Private Capital Pours into Tourism In East China

Millionaires in the private sector are rushing to pour money into the tourism market in east China's Zhejiang Province.

Tourism has long been "monopolized" by state-owned businesses the government in the past in China. As the market economy gathers pace in the country, the provincial government adopted flexible policies to stimulate tourism.

Songcheng Group, a private enterprise based in Hangzhou, started to build theme parks in 1995 and has completed construction of the Town of Song Dynasty(960-1279), Hangzhou Amusement Park, American City, Mountaineers' in Hangzhou, capital of the province, and Xiaoshan, near Hangzhou.

These parks receive a total of 4 million tourists each year and Songcheng Group, with current assets reaching 1.5 billion yuan (US$181 million), has become China's largest private investor in tourism.

Besides the Songcheng Group, a number of other private enterprises in Zhejiang also invest millions of yuan to exploit local tourism resources.

The enterprises are no longer satisfied with being a partner of joint ventures. They wish to be independent developers, and venture to input huge money to expand its scale.

Wanxiang Group decided this autumn to invest 800 million yuan (about 96 million US dollars) to develop Qiandao Lake, a local unpolluted lake featuring its beautiful scenery and pure water.

The more aggressive China Guangsha Group spent 8 billion yuan (about 960 million US dollars) to build Tiandu Town in the east of Hangzhou, which covers an area of 6500 mu (433 hectares) and will soon be the largest recreation center for holidays and travel in the country, according to a source.

The private economy has accounted for two-thirds of the province's total economy. As China witnesses a tourism market in fast expansion, private tourism enterprises take advantage of its flexible mechanism, alert to grasp chances and vigorous management to engage in tourism. They not only get profuse economic rewards, but also help to make the market bigger and better, said Zhou Shaoxiong, an expert of Hangzhou Normal University.



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