Longyan’s rich natural and cultural tourism resources inspired the establishment of Longyan Tourism Makers Workshop in 2016.

Set up in a renovated old storage facility, the maker workshop is Fujian’s only tourism-centered maker space and the only maker space listed on the Qianhai Equity Exchange in Shenzhen.

It not only focuses on local tourism resources, but also those in neighboring Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces, according to Chen Songling, its chief executive officer.

The maker space covers different stages of the growth of a start-up project, according to another official, Chen Chunmei. For teams at a later stage of development, they help them with product commercialization to realize sustainable development.

The maker space is now helping a team focusing on creative tourism commodities to negotiate with venture capital firms.

The team, led by Longyan native Su Shikui, who returned home to start his own business in 2016, has developed a Red Army-themed instant meal product, inspired by Longyan’s profound “red culture”—the region was a revolutionary base and one of the places from which the Red Army started its famous Long March.

Made from locally produced red rice, the instant meal can be heated by adding water to the pulverized lime kept within the package. It caters to campers and travellers.

Su expects the product to enter the market by the end of year with the maker space facilitating the publicity and marketing works.

Chen Chunmei, an official of Longyan Tourism Makers Workshop, introduces a Red Army-themed instant meal product, which was developed by one of the start-up teams at the tourism maker space. [Photo/Xinhua]