Yichang Transportation: Building the Three Gorges Tourism and Logistics Industry Leader

Building the Three Gorges tourism leader and leading the development of a billion dollar industry is a major historical mission that the company shoulders. Recently, Changjiang Yong, director of Yichang Transport, stated in an interview with Shanghai Securities News that the company will rely on the "Two Dams and One Gorge" and the resources of the vehicle, ship and port stations to promote the integrated and innovative development of the transportation and tourism industries.

Traveling to Yichang almost inevitably involves dealing with Yichang Transportation. The local bus stations, tourist distribution centers, intercity buses, and tourism products such as "Two Dams and One Gorge" and "Yangtze River Night Tour" are all led by Yichang Transportation. In addition, Yichang Transportation also operates taxi and car rental services, as well as tourist buses that directly connect to multiple scenic spots.

The tourism industry is contributing increasingly to the company's profits. On August 26th, Yichang Transportation disclosed its semi annual report, achieving a net profit of 62.95 million yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 40%. Among them, the tourism sector achieved a total profit of 38.9 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 122%.

In the future, the company will fully implement the four major strategies of 'strengthening the enterprise, innovating the business model, optimizing resources, and revitalizing the market', and strive to create an upgraded version of the transportation and tourism industry. Jiang Yong introduced that the company's goal is to become the most professional transportation and tourism group in Hubei and even the central region.

Innovative development of modern tourism industry

Entering the tourism business can be said to be an inevitable development of Yichang Transportation. Through forward-looking market research, as early as 2010, the company actively planned to transform from water passenger transportation to the 'two dams and one gorge' tourism business, "Jiang Yong introduced.

Two dams and one gorge "refers to the scenery of the eastern section of Xiling Gorge between Gezhouba, Three Gorges Dam, and the two dams. After the completion of the Three Gorges Dam, the water levels in the western section of Xiling Gorge, Wuxia Gorge, and Qutang Gorge above the dam have risen by 60 to 100 meters, and some of the original landscapes of the Three Gorges have changed. Only the eastern section of Xiling Gorge between the two dams maintains the original style of the Three Gorges Gorge on the Yangtze River.

It is reported that Yichang Transportation currently operates six luxury cruise ships of the Yangtze River Three Gorges 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 series, and has also launched high-quality tourism products such as "Two Dams and One Gorge", "Yangtze River Night Tour", "Three Gorges Ship Lift Tour", "Scenic Area Direct Train", "High Gorge Pinghu Tour", "Yichang to Wushan Tour", etc. The annual tourist reception reaches 1.2 million people.

A heavyweight project between the two dams has started construction. It is reported that the total planned investment for the Three Gorges Cruise Center is 6 billion yuan. After completion, it will become the urban reception hall of Yichang, a multifunctional complex that integrates tourist gathering and relaxation, cruise ship docking and supply, and citizen living and leisure.

In order to reduce carbon emissions from docked ships and jointly create a "green Yichang, environmentally friendly port", Yichang Transportation actively connects with the State Grid, explores project cooperation for the use of clean energy in port terminals, and promotes the use of shore power by docked ships. By the end of 2018, the shore power access facilities at Maoping Port and Taipingxi Port in Zigui had been fully equipped.

Green tourism has also received recognition and assistance from another state-owned enterprise. In June of this year, Yichang Transportation disclosed that it had signed a cooperation agreement with Yangtze Power to jointly develop and build a pure electric sightseeing cruise ship in the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River. The rated propulsion power of the vessel is about 3 × 350kW, and the capacity of the ship's power battery is about 7500kWh.

Outside of the tourist boat, the company's tour bus has already run out of Yichang city. In January of this year, Yichang Transportation and Hubei Shennong Tourism Investment Group signed an investment agreement, relying on their respective advantages in scenic area resources and tourism passenger transportation resources, to jointly build a comprehensive tourism transportation service system covering the entire Shennongjia area.

There are ships, cars, and travel agencies, and Yichang Transportation has extended its industrial chain to scenic area operations. On August 16th, Yichang Transportation announced the completion of asset transfer for the acquisition of Jiufenggu. It is reported that Jiufeng Valley is a national 4A level tourist attraction characterized by experience, which has good synergy with the company's existing tourism business.

It is understood that in order to support the development of the tourism and logistics industry of listed companies, the controlling shareholder Yichang Transportation and Tourism Group focuses on cultivating and incubating high-quality assets, and injects them into the listed company when conditions are ripe. Public information shows that Yichang Transportation and Tourism Group has established a 1 billion yuan Yichang Three Gorges Cultural Tourism Industry Development Fund in cooperation with Three Gorges Group, which has incubated more than 20 subsidiaries including leisure vacation, cultural tourism, and industrial investment.

