Frontiers in Business, Economics and Management ISSN: 2766-824X | Vol. 21, No. 1, 2025 90 Financial Support Pathways for Accelerating the Construction of Yibin as an International Tourism City Xie Wei Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Yibin University, Yibin, China Abstract: Against the research backdrop of Yibin accelerating the construction of an international tourism city, this paper focuses on the issue of financial support for the development of the cultural and tourism industry. By reviewing the current state of cultural and tourism finance development in Yibin and analyzing existing problems —such as the lack of policy guidance, insufficient suitability of financial products, imperfect credit information sharing mechanisms, and ambiguous ownership definition for cultural and tourism assets—this paper proposes financial support pathways based on practical considerations. These pathways include: strengthening awareness of financial services for cultural and tourism through policy guidance, innovating specialized services to meet the diverse needs of the industry, optimizing the development environment to break down financing barriers, and broadening financing channels to cultivate and strengthen market entities. The aim is to provide fina ncial support for the high-quality development of Yibin's cultural and tourism industry. Keywords: Yibin; Cultural and Tourism; Finance. 1. Introduction Tourism is a significant driver of economic development and a strategic pillar industry for the nation. Currently, mass tourism is developing comprehensively, cultural and tourism integration is deepening, and new projects and business formats continue to emerge. Local governments have successively listed tourism as a key development industry within the local service sector. In 2025, Yibin made the decision to promote the deep integration of culture and tourism and accelerate the construction of an internat ional tourism city, setting a higher positioning and requirement for the development of the tourism industry. Tourism development is inseparable from financial support. The coordinated interactive development of tourism and finance not only reflects the important role of finance in serving tourism development and promoting the adjustment of the tourism economic structure and the transformation of its growth model but also represents the process through which tourism cultivates new growth points for the financial industry and increases financial derivatives. How finance can precisely meet the development needs of th e tourism industry and stimulate market vitality is a crucial topic for promoting the high-quality development of the local tourism industry. 2. Current State of Cultural and Tourism Finance Development in Yibin 2.1. Basic Situation of Cultural and Tourism Industry Development In recent years, Yibin has planned and constructed major cultural and tourism projects such as the Moon Field Scenic Area in Lizhuang Ancient Town, phases I and II of Guanying Street, Mahu Fu Ancient City, and Oriental Wine Valley. It has continuously upgraded premier scenic spots like the Shunan Bamboo Sea and the Xingwen Stone Sea. Large state -owned enterprises primarily focused on culture and tourism, such as the Yibin Cultural Tourism and Exhibition Group Co., Ltd. and the Yibin Cuilu Investment Group Co., Ltd., have been established through mergers. The mechanism for cultural and tourism integration has basically taken shape citywide, and the cultural and tourism industry has become an important component of local economic development. Changning County, Cuiping District, and Xingwen County have successively been designated as Sichuan Province Tianfu Famous Tourism Counties. The Shunan Bamboo Sea successfully became a national-level tourist resort, and the Bodao Historical and Cultural Tourism Leisure Block successfully became a national-level tourism leisure block. In July 2025, the 10th Plenary Session of the 6th Yibin Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China formed the "Decision on Promoting the Deep Integration of Culture and Tourism and Accelerating the Construction of an International Tourism City." It clarified that Yibin's cultural and tourism development in the new period will focus on building the "Three Lands and Three Centers": "Building a Holy Land of Cultural Landscapes, Building an Eco -Vacation Resort, Building a Sacred Site of Liquor Culture, Building a Dynamic Sports Event Center, Building a Fashion Performing Arts Center, and Building a Quality Consumption Center," comprehensively enhancing the connotation and heritage of an international tourism city. This signifies that Yibin will further enrich its cultural and tourism formats, create more new cultural and tourism scenarios, build more competitive business entities, and establish a robust tourism industry chain. 2.2. Current State of Yibin's Cultural and Tourism Finance Development 2.2.1. Financial Support Policies for Culture and Tourism Development To increase financial support for the development of the cultural and tourism industry, multiple policies have been issued in recent years at both the national and local levels. At the national and provincial levels, in June 2025, the People's Bank of China and five other departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Financial Support to Boost and Expand Consumption," proposing measures for the cultural and tourism industry such as broadening financing 91 channels, innovating financial services, strengthening infrastructure support, and enhancing insurance coverage. In January 2025, the Sichuan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism and 11 other departments jointly issued a special work plan, proposing the establishment of a cultural and tourism industry chain service platform, encouraging financial institutions to set up specialized cultural and tourism financial institutions and feature branches, continuously innovating cultural and tourism financial credit products, and expanding the credit scale for cultural and tourism projects; accelerating the establishment of a cultural, tourism, and commerce industry guidance fund; and increasing support for key cultural and tourism projects. In September 2025, multiple departments in Sichuan jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Financial Support for the Deep Integration of Culture and Tourism in Sichuan," putting forward work requirements regarding increasing financial support in key areas of culture and tourism, enhancing the professional capacity of financial services for culture and tourism, and