Three Ministries Issue Guidance to Optimize Natural Resource Allocation for Regulated Tourism Growth

Key points

• The Ministry of Natural Resources, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and National Forestry and Grassland Administration jointly issued guidance with incremental policies on spatial layout, land-use control, land supply models, revitalizing inefficient land, and service supervision.
• Spatial needs for 15th Five-Year Plan tourism development will be integrated into the national territorial spatial planning 'one map' to support coordinated scientific site selection.
• Land for scattered public facility outlets such as gas stations, service areas, and stations far from towns may be sited as independent urban construction land outside urban development boundaries.
• Small scattered tourism supporting facilities such as tourism management rooms, eco-tourism toilets, elevated walkways, and boardwalks, as well as simple RV campsites without hardened surfaces, may be managed under their original land category and included in the 'one map' for supervision.
• The guidance encourages using existing space for tourism; land rights holders using existing buildings for cultural and tourism reception facilities may retain the original land use and rights type.
• It strictly prohibits using tourism projects as a pretext to change land status or planning use for villas, private manors, real estate, golf courses, theme parks, and imitation ancient towns.