Guilin is an ancient cultural city with a history of 2,110 years. The development of tourist resources could be dated back to the second year of Jingping of the Song State in Southern Dynasty (424 AC). Till Tang Dynasty, the Guilin mountains and rivers had been famous all over the country. During Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing.
Dynasties, both the natural and cultural tourist recourses in Guilin were significantly developed, and tourist activities were rich and colourful. The tourism of Guilin continued to develop in later period. In 1948, China Travel Service, Guilin Branch was founded and began to operate, signifying that the modern professional travel service came into being in Guilin.
After the liberation, the municipal government emphasized that tourism should be the pillar industry of Guilin, and consequently formulated the construction of scenic spots and the development of tourism. In the city projects of 1965, 1970 and 1975, Guilin was separately defined as the Landscape Tourist City, the Socialist Landscape City and Socialist Scenery Tourist City. On 23rd of October in 1985, the State Council defined Guilin as a Key Scenery Tourist City and Historical Cultural Famous City of China. In 1986, the State Council listed Guilin as one of the seven key tourist construction cities during the period of the seventh Five-year Plan. In 1985 and 1991, Guilin mountains and rivers ranked the second place both in the top ten Places of Interests and in the Forty Best Tourism Attractions in China. In 1998, China National Tourism Administration conferred Guilin as one of the Top Tourist Cities in China.
During the process of developing tourist industry, Guilin attaches great importance to the construction of tourist attractions, the maintaining of Li River, and the perfecting and improving of the tourists' reception capacity. After over 20 years' development, Guilin makes remarkable progress in tourist industry, basically forming a multi-functional and multi-level industry system and overall and high-quality tourist reception capacity. Guilin has become a world-renowned tourist city. During the recent years, Guilin always ranks within top 10 in terms of international tourist arrivals. International tourist arrivals amounted to 410,000 and domestic tourists reached 6 million in 1988 in spite of the influence of the financial crisis in southeast Asian countries.
Guilin has 28 star-rated hotels with 13,621 beds, 18 international travel services, 65 domestic travel agencies, 430 hotels and guesthouses for tourists, 15 coaches and cruises companies and over 1,000 tour guides who can speak foreign languages. About 40,000 people are directly involved in tourist industry. Besides, the economic benefits of Guilin City increased annually. The total revenue of tourist industry touched 1.18 billion yuan in 1997 and still achieved 0.921 billion yuan in 1998 in spite of the influence of the turmoil of southeast Asian countries. Tourism infrastructure improves steadily in recent years. The completion of the Liangjiang International Airport, Guilin Expressway and Guilin Railway Station eases the transportation congestion. Guilin has more than 40 air routes directed to big cities both at home and abroad. The postal and telecommunication industry also gains its rapid progress. The total installment capacity of program-controlled telephone of Guilin City has amounted to 135,000 and wireless telephones have been installed on the cruises on the Li River, which offers great convenience to tourists.