Festival that rotates between Yichang and Chongqing every year encourages environmental protection and boosts interest in landmark attractions
Guests at the 10th China Yangtze River Three Gorges International Tourism Festival had the chance to learn about its host city, Yichang, noted for hydroelectric resources and its culture and tourism.
The festival, held in Central China's Hubei province from Sept 6-12, attracted guests from 18 countries and regions, including several from Fortune Global 500 enterprises. Highlights of the event were public performances, tourism marketing campaigns, a piano music festival, a citrus festival and trade activities.
Among the highlights were an international trade resource matching event and an investment negotiation activity, where 19 foreign-funded companies from countries such as the United States, Germany, France and South Korea signed deals worth $393 million with Yichang.
The Three Gorges, which stretches from Chongqing to Yichang in Hubei province along the Yangtze River, is a popular tourism attraction. Wang Weidong / For China Daily
Other noted companies, including Beijing-based China Shipbuilding Industry and Shenzhen-based Baoneng Investment, signed 40 projects with the city. The total investment value surpassed 34.56 billion yuan ($4.86 billion).
The piano music festival comprised six concerts performed by renowned pianists from China and abroad, seminars attended by overseas returnees and performances on campus.
The citrus festival held in Yiling district welcomed tourists and local residents to enjoy folk performances and pick oranges.
The Yangtze River Three Gorges tourism festival is co-hosted by the Hubei provincial and Chongqing municipal governments and the two regions have taken turns to organize it for 10 years.
This year's Hubei-Chongqing rotating chairman conference held on Sept 9 discussed further cooperation in protecting the Yangtze River and promoting joint tourism development.
The Three Gorges starts from Baidicheng, a tourist destination in Chongqing's Fengjie county and ends at the Nanjin Pass in Yichang.
In recent years, Hubei and Chongqing have sought more cooperation and shared resources to drive tourism development along the gorges.
Statistics showed the Yangtze River Three Gorges region received about 330 million visits in 2018, generating 274.8 billion yuan in tourism revenue.
Before 2010, Hubei province had held its own event themed "Three Gorges International Tourism" for more than a decade. It was the same case with Chongqing.
Insiders said the Three Gorges resources were marketed separately and it was hard to build the image of Three Gorges tourism.
With the support of the then national tourism administration, the two regions signed a cooperation agreement in May 2009, which proposed a rotation system. They agreed to join hands to launch diverse promotion activities for the gorges and improve its tourism image.
The first step for the cooperation was the rotation of holding the event and the "Yangtze River Three Gorges International Tourism Festival" brand was created.
The first festival was held in the People's Great Hall of Chongqing in April 2010. The four-day event comprised several performances and domestic trade fairs. It attracted more than 10,000 participants.
During the festival, Hubei and Chongqing signed a memorandum on regional tourism. Both parties agreed to develop the Three Gorges region into a tourism area. Their efforts included stronger brand marketing, making incentive policies and improving joint law enforcement.
Hubei and Chongqing discussed major issues at the event, such as furthering regional tourism cooperation around the Three Gorges and adjusting tourism services and the industrial structure.
When Yichang held the festival in 2011, more than 300 performers put on a dragon dance, waving a 260-meter Chinese dragon-shaped prop at the foot of the Three Gorges Dam. The spectacle amazed the audience, local media reported.
In 2013, the tourism festival was held concurrently with an international folk arts festival and a piano music festival. Since then, it has evolved into a gala involving tourism, arts, folk customs and food.
In 2015, Yichang received warm wishes from 13 other cities, including Zhangjiajie and Yueyang in Hunan province and Jingzhou and Jingmen in Hubei.
In 2017, more than 100 renowned artists took a cruise in the Three Gorges region before the festival's opening ceremony. They called for increased protection of the Yangtze River and Three Gorges.
That year's festival held its opening ceremony in a scenic area named "Tribe of the Three Gorges". Performances against the backdrop of mountains and rivers fascinated spectators and enabled them to learn about local culture.
