On January 20, the 2026 Provincial Meeting for Directors of Culture and Tourism Bureaus was held in Chengdu. The meeting summarized the province's cultural and tourism work in 2025 and throughout the 14th Five-Year Plan period, analyzed and studied the situation and development strategies for the upcoming 15th Five-Year Plan period, deployed key tasks for 2026, and officially released the "Top Ten Events in Sichuan's Culture and Tourism for 2025".

The year 2025 marked the final year of the 14th Five-Year Plan and a pivotal year for formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan. Crucially, it proved to be a landmark year for Sichuan's cultural and tourism development: the provincial Party committee, for the first time, convened a plenary session dedicated to advancing the deep integration of culture and tourism, providing high-level strategic guidance and meticulously charting a grand vision for the sector's future.

This year witnessed the refreshed "Sichuan Ease" brand break through and rise to top-tier prominence. Artistic blossoms are in full bloom, with Sichuan-style Guochao (Chinese fashion trend) reaching peak popularity. Cultural and tourism industrial clusters formed interconnected ecosystems, unleashing a powerful, cross-sectoral surge of dynamism. Global visitors flocked to Sichuan, propelling related spending to reach new heights consecutively.

This year was marked by a succession of highlights and substantial outcomes, steadily accumulating momentum and building the capacity necessary for establishing Sichuan as a cultural and tourism powerhouse. This advancement delivers robust support for high-quality development.

Province-wide Efforts in Full Swing, Fueling a Unified Drive to Prioritize, Actively Advance, and Revitalize the Culture and Tourism Sector

In 2025, the Decision of the CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee on Advancing the Deep Integration of Culture and Tourism and Developing a Stronger Cultural and Tourism Industry was issued. The document proposes building the "Sichuan Ease" cultural and tourism brand, accompanied by a package of supportive policies. This has generated province-wide efforts to prioritize, actively advance, and revitalize the culture and tourism sector.

Amidst surging momentum and immense public enthusiasm, the "Sichuan Ease" cultural and tourism brand logo was showcased on landmark screens across multiple countries, amassing a cumulative online exposure of over five billion impressions. The province launched a "1+10+N" culture-tourism consumption brand matrix, featuring initiatives like "Sichuan: A Must-Visit for the Young" and "Panda Partners", thereby establishing a multi-layered and distinctly characteristic cultural and tourism brand system.

Sichuan's cultural landscape shone with frequent highlights and landmark events throughout the year. The Sichuan-produced animated film "Ne Zha 2" repeatedly set new box office records. Sichuan and Chongqing jointly hosted the 14th China Arts Festival. The Sichuan Opera "A Dream Reunion with Dongpo" and the song "Jade Plate" were awarded the Wenhua Award. The performance singing piece "Family Tree" and three other works (teams) received the Qunxing Award, marking the best historical achievement for the region. The Mengxihe Site was selected as one of China's top ten archaeological discoveries for 2024. The 9th International Festival of Intangible Cultural Heritage, Chengdu, China, set new records for both on-site transaction volume and IP licensing contract value. The Sichuan Provincial Regulations on the Protection and Utilization of Ancient Books was promulgated, marking the nation's first local regulation specifically dedicated to this field.

High-level planning has established the strategic direction, while coordinated mobilization across the entire region has consolidated synergistic efforts. An official from the Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Culture, Broadcast-TV, and Tourism reported that in 2025, major cultural events were successfully held, such as the 9th International Festival of Intangible Cultural Heritage, Chengdu, China, the 12th China Internet Audio &Video Convention, and the 15th Chinese Golden Bell Award for Music. Throughout the year, 71 major cultural and tourism projects were signed, with agreed investment exceeding 26.2 billion yuan. Twelve cultural and tourism industrial parks have developed through clustering, with the "Establishing and Fulfilling Parks" initiative recognized as a national exemplary case. All these accomplishments have collectively driven an enhancement in quality and a broadening in scope for integrated cultural and tourism consumption.

An official from the Liangshan Prefecture Bureau of Culture, Broadcast-TV, and Tourism reported that over the past year, Liangshan innovatively launched specialized products such as red tourism study tours, hot spring wellness, folk custom experiences, and mountain skiing. The prefecture actively fostered emerging sectors, including low-altitude tourism and aerospace-themed cultural tourism. The entire prefecture received over 80.57 million tourist visits, representing a year-on-year increase of more than 25 percent.

Propelled by Powerful Momentum, Sichuan's Cultural and Tourism Sector Now Ranks Among the Nation's Leaders in Both Scale and Quality

In recent years, Sichuan has consistently transformed its resource advantages into development strengths. Today, the province's cultural and tourism industry has firmly secured the top position in scale and quality in western China and ranks among the nation's leaders.

