With solid achievements made in its heavy industry, Liuzhou in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region is poised to integrate tourism to boost high-quality and innovative development of its local economy.

The city's development direction is in line with the autonomous region's general development plan, which is to develop innovative industrial tourism.

"Guangxi will innovate and develop industrial tourism and create a new 'business card' for Guangxi tourism," said Gan Lin, director of the Tourism Development Commission of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

A city well-known for its heavy industry, Liuzhou has become an important industrial powerhouse in western China and one of the largest industrial bases in Guangxi during the past six decades.

The city is also taking the lead in the transformation of industrial cities through tourism. By the end of 2020, the city is expected to have a total of 42 national 4A-level tourist attractions, according to the local government.

The culture and art innovation park, established at the former site of an air compressor plant in Liuzhou, is one of the city's key cultural tourism construction projects. It was developed according to the standard of national 4A-class scenic spots.

With a total investment of 1.1 billion yuan ($166.46 million), the innovation park will have a building area covering 210,000 square meters and is expected to be completed by 2022.

Inheriting the industrial atmosphere of the old air compressor plant, the cultural and art innovation park will integrate art production, leisure tourism, animation film and television with art training, becoming a new benchmark for Guangxi's cultural and creative industries and a state-level cultural industrial park, local officials said.

The park will effectively serve residents within five kilometers and communities within 23 km, becoming a new commercial and leisure center.

With a raft of its enterprises' plants rated as national 4A-level tourist attractions, Liuzhou has ramped up its efforts to deepen the integration of industry and tourism.

Among the 4A-level plants is the production base of Baojun, a brand of SAIC-GM-Wuling, a GM joint venture with SAIC and Guangxi Automobile Group.

Based on the diversified needs of visiting groups, the production base has developed six routes across the plant, with themes including automobile workshop visiting, automobile research and development and laboratory visiting, autonomous-driving experiencing and test driving.

The Liuzhou government has long valued the development of the local tourism industry. Its latest move to shore up local tourism happened at the 2020 Guangxi Cultural Tourism Development Conference from Nov 4-6.

According to the local government, Liuzhou signed 29 tourism projects at the conference, with a total investment of 80.45 billion yuan.

Looking ahead, the city will develop high-quality tourism from multiple perspectives, including industry, culture and environment. The city will also work on highlighting the local culture of the Miao and Dong ethnic groups.

In addition, Liuzhou will establish pilot areas for the integrated development of its cultural tourism industry. By doing so, it hopes to innovate and reform its policies to improve its public services and brand marketing.