Guizhou's tourism heat index has consistently ranked among the top three nationwide in Trip.com's monthly monitoring.

When the final figures are in for 2025, it is expected that both tourist arrivals and total tourism spending will have continued to grow, with inbound tourism recording a year-on-year increase of 50 percent, Cai says.

Efforts are underway to diversify tourism offerings and improve quality.

Guizhou is promoting the integration of culture, tourism, sports, specialty liquor, bridge tourism and wellness-oriented long-stay travel, according to local authorities.

Grassroots events such as the Village Super League and Village Basketball Association have drawn massive online attention, with related content having received over 100 billion engagements.

Service capacity and digital tools are being upgraded in parallel.

The province is expanding multilingual guide services, improving cross-border payment services, planning inbound duty-free stores and promoting small-group travel products, Cai says.

Smart tourism platforms such as "One Code Touring Guizhou" and AI-powered tourism services allow visitors to customize itineraries and connect more efficiently with offline service providers, he adds.

The province has also opened 15 international air routes and plans to expand the number to more than 25 during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), with the goal of attracting over 2.5 million inbound visitors annually.

Incentive policies have also been introduced to encourage travel agencies to bring more international tourists to the province, Cai explains.

The online travel agency above-mentioned has observed a systematic upgrade in the province's tourism development.