Jiang Yong introduced that in the next 3 to 5 years, the company will deeply cultivate the tourism resources of "One River and Two Mountains" ("One River" refers to the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, "Two Mountains" refer to Shennongjia and Wudang Mountains), and build a comprehensive tourism service system based on tourist buses, cruise ships, tourist ports, tourist distribution centers, and travel agencies. At the same time, actively connecting and comprehensively configuring the transportation and tourism resources of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, gradually forming a complete tourism industry chain in the western Hubei region by integrating tourism scenic spot resources, leveraging online tourism platforms, and enriching and improving tourism elements.

Transforming and upgrading the traditional transportation industry

Yichang Transportation was formerly known as Yitong Transport Group. In 1998, Yitong Transport Group and Hengtong Transport Company merged to form Yichang Transport, and successfully listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2011.

After the opening of the Hanyi high-speed train in 2012, the company's road passenger transportation industry entered a downturn. How to break the deadlock?

Through the integration of stations and businesses, a four tiered network, e-commerce services, and value creation, we have innovatively proposed a sixteen character passenger transportation business model, woven a dense passenger transportation network, purified the passenger transportation market, and created intercity public transportation that meets the expectations of the government, social recognition, and public satisfaction. "Jiang Yong introduced that since June 2014, the company has operated nine intercity public transportation routes in the Yichang and Jingzhou regions through mergers and acquisitions, as well as bus renovations, achieving the construction of a city wide intercity public transportation network.

The operating characteristics of intercity public transportation, such as large capacity, high density, low ticket prices, and high quality, have reshaped the competitiveness of Yichang's road passenger transportation. It is reported that intercity public transportation adopts a public transportation operation mode, with a bus departing every 10 minutes during peak hours and an average price reduction of more than 30%. Tickets can be purchased through 8 online and offline channels, and passengers can take the bus by scanning the QR code and checking tickets, achieving regional smart travel.

The integration of station and business has also won more opportunities for Yichang Transportation. Focusing on "small station houses and large car yards", the company has deeply explored the potential benefits of self owned property leasing, successfully revitalized assets, and revitalized traditional industries. The profitability level of the road passenger transport industry and related extended businesses has steadily improved.

Along the road transportation industry chain, Yichang Transportation has invested in the construction of multiple gas stations in the urban area of Yichang. Due to the superior geographical location of the gas station, it has attracted investment from PetroChina, and the company enjoys joint venture dividends while receiving property rent.

In addition, Yichang Transportation has also launched ride hailing services, and its subsidiary Xiake Xing Company is the only local ride hailing brand in Yichang that has "complete three certificates and complies with human and vehicle regulations".

Against the backdrop of the overall decline in the national road passenger transport market, Yichang Transportation has stabilized this business by actively sinking and building a grassroots passenger transport network. In the first half of this year, the company's road passenger transportation sector achieved a revenue of 220 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.23%; The total profit reached 34.35 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.16%.

Recently, the China Road Transport Association announced the list of the top 100 trustworthy enterprises in China's road transport industry in 2019, with Yichang Transportation ranking 14th. The company's passenger transportation transformation model has been rated as an advanced model of supply side reform in Hubei Province, and the "Yichang model" has been highly praised by peers nationwide.

With the geographical advantage of the station and port, Yichang Transportation has expanded its industry into the logistics field.

Jiang Yong introduced that in order to align with the strategy of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and respond to Yichang's plan to build a modern logistics industry worth billions of yuan, Yichang Transportation Investment has established Hubei Tianyuan Logistics Development Co., Ltd. to develop and construct the Yichang East Station Logistics Center project. "It is located next to Yichang East Station and connects with railway transportation. There are two railway lines in the logistics park

The Yichang East Station Logistics Center project has a total investment of 1.21 billion yuan and plans to build three major business models: a public rail intermodal port, an automobile logistics city, and a Three Gorges supply chain headquarters. It will form a comprehensive social logistics service platform with an annual throughput of over 2 million tons, the largest, full brand cluster, one-stop automobile consumption ultimate destination in the Three Gorges region, and a supply chain service ecosystem that serves the real economy and has complete functions.

The company has started by upgrading its service quality, and through continuous optimization of management and innovation, has achieved the development and transformation of the transportation and tourism industry from single to diversified, from scale to quality. Jiang Yong said that the company's development goal is to gradually become a leading enterprise in the development of tourism and logistics industry in the Three Gorges region.