New | Destination China: Tourism properties mushroom nationwide as developers keen to cash in domestic travel boom
Projects like a resort in Xishuangbanna are seen as way to cash in on consumption-driven growth
in the deadlocked traffic clogging up Chinese highways during public holidays, developers see potential gold mines waiting to be exploited. Tourism properties are now emerging as their playground of choice to share in China's consumption-driven growth.
In a blueprint by China's State Council, domestic tourism will be an industry of 5.5 trillion yuan (HK$6.7 trillion) by 2020, up from three trillion yuan last year. Such potential boosted the number of tourism property projects to 7,965 last year, from 5,299 in 2013 and 2,259 in 2012.
"Tourism is hot and investment is sprouting," said Liu Feng of Beijing-based Davost Intelligence, which provides services for such projects. "The trend is spreading from southern China, such as Hainan and Yunnan provinces, to southwestern, eastern and northern China regions."
Dalian Wanda Group, controlled by billionaire Wang Jianlin, is the most ambitious, aiming to overtake Disneyland as the world's biggest theme park operator by 2020.
It opened a 15-billion yuan, 5.3 sq km resort in Xishuangbanna in Yunnan province last month, which consists of a theme park, a theatre, a shopping mall, hotels, apartments and villas. It is a new town built from scratch that outshines the old city of Jinghong, part of the prefecture with a million residents.
In Xishuangbanna's rain forests, clear skies, unique Dai culture and increasing government investment in roads and railways to connect it with the rest of China as well as Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar, developers see a chance to copy here their success in another tropical city - Sanya, in Hainan province.
