Vinegar products are displayed at a rural vinegar culture sightseeing zone in Shizuishan, Ningxia Hui autonomous region. [Photo/China Daily]
Apart from selling products and experiences to visitors, Majiawan is also benefiting from overseas business. Lirong Biotechnology Co Ltd is a local company specializing in producing dried vegetables. Their products mainly include local specialties, such as dried spinach, celery, leeks, tomatoes and olives.
Sun Lirong, chairman of Lirong Biotech, said: "We started exporting dried vegetables to the United States, Europe and Japan twenty years ago. Ningxia experiences little rainfall and has a large temperature difference between day and night, which makes it ideal for the production of vegetables. Specifically, owing to challenges brought by the pandemic and geopolitical conflict, the market potential for dried vegetables is huge. People are showing increasing demand for instant vegetables, with an estimated market of $3.5 billion globally every year. Our company contributes $70 million to this market annually."
As part of Majiawan's experience-based industrial tourism, Lirong Biotech has established a science popularization education base, where youngsters pay visits and learn about how to turn vegetable seeds into packaged dried vegetables.
"Differing from traditional tourism, experience-based industrial tourism focuses on offering visitors unique hands-on experiences. During visits, they get to know how crops grow, children learn to identify various types of vegetables, and everyone learns about the process of making dried foodstuffs," Sun said.
After tasting the sweetness of roses, the fragrance of vinegar, as well as the flavors of dried vegetables, visitors to Majiawan may then visit local farmhouses, where hospitable owners invite visitors to their gardens to pick organic fruits and vegetables.
Afterward, visitors may choose to spend a night or two in farmhouses and enjoy homemade meals like roast mutton kebabs. The nature-centric fun makes them forget about the hustle and bustle of urban life.
Market insiders said that experience-based tourism is a new sector that combines features from agricultural, industrial and service economies. It provides tourists with participatory and experiential activities to immerse them in their rural adventure.
With the booming of experience-based businesses, tourists increasingly seek more diversified and memorable activities, and there is increasing demand for such experiences. Consumers are no longer satisfied with popular tourism products, but are more eager to pursue personalized, experiential, emotional, leisurely and beautified tourism experiences, experts said.
Wu Gangliang, a researcher at the China Enterprise Reform and Development Society in Beijing, said: "Experience-based industrial tourism, combining industry and tourism, improves consumers' sense of experience, enhances brand image, and builds a whole industrial chain. It is an effective way of promoting rural vitalization."
In 2021, the total income of Majiawan village surpassed 20 million yuan. Experience-based industrial tourism has become a "magic solution" for the village's economic development.
Liu Cui, deputy head of the culture, tourism, radio and television bureau of Huinong district, Shizuishan, said: "Taking advantage of regional culture and local intangible heritage, Majiawan has experienced rapid economic development in recent years. Currently, average annual incomes of villagers stand at around 15,000 yuan, among which 5,000 yuan is generated from the local tourism industry. This new-type tourism enhances tourists' sense of experience, protects and passes on traditional Chinese culture, effectively stimulates the vitality of Majiawan and improves the popularity of the village's tourism culture.
"In the next step, we will further take advantage of local resources and the ecological environment to explore the connotation of rural culture, and bring more rural tourism products with diverse forms and distinctive features to visitors."