Development Situation and Countermeasures of Leisure Agriculture and Rural Tourism in Huizhou

Junhong ZHONG, Xiulian LIN, Xiaoling WANG, Lihua YANG

1. Huizhou Engineering Vocational College, Huizhou 516023, China; 2. Huizhou Tongqiao Town Agriculture and Rural Office, Huizhou 516023, China

Abstract In this paper, the development status, advantages (such as superior natural conditions, rich subtropical agricultural resources, and excellent location conditions) and existing problems (such as insufficient safeguard, homogeneous competition and lack of features) of leisure agriculture and rural tourism in Huizhou City were analyzed, and then some suggestions and countermeasures for the development of leisure agriculture and rural tourism in Huizhou were put forward.

Key words Leisure agriculture and rural tourism, Development status, Countermeasures

1 Introduction

In 2016, the No. 1 document of the Central Committee clearly put forward the "vigorous development of leisure agriculture and rural tourism" for the first time, and the 19thNational Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed the "rural revitalization strategy", in which it is required to accelerate the integration of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas, broaden the channels for farmers to increase their income, and improve the quality of life of farmers. The development of leisure agriculture plays an important role in promoting the improvement of agricultural quality and efficiency, driving farmers’ employment and increase in income, inheriting Chinese farming civilization, building beautiful countryside, and promoting the integrated development of urban and rural areas.

In recent years, leisure agriculture and rural tourism have grown in multiple demands, and have transformed into a complex type of sightseeing, leisure and vacation, which has spawned the development of products and projects such as characteristic homestays, night tours, cultural experiences, and themed research. Meanwhile, leisure agriculture and rural tourism have also expanded from a point and a village in the past into an area and a characteristic tourism belt, and rural towns and ditch economy have developed rapidly. According to statistics from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China, from January to August in 2020, the total number of rural tourists in the country was 1.207 billion, and the total income was 592.5 billion yuan; the operating rate reached 94.5%. The above data shows that leisure agriculture and rural tourism have become an effective way for tourism to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages. From 2019 to 2021, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the National Development and Reform Commission selected a total of 100 key towns (townships) for rural tourism and 1 199 key villages for rural tourism in the country. In Huizhou, only Zhongpingwei Village in Nankunshan Ecological Tourism Zone in Longmen County and Zhoutian Village in Qiuchang Street in Huiyang were on the list. Obviously, according to the selection criteria, it can be seen from the data released above that there is still a gap between Huizhou rural tourism and the national key tourism villages, and the hardware facilities and tourism management level of the villages need to be improved, but there is still much to be done. In this paper, the development status, advantages, problems and countermeasures of leisure agriculture and rural tourism in Huizhou were analyzed through investigation.

2 Development status of leisure agriculture and rural tourism in Huizhou

2.1 Improvement of quantity and qualityIn recent years, various types of tourist villages, farmhouses, agricultural parks and other leisure agricultural entities have emerged in Huizhou City and become emerging industries for employment, entrepreneurship, and agricultural transformation and upgrading, thereby solving some rural employment problems, increasing farmers’ income, and achieving the effect of improving quantity and qualitity and increasing income.

2.2 Scientific planningFocusing on characteristic industries such as vegetables, flowers, fruit trees, animal husbandry, fishery,etc., Huizhou City scientifically plans leisure and sightseeing agricultural parks, and closely integrates production demonstration, popular science education, sightseeing tourism and beautiful rural construction to gradually realize the organic integration of modern agriculture and modern service industry, ecological sightseeing agriculture and leisure tourism industry. At present, the provincial industrial parks that have been formed are distributed in various districts and counties, such as silk seedling rice in Huicheng, southern medicine in Boluo, vegetables and potatoes in Huidong,etc.These industrial clusters in Huizhou have been incorporated into the 14thFive-Year Plan, forming a layout of "mainboard linkage and multi-point radiation".

2.3 Brand cultivationTo upgrade the existing leisure agriculture industry, Huizhou City has achieved remarkable results by establishing and cultivating brands by demonstration. At present, Zhongpingwei Village in Nankunshan Ecological Tourism Zone of Longmen County is a national key tourism village. Shiba Town of Huizhou, Haina Modern Agricultural Ecological Park in Guangdong, Xiangshui Sandunshu Leisure Resort Manor in Boluo County, and Xiangxibao Tourism Development and Investment Co., Ltd. in Longmen County were selected as provincial demonstration towns and points for leisure agriculture and rural tourism. Huizhou has built a number of agricultural parks, pastoral complexes, and industrial parks. In 2020, the top ten rural tourist attractions in Huizhou were selected, and 11 red tourist routes were created. Meanwhile, relying on the existing resource advantages of towns and villages, focusing on characteristic fruits, vegetables, tea, southern medicine, flowers and edible fungi in Lingnan, a number of agricultural ecological gardens and leisure agricultural bases have emerged.

