Travel summit gets creative

Speaking about single project investments that could sometimes go up to 10 billion yuan ($1.45 billion) in the past, experts now believe relatively small inputs would turn out to be more effective as long as they identify with the public desire for a better life.

As an example of smaller investments yielding handsome returns, the president of Beijing-based BES Culture & Tourism, Yao Ying, says that the company spent only 400,000 yuan on a four-day carnival in central Henan province's Dawang town recently and managed to rake in 60,000 tourist visits.

Yao says that the company owes its success to local intangible culture.

She says that she believes the culture bit spiced up the visitor experience and helped to showcase a distinctive local culture and folk custom.

Now, the Beijing company has signed up more than 300 intangible culture experts to promote their culture and increase their income.

Explaining the success of her events around the country, Yao says the integration of reed weaving, lotus leaf dyeing, embroidery and tea grinding by the company was very popular among travelers.

At Qikou town, the Beijing company's tweak of putting local history and culture into a QR code managed to draw in 10,000 travelers in three days.

"These travelers could access the information at any time, and there were a set of classes in it," says Yao.

For the future, BES Culture and Tourism will continue to tap into local resources and develop products that meet new travelers' needs.

"We hope that we can turn some idle urban space into a library and a museum for a community in the future," says Yao. "So people can have a space to get down to reading."