Sleepy town gets wake-up call
- Source: Global Times
- [00:58 November 18 2009]
- Comments
Impatient Jiangbei
"All cost and no payoff is not what we are looking for,"Huang Zhengyang, deputy director of the Jiangbei Tourism Bureau, told the Global Times.
"What we have tried to do is to make town residents better off and further develop the tourism industry."
Jiangbei's decision reflects a new yearning for a step change in tourism numbers to boost its weak economy. Some 200,000 tourists visited the town last year, according to the Qianjiang Evening News. The new target with Fenghuang is 600,000 visitors a year in the following three years, 800,000 a year over the next five years and 1.2 million in the eight years after that, according to the outline agreed with Fenghuang.
The economy of Jiangbei district lags far behind the other three districts of Ningbo proper. Cicheng's business turnover was a meager 18 million yuan in 2001. Of 50,000 town residents, 7,210 people are employed, according to the Ningbo Daily.
The town of Cicheng was once famous for its intellectual talent, with more than 500 scholars in its history. But today, 85 percent of residents are unemployed, according to the recent national census.
"Cicheng's problem is there's no real business in town,"said Dai Songyue, one of the editors of Cicheng, Typical Example of an Ancient Chinese Town. "Most of the population are senior citizens."
Dai said he could "sort-of understand their decision-making”. "A local official staying in the same position for about two or three years with no achievements to his name will probably become very impatient."
The catalyst for accelerated development came with completion of the Hangzhou Bay Bridge last year: the southern end connects with the Shenhai Freeway leading to Cicheng, meaning millions of potential visitors.
On May 29, Jiangbei district government released Observation on Accelerating the Development of Leisure and Tourism Industry requiring that by 2012, the total number of tourists coming to Jiangbei increase to more than 50 million a year and revenue hit 5 billion yuan, a more-than-15 percent share of the total district GDP.
"The Jiangbei district has only one tourism attraction,"said Shao Lina, "that is Cicheng, and it is their last and only trump card."
"Fenghuang's commercial development was successful, but one size doesn't fit all,"said Li Huamin, dean of the Tourism and Hotel Management Research Center at the Institute of Technology in Ningbo.