2.4 Cultural miningHuizhou has unique Hakka culture and red culture, all of which reflect Huizhou’s past features, and they are valuable resources for cultural tourism[4-5]. In recent years, Huizhou has also paid attention to playing "cultural cards" in the development of leisure agriculture, such as the ancient village of Moyuan, the old revolutionary area of Gaotan, and the terraced fields of Jiaofeng in Huidong.

2.5 Marketing diversityIn recent years, Huizhou has carried out publicity through agricultural expositions, farmers’ harvest festivals and related agricultural festivals every year. Especially during the new crown epidemic, the agricultural systems of various counties and cities combine the "Lychee Festival" and "Pomelo Festival" to conduct marketing through live broadcasts. Relevant agricultural parks have also launched websites, WeChat public accounts, APP, and community group purchases, and have acquired more tourists and won the market through online sales.

3 Development advantages of leisure agriculture and rural tourism in Huizhou

3.1 Superior natural conditions and rich subtropical agricultural resourcesHuizhou City is located in the subtropical region and has a subtropical marine monsoon climate. The climate is mild and rainy, and it is suitable for the growth of various tropical and subtropical plants. The subtropical plants in Huizhou are rich and diverse, including Nankun Mountain, Luofu Mountain, Xiangtou Mountain,etc.It has rich plant resources, good agricultural foundation, and abundant land resources, so it has great advantages in resource development. Meanwhile, Huizhou is rich in tourism resources, integrating mountains, seas, rivers, lakes and springs. In addition, natural landscapes such as mountains, islands, hot springs, and waterfalls are of high grade; there are many types of cultural relics, historical sites and tourist attractions. At present, Huizhou tourism has formed a functional area of leisure agriculture with the theme of characteristic horticultural crops, historical and cultural celebrities, farming culture, ancient villages, new rural construction sightseeing belts, coastal sightseeing, and Dongjiang cuisine. It has the honors of one of the top ten health cities, beautiful landscape cities, top ten green cities, top ten livable cities, and national all-for-one tourism demonstration area creation units in the country. These natural resources have laid a solid foundation for the diversified development of leisure agriculture in Huizhou.

3.2 Excellent location conditionsHuizhou is located in the southeast of Guangdong Province, facing the South China Sea in the south, being adjacent to Hong Kong and Shenzhen, bordering Guangzhou and Dongguan in the west, and connecting Shaoguan and Heyuan in the north and Shanwei in the east. It is an important node city in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. After years of construction, Huizhou’s transportation and other infrastructure has made gratifying achievements. It has a three-dimensional transportation network of sea, land and air extending in all directions. At present, the construction of the "豐" shape character transportation network is accelerating, and Huizhou will speed up to become a hub and gateway city in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area connecting eastern Guangdong, Fujian and Jiangxi.

3.3 Favorable national policiesThe full implementation of the rural revitalization strategy will accelerate the cultivation of new driving forces for agricultural and rural development, accelerate the modernization of agricultural and rural areas, provide talent support for the development of leisure agriculture and rural tourism, and inject new vitality and momentum into Huizhou’s leisure agriculture and rural tourism. Meanwhile, the concept of low-carbon life and sustainable development is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and it also provides favorable conditions for the development of leisure agriculture and rural tourism.

4 Problems in the development of leisure agriculture and rural tourism in Huizhou

4.1 Insufficient safeguardLeisure agriculture is a new type of business, and the government’s investment in it is less, but it requires more funds for land use and infrastructure conditions, resulting in insufficient development potential. Moreover, the construction of roads, water conservancy, power supply, and communication facilities around farms is not in place, and safeguard, traffic signs, health emergency and other supporting facilities should be improved.

4.2 Homogeneous competition and lack of featuresThe core of leisure agriculture and rural tourism is "villages and agriculture". Currently, most rural tourism spots in Huizhou are generally faced with the phenomenon of single business format and homogeneous products, and some even have homogeneous village construction and greening tree species. At the same time, seen from the current layout, there is a lack of in-depth research on customer needs, and the repetition of tourism projects is too high. The theme of activities in many parks is generally "picking-dinner" mode, lacking creativity and characteristics. Especially in terms of brand cultivation, their respective brand characteristics have not been formed, and development advantages need to be explored.

4.3 Weak service quality and awarenessThe development of leisure agriculture in Huizhou is generally in the stage of small scale, large number and scattered distribution. The employees are mainly families or surrounding farmers, lacking training, and their service quality and service awareness are relatively weak.