The cultural and tourism industry is a key component of the province's "15+N" core industrial chains. Sichuan in 2025 earnestly advanced its action plan for building industrial ecosystems and strengthening the chain in the cultural and tourism sector. Measures include identifying ten key focus areas, launching 11 cross-regional flagship projects with significant catalytic potential, and cultivating the first batch of 30 new scenarios for integrated cultural and tourism development, thereby injecting fresh vitality into the sector's growth.

Strengthening the industrial chain, pooling energy for growth, fostering cluster development, and enhancing both quality and efficiency. Over the past year, Chengdu's Tiantai Mountain was successfully elevated to a national 5A-class tourist attraction. Yibin's Bodao and Xichang's Tangyuan were recognized as national-level tourism and leisure districts. Jikaiyi Village in Danba County, Ganzi Prefecture, was designated by the United Nations World Tourism Organization as a "Best Tourism Village". This ongoing expansion in the provision of high-caliber cultural and tourism offerings has persisted throughout the period. The 2025 Sichuan Provincial Cultural and Tourism Development Conference and the 11th China (Sichuan) International Tourism Investment Conference were successfully convened. On-site, 114 projects were signed with a total contract value reaching 56.796 billion yuan, underscoring the robust attractiveness and investment potential of Sichuan's cultural and tourism sector. Statistics indicate that in the first three quarters of 2025, the province had 3,150 cultural enterprises above the designated size, achieving operating revenue of 425.39 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 8.9 percent.

World-class cultural and tourism landmarks continued to enhance their attractiveness. An official from the Deyang Municipal Bureau of Culture, Broadcast-TV, and Tourism reported that over the past year, the construction of the Sanxingdui Cultural Tourism Development Zone was initiated. Activities such as the 2025 Sanxingdui Forum and the Flame-Lighting and Torch Relay Launch Ceremony for The World Games 2025 were successfully held. Sanxingdui has continued to polish its "golden brand". The Sanxingdui Museum welcomed over six million tourist visits in the past year, with sales of its cultural and creative products surpassing 200 million yuan.

The "Sichuan Spark" initiative in Sichuan's performance industry activated a wide range of related sectors. For the first time, large-scale performances with audiences of ten thousand or more were held across 16 cities (prefectures), making "Traveling Sichuan Following the Performances" a new engine for cultural and tourism consumption.

An official from the Suining Municipal Bureau of Culture, Broadcast-TV, Sports, and Tourism reported that in 2025, Suining innovatively established an integrated development ecosystem centered on "performances and sporting events plus". The city successfully hosted 73 major performances and sporting events, attracting over ten million tourist visits. A film and television service system was established, achieving deep integration between performances, sporting events, and tourism. This effectively transformed the audience flow from these events into additional consumption, driving a total of 1.42 billion yuan in comprehensive annual spending and significantly enhancing the city's IP influence.

Blending Tangible Infrastructure with Intangible Service to Let Visitors Experience Sichuan's "Leisurely" Essence in Every Detail

To achieve genuine strength, Sichuan's cultural and tourism industry must excel not only in physical infrastructure but also, and critically, in the quality of its services and experiences. In 2025, the province pursued a "dual-track approach" to enhance both the tangible facilities and intangible services within the cultural and tourism sector. Initiatives included formulating a specialized plan for the high-quality development of tourism public services, convening a provincial conference on scenic area development, actively implementing the foundational enhancement and renewal action for tourist attractions, carrying out "age-friendly" upgrades at such sites, constructing or renovating over 300 tourist restrooms, and completing construction for eight plateau tourism service station pilots. Jiuzhaigou Scenic Area, praised as the "service benchmark for scenic spots", has frequently trended online for its high-quality service.

Efforts have been dedicated to ensuring more people experience the vibrancy and warmth of cultural and tourism development. Over the past year, Sichuan hosted national demonstration showcase activities, such as "village spring festival gala in four seasons" and "village songs in four seasons", and also organized public cultural events like the "Tianfu Public Stage", benefiting over 60 million people. Additionally, the province rolled out more than 3,500 consumption-stimulating campaigns, featuring initiatives like the "Sichuan Ease, Explore Tianfu" cultural and tourism consumption season.

