Visitors stroll past a guesthouse in Zhujiagou Village, Gansu Province, on March 17

Do you want to enjoy a real country life? If so, try bed and breakfast accommodation in rural areas, which has become trendy especially among young people. Bookings for family inns during the May Day holiday from May 1 to 5 set a new record, a 113-percent increase over 2019, with young people aged 25–35 accounting for more than half, according to a report released by booking platform Tujia.com.

With the epidemic situation currently under control in China, the recent holidays have stimulated the growth of this sector, which is especially preferred by people who cherish privacy and health. Since the beginning of the year, central and local governments have gradually released policies to provide a framework for the sector's healthy and long-term development.

Industry regulations

Under the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-range Objectives Through the Year 2035 approved at the Two Sessions in March, rural tourism is to be strengthened, including the family inn sector, with the aim of attracting city dwellers to the countryside. Standards are being established for the sector. The State Council issued a directive in April to ease market access and encourage rapid standardization of the sector. In line with this, provinces such as Hainan, Anhui and Hunan have issued guidelines that specify the maximum number of rooms per building, minimum area and other details. In addition, a national standard on service quality was published last December, the first for this field.

On Chongming Island, part of the Shanghai municipality, guesthouses now have a quality label from the local government. These very specific standards are the first of their kind in China and include such criteria as the amount of green space, quality of the materials used, air quality and noise control. Other initiatives have also been taken in accordance with the situation on the ground, such as the creation of an association of guesthouses and the recommendation of measures to be taken in case customers encounter problems.

These policies are due to the resilience of the family inn industry to the pandemic. According to a report by the China Association of Tourism and Guesthouse Development (ACTDMH), the number of rooms grew by 91 percent year on year in 2020. On the Tujia platform, 5.7 million bookings were made in 2020, resulting in a profit of more than 1.7 billion yuan ($0.26 billion) for the rural owners, tripling from 2019. In addition, the sector plays a key role in the development of villages.

Nevertheless, despite the boom in the sector, problems have emerged at the same time, such as too much homogenization and a variance in quality levels. "Family inns in rural areas need to forge their brands and focus on their own characteristics in order to sustain the business," said Hou Xueqiang, owner of Youyuan Yihou family inn, who has witnessed the flourishing of the sector over the past two years. The ACTDMH report also noted that standardization and professionalization would be the keys to further development.

More lively villages

Supporting the development of rural accommodation sector helps to diversify the sources of income of the local population. At the same time, it curbs the rural-urban migration because locals can finally have similar jobs in the villages that they would look for in towns. Moreover, this flourishing sector is creating the opposite trend - people working in towns moving back to the rural areas, Fu Yifu, Director of the financial research center of the Suning Institute of Finance, told Securities Daily.

Mountain villages in the suburbs of Jiyuan in Henan Province have long suffered from the consequences of rural-urban migration. For the past two years, thanks to local government planning and business participation, farmhouses have been rebuilt and converted into family inns. Despite the short-term impact of the pandemic, accommodations near the Wangwu Mountain tourist site are able to host many urban visitors during weekends or holidays. By investing in the industry, the local people's incomes have improved both directly and indirectly. Each resident can earn about 1,000 yuan ($155) from the rent every year. In addition, services such as house cleaning, house building or participation in traditional performances (to promote local culture) can earn each person about 20,000 yuan ($3,110) per year.

How to make villages more vibrant? The first task is to increase the population of the villages. "The bed and breakfast sector is attracting more and more people looking for professional or even personal retraining, which motivates migrant workers to return to their home villages," explained Yan Yanlei, founder of the cultural and tourism company Sumiao, adding that the sector contributes enormously to the development of villages and is a gas pedal for the revitalization of rural areas.

Qu Ting, 25, left her job as a nurse in the city to return to her home village of Baiyanxia in Zhejiang Province to run her own guesthouse. Together with her father, they sold their house in the city and borrowed money to invest about 4 million yuan ($620,000 million) to build a guesthouse in the Song Dynasty architectural style. They followed management and marketing tutorials on the Internet. Qu even learned the art of preparing flower bouquets. Their eight guest rooms are very popular. "Rural revitalization needs young people who are more active and open-minded," she said. The fact that her village is focusing on tourism gives her an opportunity to become an entrepreneur. She said that many young people are opting to return to their hometowns, including her younger brother, who will join her next year.

This promising sector is attracting more and more investment. According to Ji Xiaoxiang, owner of Dale Zhiye Guest House, the next decade will be the golden age of the industry's development. Standardized hotel accommodation and non-standardized accommodation, such as the bed and breakfast, guesthouse, take up 50 percent of the market overseas, while in China guesthouses only have less than 5 percent market share. "We need to stay the course to grab the remaining 45-percent share," he said confidently. 

(Print Edition Title: Feeling at Home) 

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