Guizhou goes all out to build 'China's Hot Spring Province'

Osmanthus Hot Spring in Andi Town, Jinsha County. According to information from the province’s hot spring work conference, our province will go all out to build the “China Hot Spring Province,” implementing supply-side structural reforms in the tourism industry to address the winter tourism短板短板 (shortcomings), promote the healthy and rapid development of the hot spring industry, and sustain the explosive growth of tourism.

In recent years, hot spring tourism has increasingly become a new consumption hotspot and growth point for tourism development, with the number of hot spring tourists nationwide growing over 20% annually. Our province boasts abundant hot spring resources. Last year, a comprehensive survey of the province’s tourism resources registered 264 hot spring (geothermal) resource sites, distributed across 72 counties (districts), including 77 high-quality resources rich in various trace elements beneficial for health and wellness. In recent years, hot spring industry chains in Guiyang, Tongren, Qiandongnan, and other areas have begun to take shape, with business models such as hot springs + complexes, conferences, and ethnic culture emerging. Xifeng Hot Spring, Jianhe Hot Spring, and Shiqian Hot Spring have gained a certain market reputation and are favored by tourists.

It is reported that our province will start from a strategic height and international perspective, target domestic first-class standards, broadly absorb successful experiences from around the world, formulate scientific development plans, focus on creating high-quality hot spring tourism products, and greatly enhance the quality, taste, and brand of hot spring tourism to avoid the pitfalls of homogenization and low-end development during rapid growth.

Our province will promote the integrated development of the “Hot Spring+” model across multiple industries. We will vigorously cultivate hot spring culture, learn from the advanced experiences of hot spring industries at home and abroad—such as those in Japan, Finland, France, as well as Guangdong, Fujian, and Yunnan—and integrate ecological resources and ethnic cultural resources to develop hot spring resort products and formats with distinct themes, unique features, comprehensive functions, and strong appeal. At the same time, we will strengthen industrial linkages, fully leveraging the strong comprehensiveness, driving force, and wide radiation of the hot spring industry to promote interactive development with modern service industries like cultural creativity, film and entertainment, business conferences, exhibitions, landscape real estate, and convalescent care. We will also integrate it with agriculture and agricultural product processing, sports, culture, and health sectors, cultivating a number of “Hot Spring+” industrial clusters. In particular, the development of the hot spring industry will be closely integrated with our province’s ethnic medicine to highlight Guizhou’s uniqueness in the international hot spring field and form a distinctive competitive edge.