"The Three Gorges Dam Project will bring unprecedented tourist promotion and revenue though some of the famous tourist attractions will have to vanish inevitably," said Liu Deqian, professor at the Institute of Tourism of Beijing Union University and also the vice president of Beijing Tourism Association.

Liu said that over 77 percent of famous scenic spots in the world are around water. But people now find it difficult to enjoy such fine scenery due to shortage of water and water pollution. A 600-kilometer-long man-made lake will appear with the water storage of the Three Gorges reservoir, made up of islands, anabranches, mountains and other places of cultural interest to form a unique resource in China and the world.

Some relative departments estimate that 13 million visitors are expected each year to travel to the Three Gorges at early phases after the project finishes, which will bring 20 billion yuan (US$242 million) revenue annually.

However, Liu is afraid that the figure is a bit too high before the Three Gorges tour is fully developed. Based on the revenue of 2001, only 14 provinces reached over 20 billion yuan (US$242 million) in local tourism. But Hainan, a popular tourist province, merely made a profit of 7.9 billion yuan (US$587) in tourism as all its tourist attractions are confined to a small island.

"Certainly, the goal is not hard to realize if the Three Gorges tour is redesigned and local tourist resources are integrated," Liu said. The new Three Gorges tour can bring over 20 billion yuan (US$242 million) each year if Hubei Province and Chongqing City fully cooperate together.

How to carve up the 20 billion yuan

How do the cities, provinces and tourism-related enterprises make a fortune in the new Three Gorges tour?

Sun Yimin, vice director of Chongqing Tourism Administration, said that Chongqing will provide eco-tours including leisure, physical-training, study and cultural tours on the basis of traditional sightseeing tours. People can enjoy local scenery on the river, along the banks and from the sky.

Liu Deqian pointed out that traditionally people traveled the Three Gorges in a straight line on the river. With the reservoir retaining water, anabranches opening to voyages and residents moving away to live in new places along the Yangtze River, Three Gorges tour is sure to extend to the hinterlands, even up to the world-famous Shennongjia Nature Reserve in Hubei Province and the "Heavenly Pit" and "Earthly slit" in Chongqing.

"The Three Gorges are sure to be golden tourist destinations when Chinese tourism recovers from the infection of SARS. What the local tourism-related departments should do now is to map out their practical strategy and act instantly," Liu said.

Liu pointed out that the hotspot of the Three Gorges tour will not move eastwards although the dam will drag visitors' attention in the early days after the Three Gorges Dam Project finishes. A notion of a pan-Three Gorges tourist zone should be injected in the new tourist blueprint.

Liu suggested that Hubei and Chongqing should draw up such a pan-Three Gorges tourist plan in detail in order to avoid blind development and combat competition.

(China.org.cn by Unisumoon, July 10, 2003)