On the morning of September 22, the Hunan International Cultural and Tourism Festival opened in Mangshan, Yizhang County. On the same day, the first batch of ten characteristic cultural tourism towns and six excellent routes of cultural tourism in Hunan Province were announced.

The first batch of characteristic cultural tourism towns in the province were announced as Wenjiashi Town in Liuyang City, Furong Town in Yongshun County, Gushangcheng Town in Hongjiang District, Tongguan Town in Wangcheng District, Pingtan Town in Tongdao Dong Autonomous County, Zhangguying Town in Yueyang County, Liye Town in Longshan County, Taohuayuan Town in the Taohuayuan Tourism Management Area, Guoyuan Town in Changsha Town and Shuiche Town in Xinhua County.

According to the selection requirements of cultural connotation with characteristics, effective brand impact, depth of cultural and tourism integration, scale of industrial development, systematic service construction and innovative management mechanism, the first ten characteristic cultural and tourism towns were selected by the municipal and provincial levels and reviewed by experts, and finally approved by the executive meeting of the provincial government.

The Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism introduced that they would take the construction of characteristic cultural tourism towns as an important measure to implement the strategy of rural revitalization and accelerate the development of cultural tourism industry, and strive to raise the comprehensive income of culture and tourism in the ten cultural tourism towns from about 10 billion yuan in 2018 to more than 30 billion yuan in about three years.