Recently, International Mountain Tourism Alliance (IMTA) held its 2025 Special Training Workshop in Guiyang, bringing together IMTA members, industry representatives, heads of tourism destinations, and international partners from across the country. Taking this opportunity, IMTA organized an exchange meeting, providing representatives from participating institutions with an interactive platform to share practical experiences and discuss new development opportunities.
At the exchange meeting, Sun Xiaofeng, President of Guangdong Vessel Culture & Tourism Development Co., Ltd., Gao Fan, New Media Promotion Head of Guizhou Jiye Culture and Tourism Development Co., Ltd., Ren Tao, Deputy General Manager of Yinju Xiangli (Secluded Countryside), and Xu Chuanlong, Deputy Director of the Culture and Tourism Bureau of the Wudang Mountain Special Tourism and Economic Zone in Shiyan City, Hubei Province, shared practical experiences and innovative ideas on mountain tourism development. Their discussions covered areas such as upgrading mobile accommodation products, the resource monetization logic of "scenario + content + communication," using B&Bs to leverage county economies, and regional cultural and tourism linkage.
Sun Xiaofeng, President of Guangdong Vessel Culture & Tourism Development Co., Ltd., introduced how innovative accommodation products like "space capsules" can reshape the value of mountain lodging, using the theme of "disruptive innovation." He pointed out that true innovation is not just a breakthrough in product form but also a reconstruction of value logic. Vessel has achieved a transformation from a "construction technology company" to an "enterprise with MCN attributes" by using premium pricing to drive local ecological win-win scenarios, embracing intelligent scenarios through technological iteration, and building its own traffic system globally.
Sun Xiaofeng, President of Guangdong Vessel Culture & Tourism Development Co., Ltd
Gao Fan, New Media Promotion Head of Guizhou Jiye Culture and Tourism Development Co., Ltd., focused on "Mountain Tourism IP Building and Resource Monetization." He shared how local projects in Guizhou create tourism IPs with breakout appeal through a three-part formula: "ultimate experience plus ultimate communication + ultimate monetization." Using projects like Hou'er Tiankeng Hole (Monkey Ear Sinkhole)and Forest Cool Park as examples, he emphasized that "the scene is the IP, the activity is the traffic," and noted that mountain tourism should achieve breakthroughs through small entry points, using visualized and storified scenarios to enable organic communication and sustainable monetization.
Gao Fan, New Media Promotion Head of Guizhou Jiye Culture and Tourism Development Co., Ltd.
Xu Chuanlong, Deputy Director of the Culture and Tourism Bureau of the Wudang Mountain Special Tourism and Economic Zone in Shiyan City, Hubei Province, systematically shared the practice of mountain tourism development under Hubei's "Shen Wu Xia" strategy (encompassing Shennongjia, Wudang Mountain, Enshi Grand Canyon, and the Yangtze River Three Gorges). By focusing on core resources, linking areas for integrated development, addressing transportation bottlenecks, and building cultural IPs, the southwestern Hubei region has successfully transformed ecological disadvantages into development advantages, forming a multi-core driven tourism landscape including Wudang Mountain,Shennongjia, Enshi Grand Canyon, and the Yangtze River Three Gorges. This provides valuable reference for the regional collaborative development of mountain tourism.
Xu Chuanlong, Deputy Director of the Culture and Tourism Bureau of the Wudang Mountain Special Tourism and Economic Zone in Shiyan City, Hubei Province
Ren Tao, Deputy General Manager of Yinju Xiangli, elaborated from the perspective of B&B operation on how the model of "government investment, enterprise operation, village collective benefit" can use B&Bs as an entry point to drive the cultural and tourism development of an entire village or even an entire county. Using examples like the "Kasasa" B&B in Mabian, Sichuan, and the B&B cluster in Liuba, Shaanxi, he explained that B&Bs are not just accommodation products but comprehensive carriers that integrate local culture, drive employment and entrepreneurship, and promote agricultural product sales. They represent an important pathway for achieving the symbiotic prosperity of mountain tourism and rural revitalization.
Ren Tao, Deputy General Manager of Yinju Xiangli
The training and discussion content was substantial, with vivid case studies. Participants unanimously agreed that mountain tourism is shifting from resource dependence to innovation-driven development and from sightseeing consumption to experiential deepening. In the future, efforts should further strengthen product innovation, brand building, traffic operation, and ecological protection to promote higher quality and more sustainable development of mountain tourism.
Image and text source: IMTA
Editor Ⅰ: Zhang Congxiao
Editor Ⅱ: Bao Gang
Editor Ⅲ: Liu Guosong
