The 2024 China Homestay Mulan Homestay Cultural Season was unveiled on Saturday in Wuhan City, capital of central China's Hubei Province, gathering over 500 representatives from the tourism and culture departments across the country and the homestay industry.

In recent years, Huangpi District in Wuhan has prioritized homestay development and saw mushrooming high-end homestays aligning with catering, transportation and suburban tourism, shaping clusters of cross-sectoral management.
The current promotion event has presented boutique homestay cases which incorporated unique local culture and traditions, and provided tourists with trendy, stylish and diverse customized services.
"The homestay industry effectively combines tourism with rural revitalization. The aim of this event is to promote local homestay culture and tourist attractions, thereby helping farmers and rural areas get richer," said Wang Yuejin, general manager of the event's organizer Yangguang Media Group Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China Media Group (CMG).
The event also serves as an important platform for people in the homestay industry to exchange ideas and learn from each other.
"Homestay services have been highly popular among tourists since their appearance in Mulan Grassland Area in 2021. Even today, tourists can only make reservations half a month in advance. So we have full confidence in the homestay development here," said Lu Ming, a homestay owner in Huangpi.
"Nowadays, traveling goes beyond just visiting popular tourist attractions. People travel also for relaxation. Our Huangpi District has seized this transition opportunity. The homestay industry is a major carrier of this shift. To date, over 10,000 people are engaged in this industry, reaping over one billion yuan (about 140 million U.S. dollars) in revenue. It's fair to say that the development of homestays has revitalized fast growth of the tourism sector as a whole," said Xiang Zhengkun, director of culture and tourism bureau of Huangpi District.