Industry leaders convene in Rizhao for 10th Homestay Conference

Around 600 people from the homestay industry, including experts, scholars, homestay operators and suppliers, gathered for the 10th National Homestay Conference in Rizhao, a coastal city of Shandong province, on Wednesday to discuss promoting the industry's high-quality development.

"Homestays serve as a robust engine supporting the implementation of rural vitalization," Li Zaiwu, Party secretary of Rizhao, said at the conference's opening ceremony.

He said Rizhao is constructing a comprehensive system encompassing policy support, infrastructure facilities and talent cultivation to nurture new quality productive forces within the homestay industry.

Rizhao now has roughly 2,600 high-quality homestays with more than 36,000 beds available. From January to September, the city's homestays accommodated 1.96 million visits.