In praise of the golden pheasant

"The high-quality development of tourism and intangible cultural heritage come in two dimensions. When the two are integrated and gain momentum, you get what we see in Danzhai: continuous growth in economic output, and a steady increase in social contributions."

The original intention of holding China Danzhai Intangible Heritage Week and China Intangible Heritage and Tourism Integrated Development Forum was to further clarify the idea of integrated development of intangible heritage and tourism so as to promote a deeper and higher level of development.

No doubt with the help of its rich intangible cultural heritage assets, Danzhai has emerged as a tourist attraction. In just four years Danzhai Wanda Town has received more than 20 million tourists and according to official figures by May 12 the number of visitors to Danzhai had risen by 3 percent year-on-year compared with 2019.

Tourism income rose 46 percent over a year in 2019, individual tourists accounting for 79 percent of that spending. Overnight tourists and per capita consumption have risen significantly. During the May 1 Golden Week this year, per capita sales rose 51 percent compared with the same period in 2019.

Luo Shugang cited an example of turning intangible cultural heritage into tourist souvenirs, a common practice in many countries. But intangible cultural heritage products are not just tourist souvenirs, he said. They must be sublimated into tourist souvenirs through innovation.

"This kind of innovation should be realized through interaction with tourists."

The Guizhou Statistics Bureau says that in the period 2016-2020 Guizhou Qiandongnan prefecture received 483 million tourist visits and tourism income of 420 billion yuan, of which intangible cultural heritage tourism accounted for more than half. The prefecture also vigorously supports the construction of intangible cultural heritage projects such as poverty alleviation employment workshops.

Since 2018 more than 20 million yuan has been invested, focusing on supporting the workshops to carry out research and development design, skills training, brand cultivation and publicity and promotion, and the move has helped 12,333 people of 5,620 households to be lifted out of poverty.