Sichuan has consistently carried out special campaigns to strictly rectify irregularities in the cultural and tourism market. It has deepened reforms to streamline administration and delegate power, improve regulation, and upgrade services, compressing the processing time for cultural and tourism administrative approvals by 62 percent and achieving full coverage of one-stop online government services. These innovative reforms and pragmatic actions at the granular level have built robust, underlying support for the "Sichuan Ease" brand identity, winning it both popular appeal and acclaim.

As one netizen put it, the highlight of Sichuan's cultural and tourism industry does not lie in its "single champion" status, but in its ecosystem - policies with height, industries with depth, brands with warmth, and international coverage with breadth. This is the sustainable and robust support.

A leading official from the Department of Culture and Tourism of Sichuan Province stated that 2026 has been designated as the province's "Year of Standardizing and Elevating the Order of the Cultural and Tourism Market". Efforts will center on further intensifying the "Culture &Tourism + All Industries" and "All Industries + Culture &Tourism" initiatives. This involves cultivating high-capacity market entities and providing high-quality products, continuously enhancing technological empowerment, optimizing the industrial structure, and forging new drivers of growth and competitive edges, thereby vigorously propelling the high-quality development of the culture and tourism sector.

Top Ten Events in Sichuan's Culture and Tourism for 2025

For the First Time, Provincial Party Committee Holds Plenary Session Focused on Deep Integration of Culture and Tourism

This moment marks a significant milestone in the development of Sichuan's cultural and tourism sector. The seventh plenary session of the 12th CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee conducted a high-level thematic study on advancing the deep integration of culture and tourism and deliberated on and passed the Decision of the CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee on Advancing the Deep Integration of Culture and Tourism and Developing a Stronger Cultural and Tourism Industry.

High-level planning has established the strategic direction, while coordinated mobilization across the entire region has consolidated synergistic efforts. All 21 cities (prefectures) in the province have deployed implementation measures or formulated relevant plans through plenary sessions, and more than 40 provincial-level departments have issued implementation measures, creating a vibrant province-wide dynamic of prioritizing, actively advancing, and revitalizing the cultural and tourism sector.

Surging Momentum of the "Sichuan Ease" Brand Underscores Its World-Class Appeal

The cultural and tourism sector has broken boundaries and transcended conventional circles, forging a new consensus for development. The "Sichuan Ease" cultural and tourism brand logo was displayed on landmark screens in multiple countries. In collaboration with online travel agencies and mainstream media platforms, the province launched precise promotional campaigns themed "Year-Round Travel in Sichuan". It also constructed a "1+10+N" cultural and tourism consumption brand matrix, featuring initiatives like "Sichuan: A Must-Visit for the Young" and "Panda Partners", using diverse IPs to illuminate new attractions that make "A Visit to Sichuan a Must". The campaign amassed a cumulative online exposure of over five billion impressions. "Sichuan Ease" is steadily becoming a destination that fills Sichuan's residents with pride and captures the hearts of travelers from around the world.

Sichuan and Chongqing Jointly Host the 14th China Art Festival

The dual metropolitan circles collaborated to jointly host this grand artistic event, showcasing the distinctive cultural essence of the Ba-Shu region in a resplendent display of artistic brilliance. The 14th China Art Festival commenced in Sichuan and concluded in Chongqing, with over a hundred performances successively staged, fully embodying its spirit as "a grand gathering of arts, a festive celebration for the people", injecting robust momentum into the construction of the Ba-Shu Cultural Tourism Corridor. Sichuan's artistic achievements are abundant. The dance poem "Shudao" unfolds millennia of cultural lineage. The Sichuan Opera "A Dream Reunion with Dongpo" and the song "Jade Plate" garnered the prestigious Wenhua Award, and four works from the province claimed the Qunxing Award, together achieving historic breakthroughs.

Mengxihe Site Named Among China's Top 10 Archaeological Discoveries

Serene for millennia, the Mengxi River cradles a world from seventy thousand years past; the timeless land of Shu safeguards its hidden chapters, offering keys to the puzzle of modern human origins.

The Mengxihe Site Cluster in Ziyang is acclaimed as a "three-dimensional encyclopedia" of the Paleolithic era. Experts have authoritatively assessed it as "unique, rare, of immense value, and possessing global significance", leading to its inclusion in China's top ten archaeological discoveries for 2024. This achievement is the honor carried forward by generations of cultural heritage professionals in the Sichuan and Chongqing region, and a vivid testament to Sichuan's commitment to preserving its cultural legacy and protecting its precious heritage.

