A bed and breakfast in rural Wenzhou is packed with visitors during the holiday. [Photo/WeChat account: wenzhoufabu]
Wenzhou in East China's Zhejiang province rolled out a series of guidelines on Oct 25 to standardize the bed and breakfast businesses run by overseas Chinese in rural areas, local media outlets reported.
A renowned hometown of overseas Chinese in China, Wenzhou has in recent years seen an increasing number of overseas Chinese returning to set up rural tourism businesses.
Bed and breakfast operations combine local culture and rural tourism resources. Qiaojiale, an integrated brand for bed and breakfast lodges, was created to meet the growing demand for rural tourism among tourists.
According to the guidelines, which are the first of their kind in China, bed and breakfast operations under Qiaojiale must adhere to their respective standards set by the government. There are three levels of operators.
Statistics show that the rural tourism industry in Wenzhou has accommodated 56.37 million visitors and generated a revenue totaling 4.72 billion yuan ($739.62 million) in the first three quarters of this year, a year-on-year increase of 82.5 percent and 89 percent respectively.
