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E-mail Beijing Review, April 10, 2018
Tourism 3.0
Tourism has long been Hainan's most important pillar industry thanks to its fine coastline and clean environment. Featuring an ocean-related entertainment tourism model represented by coastal sightseeing, the years between 1988 and 2000 are known as the island's Era of Blue Tourism, or Hainan Tourism 1.0.
In this phase, Hainan's biggest attraction was its blue ocean and white beaches. "Visiting the beach in the daytime and sleeping early in the evening was the typical tourism schedule in Hainan," Dai Guofu, General Manager of the Sanya Rice Park, told Beijing Review.
In 1996 more visitors made their way to the tropical island and in January of that year the First China Leisure Tourism Year was launched at Yalong Bay in Sanya, Hainan's southernmost coastal city. Later, China's first five-star hotel opened at the location. By the end of 2000, a total of 10 million tourists had visited Hainan, generating a total income of 7.9 billion yuan ($1.26 billion).
However, lack of diversified products impeded Hainan's tourism industry and resulted in imbalanced development between coastal and inland cities. In an effort to provide a wider range of attractions, the virgin rainforests, rice fields and traditional villages were put onto the tourist map at the end of the 1990s.
Hainan, as of 2000, was the first province in China to develop agro-tourism. The following decade is regarded as the Era of Blue Plus Green Tourism, or Hainan Tourism 2.0.
According to the local government's eco-friendly urbanization policy, no trees were cut, no farmland requisitioned and no cottages demolished in the urbanization process.
Wentoupo Village in east Hainan's Qionghai City is a prime example. The once out-of-the-way village became a destination for experiencing rural life thanks to the opening of a farm stay resort in 2014. The resort has created over two dozen jobs in the small village, helping residents double their income in three years.
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