By this past September, Shanxi province had an incredible 228 tourism projects under construction, and worth 120.1 billion yuan ($19.62 billion), even during an economic slowdown. The investment is mainly used for upgrading scenic spots and developing tourism products.
Shanxi's economic transformation has been slowed down in the past by its coal industry, but even the comparatively weak tourism business has an obvious impact on provincial economic growth, reaching 22 billion yuan, in 2012, compared with 18.52 billion yuan in 2011. The tourism projects are gradually moving from small, disperse projects to larger, more integrated ones with more capital. In the first 10 months of 2012, it had a total of 183.15 billion yuan in tourist projects, with the average running 718 million yuan per project, compared to 510 million, in 2011.
Private capital is still the major source of investment, accounting for 55.62 percent. Confronted with growing tourist demands, Shanxi is emphasizing infrastructure and services. Last year, it had 99 projects with at least 100 million yuan, for a total of 25.9 billion yuan, and 18 involving more than 1 billion yuan, for 51.67 billion yuan in all.
Edited by Roger Bradshaw
