On December 27, 2024, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism released the "Announcement on the Determination of 19 Tourist Attractions as National 5A - level Tourist Attractions", among which the Wanlv Lake Scenic Area in Heyuan was listed, becoming the 16th national 5A - level tourist attraction in Guangdong Province and the first in Heyuan City.
After 8 years of efforts, the Wanlv Lake Scenic Area has finally won the title of national 5A - level tourist attraction, marking that the scenic area has been recognized at the national level in terms of tourism services, facility construction, and environmental protection.
The achievement of a 5A - level tourist attraction is a comprehensive systematic project, and the improvement of infrastructure supporting facilities is a key hard indicator. In recent years, due to various factors, many tourist attractions have encountered the problems of "sharp reduction in the number of tourists, decline in revenue, and increased financial and operating pressures". The Wanlv Lake Scenic Area has also been under the dual pressure of shortage of funds for scenic area expansion and reconstruction and the decrease in the number of tourists.
To support the Wanlv Lake Scenic Area to achieve the 5A - level goal more steadily and quickly, the tax department in Heyuan has taken the initiative act, understanding the operating situation and actual demands of the scenic area, and implementing a ledger - based management system for its tax - related problems. Also, a chief liaison working mechanism has been established, the "Guidelines on Tax and Fee Preferential Policies for the Ecological Tourism Industry" has been compiled, and policies such as "one enterprise, one measure", "one industry , one plan", and "one-to-one tutoring" have been introduced to provide a "one-stop" service from the list of applicable tax preferential policies to the guidance on operation procedures, thus facilitating the scenic area’s rapid development.
Questions like "How to enjoy the VAT carry-forward tax credit refund policy as soon as possible?", "How to fill in the tax - refund application materials through the electronic tax bureau?", and "How to define the category of a commodity when filling in the commodity tax - classification code?" were raised by Guangdong Wanlv Lake Cultural Tourism Investment Co., Ltd. In response, the tax department in Dongyuan County has arranged dedicated personnel to serve the enterprise in handling tax - refund matters. Starting from the key links such as "situation verification, review and approval, and tax refund", the process time has been compressed to help the enterprise's financial personnel complete the tax - refund business in a "one-stop" manner.
"Thanks to the national tax and fee support policies, with the timely guidance of the tax department, our company has enjoyed many tax preferences and used the saved funds to optimize the infrastructure of the scenic area and other aspects, further enhancing the core competitiveness of the scenic area," said Zhou Weiguo, the person in charge of Guangdong Wanlv Lake Cultural Tourism Investment Co., Ltd.
For a long time, the Wanlv Lake Scenic Area, with its unique natural scenery and rich tourism resources, has become a tourism calling card of Heyuan City and even Guangdong Province. Relying on the Wanlv Lake Scenic Area, the tourism service industries such as lakeside homestays, inns, and catering have become booming, and the local residents have become the beneficiaries of the development of ecological tourism. The Wanlv Hakka Inn, located in the core area of the Wanlv Lake Scenic Area, is one of them.
During holidays, the number of tourists received by the inn is more than 100 people per day, and it is fully booked every day.The concentrated demand for invoices during holidays has also become a common problem faced by hotels, homestays, and catering enterprises like the Wanlv Hakka Inn.
For this reason, during holidays, the tax department in Dongyuan County has launched a 24 - hour "point - to - point" mobile tax service for tourism operators. Any tax - related questions can be directly contacted with the tax officials online, and the tax - handling methods will be informed to the tourism operators via text messages.
"Whenever there are invoice related problems, they can be all solved just by making a phone call. It is really convenient and fast. Even small-and-micro-enterprises and self-employed individuals can also enjoy the 'one-to-one' tax service. It's so considerate!" said Huang Hanzhong, the person in charge of the Wanlv Hakka Inn.
In addition, taking the characteristics of concentrated passenger flow during holidays into consideration, on important nodes such as the Spring Festival and National Day, the tax department in Dongyuan County sets up consultation booths and stations publicity personnel on cruise ships and ferries in Wanlv Lake Scenic Area, to timely popularize the latest tax and fee preferential policy information for passing tourists, helping to upgrade the tourism brand of Dongyuan County with "tax tour guides".
"Realizing the 5A - level goal is a new starting point for the high-quality development of the Wanlv Lake Scenic Area and even the whole tourism industry in Dongyuan County," said the person in charge of the Dongyuan County Tax Bureau. Next, the bureau will give full play to the tax function, closely integrating with the development plan of the county's tourism industry, striving to do a good job in tax and fee publicity and service, and actively contributing tax power to the upgrading of the ecological tourism brand in Dongyuan County and the construction of the tourism demonstration site in Guangdong Province.
