The China Tourism Academy released the 2024 Report on the Tourism Development of Chinese Ancient Towns on June 21. Fenghuang Ancient Town in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture and Furong Town Scenic Area in Yongshun County were included in the top ten of the 2024 tourism development comprehensive index lists.   

Picturesque Fenghuang Ancient Town.

According to the analysis report of the tourism development index of Chinese ancient towns, Fenghuang Ancient Town and Furong Town Scenic Area have shown outstanding performance in terms of trending index, passenger flow index, and tourist satisfaction index.

The spatial distribution of trending index of ancient towns in China presents an obvious "core-periphery" structure: the south of the lower reaches of the Yangze River is the first-level core hotspot area; Shanxi and the border areas of Hunan, Guizhou, and Chongqing constitute the second-level core hotspot area; and, the northwest Yunnan is the third-level core hotspot area. Among them, Fenghuang Ancient Town ranked second in the top 10 Chinese ancient towns in terms of trending index.

Ancient towns with high tourism satisfaction are mainly distributed in the border areas of the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and Sichuan, Chongqing, Hunan, and Guizhou. Among them, Furong Town Scenic Area ranked sixth and eighth respectively in the top ten ancient towns in term of passenger flow index and tourist satisfaction index. These indices showed that Fenghuang Ancient Town and Furong Town are favored by tourists, and the cultural tourism markets there continue to be thriving.

Furong Town—an ancient town hanging on the waterfall.

In recent years, Xiangxi's ancient towns have tapped into local cultural, historical, and tourism resources, providing tourists with a unique and immersive experience and personalized products and satisfying their diversified needs, so as to meet tourists' dual requirements for historical and cultural experience and modern amenities.

The data for this selection has been obtained from various reliable sources, including the data monitoring and collection system of the China Tourism Academy (Data Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism), the questionnaire survey results of tourism big data platforms, and other related data from Baidu, Ctrip, Mafengwo, and Qunar. The data collection period for this analysis ranges from October 2023 to March 2024.