China encourages development of industrial tourism

WUHAN — China is encouraging industrial tourism, with plans to build 100 such tourism bases on the national level by 2020.

The National Tourism Administration has unveiled a roadmap for the development of the sector for the next three years. It has appointed 20 enterprises as state-level tourism bases, covering a wide range of industries, including wine-making, alcohol, dairy products and cosmetics.

At a national industrial tourism conference that began Tuesday in central China's Hubei province, the administration also issued a standard that regulates industrial tourism.

China hopes to attract 240 million visitors annually in industrial tourism, with an annual revenue goal of more than 30 billion yuan ($4.5 billion) for 2020.

Last year, industrial tourism sites received 140 million tourists, bringing in revenue of 21.3 billion yuan.