A forum was held by the municipal government of Hainan province’s Wenchang city recently to find ways to reorganize its tourism resources, optimize its industrial structure, improve its tourist facilities and services and work out travel packages with local characteristics.

Tourism experts and local officials got together in panels to discuss how to package local delicacies and handicrafts, how to integrate its recreational industry into the tourism industry, how to build the city into a popular destination for tourists from home and abroad and how to develop tourism in the area while at the same time revitalizing its rural areas.

Zhang Lingyun, a researcher from the China Tourism Academy, says rural tourism should offer travelers an opportunity to immerse themselves in a pastoral locale and experience slow-paced rural life.