Wanda Cultural Tourism City in Hefei, capital of East China's Anhui province, hosted a summit on cultural tourism investment on Nov 24. Four panelists attended the summit and shared their insights on cultural tourism investment.

Rui Chenggang, business anchor at China Central Television (CCTV), and Liu Ge, business commentator at CCTV, joined Xiong Chengyu, professor at Tsinghua University, and Peng Wangqin, general manager of Hefei Wanda Cultural Tourism City Investment Company, for the panel discussion.

Liu Ge pointed out that cultural tourism projects are booming recently, representing China's new trend of real estate development in the next 10 years. He also predicted that the development of the cultural tourism industry may follow an extraordinarily speedy path.

Xiong Chengyu said that content, technology, capital and service are four key elements to the cultural industry. Originality, differentiation, exclusivity and uniqueness are the industry's main features. Noticeably, the city of Hefei has abundant natural and cultural resources. More importantly, it's crucial to find unique ways to develop cultural tourism. He also said that Wanda Cultural Tourism City's aim to bring a new kind of lifestyle echoed Hefei's desire for creativity.

Rui Chenggang expressed his hope for the city - a clean, unique, happy and safe city from a native Hefei perspective.

Peng Wangqin, general manager of Hefei Wanda Cultural Tourism City Investment Company, said that Wanda Cultural Tourism City may bring 20 million tourists to the city upon its completion, which will strongly stimulate Hefei's economic development. Integrating Chinese culture with the local character is a key to success for all Wanda Cultural Tourism Cities. In the case of Hefei, the city will construct 81 km of greenway in 2013. The Binhu Reservoir is the largest of its kind in China. Peng encouraged people to travel to Hefei.

Hefei Wanda Cultural Tourism City has a total investment of over 30 billion yuan ($4.9 billion), of which 19 billion yuan will go towards cultural tourism. According to the plan, the project will be completed in 2016 and is expected to receive 20 million people every year with a maximum daily capacity of 100,000 people. Wanda Cultural Tourism City will serve as a leading brand to promote the development of cultural tourism in Hefei. The project plan contains five aspects -- culture, tourism, commerce, hotels and Binhu Bar Street. It will become a tourist paradise by 2016.

Panel disucssion

By Huang Pei

Edited by Michael Thai