Tourism boom

The rising reputation of the wine region started to attract wine fans to discover the once poverty-stricken place with pebbly sand soils that could grow nothing but grapes.

The Gobi desert has been transformed into arable land well suited to the production of wine. Most popular varieties of wine grapes have been planted, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Gernischt and Chardonnay.

According to the research report on online comments about the wine tourism market, which was released during the international wine expo, Ningxia ranks first in the index of online popularity in China.

"Compared with production areas such as Beijing, Shandong and Hebei, Ningxia started much later but developed more rapidly and has higher online attention," said Zhou Lingqiang, dean of the management school of Zhejiang University and chief director of the tourism think tank of the wine region of Ningxia.

"It has the potential to become an online celebrity destination with themed wine characteristics," he noted. "Tourists in Ningxia can have an unforgettable experience from the wine, architecture and shining stars." It took four months to collect nearly 11,500 tourist comments from Diannping.com, an internet company that publishes online views from leisure consumers, and Ctrip.com, a leading online travel agency, to offer wine market development insights and trends in China, Zhou said.

According to the local government, there are 101 wineries established in the wine region along the east foothill of Helan Mountain, of which more than 36 have integrated tourism into their business models.

The wine region of Ningxia was selected as one of the World Top 10 Most Promising Wine Tourism Destinations last Thursday during the international wine expo in Yinchuan.

The other destinations include Chile's Maipo, New Zealand's Wairarapa, Quebec in Canada and Yamanashi in Japan.

"We will promote the integration of wine trade with culture and tourism, encouraging the wineries to diversify their tourism products," said Zhao Shihua, deputy director of the management committee of the wine industrial park at the east foothill of Helan Mountain.

The official figures show that the wineries in Ningxia hosted at least 1 million visitors a year.