Guizhou province unveiled the Joint Laboratory of Big Data on Independent Tourism in its capital city of Guiyang on May 24.

At the unveiling ceremony, a report was launched to analyze the current situation and future development of tourism market in five?places of Southwest China's Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Chongqing and Tibet. The report is based on the data provided by the China Tourism Academy and the Chinese travel website Mafengwo.

The report shows that Guizhou's intangible cultural heritage is one of the most popular choices for tourists in 2018. Self-driving, ancient town and delicacies have become hot words in Southwest China.

Most of the tourists to Guizhou come from Beijing, Guangzhou,?capital of Guangdong province?and Shanghai. Tourists from nearby?places including Chongqing, Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province?and Nanning, capital of Guangxi Zhuang?autonomous region?also like travelling to the province.

The report indicates that Libo, Zhenyuan, Xijiang, Anshun, Kaili, Zunyi, Liupanshui, Xingyi and Tongren are top?10 tourist destinations in Guizhou. Among these popular tourist destinations, five-star hotels in Liupanshui city cost tourists 346 yuan ($53.96) a day, which is the lowest average price. While five-star hotels in Guiyang city are the most expensive, with average price of 637 yuan a day.

Data shows that 48 percent tourists choose to visit Guizhou for six days or longer. Guiyang and surrounding attractions are the first choice for 88 percent tourists. They prefer to taste fish in sour soup, siwawa, porridge with glutinous rice cake, changwang noodles and other characteristic delicacies.

Big data and tourism are two new visiting cards for Guizhou. With the help of big data, tourism has become the pillar industry of the province.

Last year, Guizhou received 744 million tourists and 71.17 billion yuan in tourism revenue, with year-on-year growth of 40 percent and 41.6 percent, respectively. It is reported that the tourism income contributed more than 12 percent of the province's GDP.

Tourism in Guizhou rose by 253 percent last year, the highest growth rate in Southwest China, according to the report.

With a history of over 2,000 years, Xijiang Miao village, located in Leishan county, is the largest and most typical Diaojiaolou stockaded village of the Miao ethnic group. [Photo/Xinhua]

Xiaoqikong, which means "bridge with seven little arches", is located in Libo county and renowned as a wonderful summer resort in China. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Zhao Yandi contributed to the story.