal tourism boom wasn't accidental, but rather, to some extent, inevitable, Sun said, noting that to meet people's growing needs, cities across China need to push forward the development of cultural tourism infrastructure, improve service quality, and standardize the market.