The 13th Guizhou Development Conference on Tourism will be held in Congjiang county in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture on July 17, with over 450 government officials and guests from home and abroad attending.

Since the Guizhou Development Conference on Tourism was first held in 2006, the annual event has become an important platform for promoting the integration of tourism and other industries.

The focus of the forthcoming conference is to "develop rural tourism in order to further reduce poverty". It will include a tourism promotional meeting, contract signing ceremony, cultural exhibition for rural tourism and investigation of poverty alleviation projects.

According to officials, 21 tourism projects designed to reduce poverty will be signed during the event, with investment totaling 68 billion yuan ($10.2 billion).

Representatives of travel agencies and the media will be arranged to visit three major destinations, including Zhaoxing Dong village in Liping county and Basha Miao and Luanli Dong villages in Congjiang county, to witness the achievements that have been made in rural tourism.

The third Guizhou Development Conference on Tourism, which was also held in Qiandongnan in 2008, successfully presented Xijiang Miao village to the world. The 2008 conference also marked the beginning of a new era in tourism development in the prefecture, an era which saw rapid growth, the improvement of infrastructure, and the introduction of new services which lead to increased involvement among people and industries.

Statistics show that the prefecture has received 224 million tourists since 2016, generating 191.1 billion yuan in revenue and an average annual growth of more than 30 percent.

Since 2017, rural tourism in Qiandongnan has directly offered 21,800 new jobs to local residents. A total of 95,500 rural residents have increased their incomes through working for or operating tourism-related businesses.

Qiandongnan will take this opportunity to boost rural tourism and improve the lives of impoverished residents.

The news conference for the 13th Guizhou Development Conference on Tourism is held in Guiyang on July 10. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Zhao Yandi contributed to this story.