Tourism city

LIJIANG – On a Thursday night in this southwestern Chinese city, the Old Town is packed with tourists. “Old” is about 800 years old; the enclave is a patch of ancient China that is so well preserved it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in December 1997.

More foreign tourists have since flocked to the Old Town to see its cobbled alleys, waterways and bridges, which are lined with houses of wood and stone rendered in the traditional architecture of the Naxi tribe, the dominant ethnic group in this city.

The houses have been turned into restaurants, bars with live music, and of course souvenir shops. City officials are trying to expand the area, turning newer enclaves into “old” to accommodate the influx of tourists.

The English of the average shopkeeper is acutely limited and sometimes non-existent. Foreign visitors could end up paying 10 times the price for tourist kitsch that can be found at “everything-10-yuan” stores elsewhere.

But preying on foreign tourist shoppers is common around the world. Visitors generally can enjoy a safe stay in Lijiang, and city officials want to make it safer.

“We will try out best to end all criminal activities,” Wang Junzheng told journalists here.

He also vowed equal protection and application of the law for foreigners and locals alike.

Wang is the communist party secretary in Lijiang. His press conference was a real one, with a lengthy Q&A that was made longer by the use of interpreters.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) has given marching orders down the line to make tourism a priority in its new thrust of green and sustainable national development. Local officials like Wang carry out the policies and implementing guidelines laid down by the provincial government.

The CPC measures the success of such policies in terms of each area’s annual GDP as well as per capita income of urban dwellers and farmers.

CPC members and other officials have a powerful incentive to achieve the objectives: their positions, their promotions – their lives – depend on it.

Even if the same barometers were applied in the Philippines, there is little impetus for local government officials, whose cooperation is crucial for boosting tourism, to achieve success in this endeavor or even set growth targets. The only punishment for politicians for their constituents’ low per capita income is at the polls, and there are many ways of winning votes that don’t require the heavy lifting needed in tourism development.

Neither will you hear the typical Pinoy politician saying (and meaning it), like Wang, that in promoting tourism, “our first task is to improve people’s lives.”

But then China has a different system. In the Philippines, the national government still has the biggest role to play in boosting tourism, especially in upgrading infrastructure. The national government can also dangle rewards and other incentives to local officials for tourism development.

They can take some tips from Lijiang, which is positioning itself to become, in Wang’s words, a “world-class tourism city,” with emphasis on its unique characteristics.

What is Lijiang doing to achieve this?

The city, Wang said, is expanding its road and railway networks. He noted that the start of railway service between Kunming and Lijiang in October 2009 brought more tourists to this city.

And of course a world-class tourism city needs a world-class international airport. Wang said the “extensive phase” of the modernization of the city’s domestic airport has been completed after three years. Expansion work is ongoing to convert the airport into an international gateway. The city also wants to build a second airport near another popular tourist spot.

The blueprint for Lijiang’s tourism development was provided by the Yunnan provincial government, which is also providing the funding for the projects. This is unlike in China’s showcases Beijing and Shanghai, where the national government bankrolled development projects, allowing Shanghai to build the ultramodern new district of Pudong.

Yunnan officials are the first to admit that there’s a lot of work ahead. The facilities in their top tourist spots can be similar to ours. Public lavatories are filthy and most have squat toilets.

But the international community is taking notice. Some 600,000 foreigners visited Lijiang last year – a hefty chunk of the 3.29 million total for the entire province of Yunnan. The figure is in addition to 850,000 local tourists in Lijiang or over 137 million for all of Yunnan.

Tourism receipts should prod Philippine officials to make this industry a priority: from those 2010 tourist arrivals, Lijiang earned 11.8 billion yuan (over $1.82 billion). Yunnan’s total tourism receipts amounted to $1.32 billion from foreigners and 91.68 billion yuan (about $14.15 billion) from local visitors. For 2011, Lijiang is targeting 700,000 foreign tourists.

Visitors come here to see the diverse tribal cultures. China, with a history dating back several millennia, knows the value of preserving its historical and cultural heritage. There are several “old cities” across the country, and ancient trees, several of them estimated to be over 1,000 years old, are tourist attractions. When a Magnitude 7 earthquake damaged Lijiang in 1996, China received World Bank aid for restoration of the Old City.

The international community is seeing even greater tourism potential here. Wang held his press conference at the Pullman Lijiang Resort and Spa. The five-star hotel, operated by the Accor Group which also runs the Sofitel chain, opened here only in April.

With the Yulong Snow Mountain as its backdrop, the luxury 130-room hotel features villas designed in traditional Naxi style with modern amenities. The villas have a private courtyard, some of them with pools, and a living room connected by a hallway to the spacious bedroom.

Anthony Myers, the hotel’s Australian general manager who arrived in Lijiang 10 months ago, said recruitment for the hotel was a problem because of the typical local applicant’s poor English proficiency. But he said this is a common problem in many other countries.

The opening of the luxury hotel is a vote of confidence in the sustainable growth of Lijiang’s tourism market. Pullman Resort is pricey. When a place can attract the kind of clientele that can afford such accommodations, and see the business thrive, it has become a world-class tourism city.