Using rural tourism in Inner Mongolia to overcome poverty

(chinadaily.com.cn)

Updated: 2016-03-25

The tourist administration of Inner Mongolia reports that it is using rural tourism as an approach to poverty alleviation and, in recent years, it got active in trying out a "Tourism plus poverty alleviation" model and making tourism poverty alleviation one of 10 projects for developing the region, with clear results.

Last year, the tourist administration Bureau joined the poverty relief office in a pastoral area tourism promotion and conference on poverty alleviation, to allocate work and organization of a pilot project and the same year it helped 32,000 people overcome poverty through rural tourism. The region now has 447 villages that have developed rural tourism to help get jobs for 150,000 people, 100,000 of them living in poverty.

The region says it will continue its rural tourism poverty alleviation project in the following ways: first, develop featured tourism villages that are rich in tourism resources; second, improve tourism quality with hacienda-style farms, and pasture lands around A-level scenic spots; third, improve infrastructure in areas with ethnic groups through ethnic cultural tourism; fourth, create a special tour route for family tours, especially in winter; and, fifth, help herdsmen get out of poverty and become better off through tourism projects and cooperatives.

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