5 Countermeasures for the development of leisure agriculture and rural tourism in Huizhou

5.1 Strengthening government guidance and increasing policy and financial supportThe development of leisure agriculture in Huizhou is inseparable from the support and guidance of the municipal government. In view of the current small and scattered development scale, the municipal government should strengthen guidance, integrate relevant agricultural resources, forestry resources and landscape resources in various counties and districts, develop famous scenic spots, and drive the improvement of public facilities such as transportation, accommodation, food and so on. The industrial parks, pastoral complexes, and agricultural parks built in Huizhou in recent years radiate leisure agriculture and rural tourism in various counties and districts, and the primary, secondary and tertiary industries are deeply integrated. For example, Dongfangshu Rose Garden, which is as an agricultural park, strengthens the support platform for scientific and technological services to conduct the refined processing of rose essential oil, thereby driving radiation. Each county or district has its own focus, which meets the different needs of tourists and avoids unnecessary competition. Meanwhile, the support of industrial policy should be increased, and certain preferential policies should be given to credit, taxation, land and so on to create a good policy environment for the development of leisure agriculture and rural tourism.

5.2 Deeply excavating Huizhou’s characteristic culture and achieving high-quality developmentHuizhou has a profound cultural heritage, and agricultural culture, which is the inner context that supports the development of leisure agriculture, can be excavated deeper. After a long period of development, Huizhou has its own unique agricultural culture, such as Su Dongpo and lychees, peasant paintings in Longmen, tea culture, special flowers and vegetables, and the intangible culture of "Thousand Chicken Feast", which can be promoted and disseminated through cultural tourism festivals, cultural demonstration bases, cultural complexes,etc.Besides, Huizhou has rich red culture, and the promotion of red culture is our inheritance and innovation of the spirit of revolutionary martyrs and our spiritual road sign. The organic combination of rural tourism and red culture promotes rural revitalization while inheriting and innovating the red spirit. For instance, a leisure trip to Huidong Red Ecological Ancient Village (Bawei Red Village-Huangsiyang Guwei Village-Hengjiang Village-Baipen Lake National Water Conservancy and Ecological Scenic Spot-Shunyi Dongfang Baipen Lake Hot Spring Resort) combines red culture with rural tourism well, effectively driving the locals to become rich.

5.3 Promoting the organic integration of primary, secondary and tertiary industries based on agricultureLeisure agriculture and rural tourism are new industrial forms that integrate secondary and tertiary industries based on agriculture, having the attributes of production, life and ecology. In the process of the development, the organic integration of primary, secondary and tertiary industries needs to be strengthened. On the basis of providing characteristic agricultural projects, it is needed to create supporting services such as special diet, picking, farming experience, popular science exploration, agricultural product processing experience, and accommodation. At present, the counties and districts in Huizhou have initially formed their own characteristic agricultural industry forms, and they can use their geographical advantages to provide accommodation services. It is necessary to strengthen the conservation of the material and intangible cultural heritage in each county and district, and give full play to its economic, social and ecological benefits.

5.4 Paying attention to publicity and improving serviceEffective publicity is an important means to expand the influence and popularity of leisure agriculture. It is needed to use the Internet, TV, radio and other media to promote leisure agriculture in Huizhou, increase publicity efforts, expand publicity, and carry out various activities. For example, "Futian Cabbage Festival", "Lianghua Plum Garden Tour", "Lychee and Longan Tasting", "Tea Fight", "Rice Field Experience Tour" and so on can be held. In addition, it is necessary to strengthen cooperation with travel agencies and major APPs such as Huizhou Preferred, Lianlian Surrounding Tour, Villa Vacation,etc., well integrate rural resources, and activate surrounding related industries. In combination with national policies, a group of high-quality farmers who have mastered the knowledge of modern agricultural science and technology and have new thinking and new perspectives of modern agriculture should be cultivated. Strict on-the-job training of employees should be carried out to improve their service awareness and level and provide tourists with comfortable service experience.

6 Conclusions

Leisure agriculture and rural tourism are important ways for rural development and farmers to get rich. In recent years, leisure agriculture and rural tourism in Huizhou have developed rapidly under the strong support and guidance of the government. Relying on its own rich agricultural resources and natural environment resources, Huizhou develops various forms of leisure tourism projects such as agricultural parks, farmhouses, ecological farms,agricultural industrial parks, and pastoral complexes, and continues to innovate. It has driven the integrated development of primary, secondary and tertiary industries, increased farmers’ income to a large extent, and effectively promoted rural revitalization and the construction of beautiful rural areas. The rapid development has also brought many problems, such as the homogeneity of project construction and the lack of characteristics. In response to these problems, Huizhou City should rationally plan related industries in its future development, strengthen guidance through policy formulation, dig deeply into characteristic resources, integrate local folk customs and environmental characteristics, integrate with rural construction, conduct scientific planning, highlight industrial development, and create competitive advantage projects[1-12].