Can a 1,000-year-old Chinese celebrity poet drive country’s tourism today?

Su Shi might be China’s most famous poet, with his work still taught in schools across the country today

A recent study found that, nearly 1,000 years after he was born, Su still can drive domestic tourism

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Su Shi, one of China’s most famous poets, still drives domestic tourism in China. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 7:00am, 3 Jul 2022Updated: 12:30pm, 4 Jul 2022

Corrected [12:29pm, 4 Jul, 2022]

[12:29pm, 4 Jul, 2022]
An earlier version of this article said Su Shi was born in Kaifeng, in Henan province. He was born in Meishan, in Sichuan.

He might be the most famous poet in China’s long, vibrant history, a celebrity that has stood the test of time and whose words are still recited by schoolchildren across the country.

But does Su Shi (1037-1101) still drive domestic tourism in China nearly 1,000 years after he was born? A new study by two experts from separate tertiary institutes in Nanjing, in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, found that yes, he does.

The duo found that, over a 15-year-period from 2001 to 2015, cities where Su Shi lived received on average 64,000 additional visitors per year, driving between 33.5 million and 88 million yuan (US$5 million and US$13 million) of additional revenue.

Those numbers accounted for 0.38 per cent to 1 per cent of total domestic tourism revenue in the cities.

“There are many tourist attractions and sites based on Su’s residence or relics, and local governments vigorously develop tourism industries based on his traces,” said Gao Yanyan a study author and associate professor at the School of Economics and Management at Southeast University in Nanjing.

“In the paper, we proved two channels through which Su promotes the tourism economy today: by facilitating tourism development and motivating later accumulation of cultural heritage,” Gao said.