Sichuan Provincial Cultural and Tourism Development Conference Maps a Course for New Quality Leap Forward Across All Sectors and the Entire Region

Countless new prospects are emerging, surging toward the future with a powerful momentum. In the golden autumn season, the 2025 Sichuan Provincial Cultural and Tourism Development Conference and the 11th China (Sichuan) International Tourism Investment Conference was held in Mianyang. This conference marked the first provincial-level assembly on cultural and tourism development held after the seventh plenary session of the 12th CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee charted the course for deep culture-tourism integration. It drew participation from international travel distributors, delegates representing China's top 20 tourism groups and top 30 cultural enterprises, alongside influential overseas culture and tourism content creators. The event successfully facilitated the signing and implementation of a portfolio of flagship, strategically influential, and fully-integrated cultural and tourism projects, offering a multi-dimensional showcase of the province's intrinsic resource advantages and vibrant growth potential under the banner "Meet Sichuan, Where Opportunities are Boundless".

The 9th International Festival of Intangible Cultural Heritage, Chengdu, China, Reflects the Dynamic Momentum of Guochao

Preserving ancient craftsmanship with dedication and gathering new audiences with contemporary expressions, the 9th International Festival of Intangible Cultural Heritage, Chengdu, China, orchestrated a symphony of dialogue between Chinese and Western civilizations. Guests and representatives from 84 countries and regions gathered in Chengdu. With coordinated efforts across the province, the event attracted over 5.8 million offline attendees. Both the on-site transaction volume of 16.04 million yuan and the IP licensing contract value of 350 million yuan set new records. A total of 2.155 billion online engagements bore witness to the vibrant energy of intangible cultural heritage's innovative continuation and the timely rise of the Guochao trend.

The province's cultural and tourism industry has been enhancing its capacity through industrial ecosystem development and supply chain strengthening, firmly maintaining its position within the nation's leading tier.

The culture and tourism sector is designated as one of Sichuan's "15+N" core industrial chains. The province has introduced a targeted policy package with detailed implementation rules, such as convening an industrial chain promotion conference, in a bid to accelerate the development of robust industrial ecosystems and strengthen the value chain across ten prioritized sectors at full speed. Major international events such as the NBA 2025 Star Celebrity Tournament and the League of Legends World Championship were successively hosted in the province. In the first three quarters, cultural enterprises above the designated size in the province achieved operating revenue of 425.39 billion yuan, marking a year-on-year increase of 8.9 percent. The province's total domestic tourist arrivals and overall tourism revenue have consistently placed it within the nation's first echelon.

Performance Industry Emerges as a New Engine Driving Cultural and Tourism Consumption

The "Sichuan Spark" initiative in Sichuan's performance industry activated a wide range of related sectors. In 2025, Sichuan set its sights on becoming a highland for the performance industry development, attracting ten leading enterprises and star-studded teams to establish operations in the province. It successfully hosted the 2025 China (Chengdu) Performance Trade Fair, where 35 signed projects generated a total transaction value of 600 million yuan. Over the course of the year, more than 12,000 commercial performances attracted 7.58 million spectators. Box office revenue of 3.08 billion yuan catalyzed 18.4 billion yuan in comprehensive related spending. For the first time, large-scale performances with audiences exceeding ten thousand people were held across 16 cities (prefectures). Through the innovative "ticket stub economy" and a collaborative mechanism linking venues, merchants, and scenic areas, "Traveling Sichuan Following the Performances" has become a new trend.

Sichuan Enacts Nation's First Local Regulation on Ancient Books Protection and Utilization

With the law safeguarding the core of our cultural legacy, ancient texts and records are revitalized with new splendor. The Sichuan Provincial Regulations on the Protection and Utilization of Ancient Books, the nation's first local regulation specifically dedicated to this field, has been passed by vote. This marks a pioneering step by Sichuan in establishing a robust legal safeguard for the transmission of ancient texts. Building upon the rich heritage of Ba-Shu documents, Sichuan has systematically established a framework for protection, utilization, and transmission. By innovating activation pathways such as technology enablement and public dissemination, it has crafted a Sichuan model for the creative transformation and innovative development of fine traditional Chinese culture, ensuring the perpetual continuity of the Shu scholarly lineage.

2025 Global Cross-Border Tourism (Sichuan) Conference Held

Embracing the world in a "two-way journey" again, the 2025 Global Cross-Border Tourism (Sichuan) Conference brought together nearly 2,000 tourism professionals from 66 countries and regions in Chengdu, opening a new chapter for the "Sichuan Ease" experience. From an Eastern secret realm to a global tourism hotspot, Sichuan, with its ecological beauty and cultural richness, continues to exert a global gravitational pull. Inbound visitor arrivals have repeatedly hit new highs, showcasing the province's vibrant dynamism.