enriching the spectrum of credit products for the cultural and tourism industry. At the municipal level, Yibin City issued the "Support Policies for High-Quality Construction of a Regional Cultural Tourism Center" in 2021 (valid until the end of 2023), focusing on reducing the financing costs of cultural and tourism enterprises through loan interest discounts: providing municipal-level interest subsidy support to cultural and tourism enterprises that obtain the provincial -level "Tianfu Cultural Industry Loan"; and offering corresponding proportional interest discounts based on the loan interest calculated at the Loan Prime Rate (LPR) for cultural and tourism enterprises reaching certain revenue scales. Meanwhile, it encouraged the listing of cultural and tourism enterprises, specifying that enterprises listing on mainstream domestic and overseas exchanges can enjoy the city's unified financial support policies for enterprise listings. In 2025, the "Yibin City Financial Measures to Boost Consumption" were introduced, increasing interest discount support for entrepreneurial entities in the cultural and tourism field: during a specific period, for newly issued personal startup guaranteed loans, additional interest discounts were provided by municipal and county (district) finances, achieving full fiscal coverage of interest for personal start up guaranteed loans, further covering the financing needs of small and micro cultural and tourism market entities and individual operators. 2.2.2. Strengthening Financial Services Yibin's financial regulatory authorities, in conjunction with the tourism industry authorities, regularly investigate and understand the financial needs of tourism enterprises, travel agencies, cultural enterprises, etc., establish financing demand ledgers for cultural and tourism enterprises, and urge banks to conduct regular communication. The "Yirongtong" comprehensive financial service platform was established. Since its official launch at the end of 2024, the platform has listed 153 financial products, attracted 30 financial institutions, and provides tourism-related financial products such as the Bank of China's Tianfu Cultural Industry Loan, Huiyuan·Cultural Tourism Loan, and the Bank of Communications' Cultural and Creative Loan. The platform aggregates government data related to enterprises, third -party data, and financial institutio n data to form a financial data resource library, builds various models customized for different customer groups, constructs multi -dimensional customer profiles, and provides financial product financing services for all types of entities in the city, including enterprises and individual businesses. As part of the city's enterprise entities, cultural and tourism enterprises can use the platform to access diversified financing options. 2.2.3. Providing Capital Support for Key Projects For instance, Lizhuang Ancient Town is one of the most noticed tourism development projects in Yibin in recent years. Yibin Development Holding Group Co., Ltd. signed a cultural tourism development strategic cooperation agreement with the Cuiping District government. Starting from the end of 2020, it has provided funds through multiple channels totaling 1.03 billion yuan for the construction of Lizhuang Ancient Town; fiscal support included issuing special bonds worth 712 million yuan; the Agricultural Development Bank of China, Yibin Branch, disbursed 430 million yuan for the Lizhuang project; and the Chin a Development Bank, Sichuan Branch, disbursed 380 million yuan. Furthermore, financial institutions such as the Agricultural Bank of China, Postal Savings Bank of China, China Guangfa Bank, Industrial Bank Co., Ltd., Yibin City Commercial Bank, and Yibin R ural Commercial Bank have also provided substantial financial support for the construction and development of Lizhuang. The rapid development of the tourism industry in Pingshan County also benefits from strong support from financial institutions. The Agricultural Development Bank, Pingshan County Sub-branch, has cumulatively issued loans of nearly 600 million yuan, effectively supporting the smooth progress of the first phase of Pingshan County's Comprehensive Tourism Development and Infrastructure Support ing Facilities Project. The construction content of this project includes four components: improvement and upgrading of the human settlement environment in Shulou Ancient Town, improvement and upgrading of the human settlement environment in Longhua Ancien t Town, upgrading of supporting infrastructure in the Baxian Mountain area, and upgrading of supporting infrastructure in the Laojun Mountain area. 2.2.4. Financial Product Innovation Centering on tourism development, Yibin has launched multiple innovative financial products. For example, the "Huilin Loan" focuses on forestry -related fields, providing guaranteed loan support to business entities engaged in forest health, eco-tourism, etc. The Changning Zhuhai Rural Commercial Bank's "B&B Loan" implements interest rate reductions and fee cuts, offering interest rate concessions of 1-2 percentage points, actively reaches out to B&Bs, and has granted credit to 40 households totaling 65 million yuan, supporting B&B upgrades. The Agricultural Bank of China, Xingwen County Sub-branch, used ticket revenue rights as pledge, granting a credit line of 225 million yuan to assist in the facility renovation of the Xingwen Stone Sea scenic area. 3. Problems in the Development of Cultural and Tourism Finance 3.1. Lack of Local Policy Guidance, Awareness of Cultural and Tourism Finance Needs Strengthening In 2019, Yibin successfully applied to become a national pilot city for comprehensive reform of financial services supporting private, small, and micro enterprises; in 2021, Yibin City made the goal of building a regional cultural tourism center; the "Yibin '14th Five-Year Plan' for Financial 92 Development and Regional Financial Center (2021 -2025)" proposed to closely focus on the modern service industry to establish industry-finance communication mechanisms and enhance the targeting of financing. However, various plans in Yibin lack specific schemes for financial support to the cultural and tourism industry. Except for policies supporting the recovery of the tourism industry during the pandemic, there are almost no specifically formulated and targeted financial support policies for tourism development. With the rapid development of Yibin's cultural and tourism industry, the demand for credit financing in the cultural and tourism industry has significantly increased. However, banking and insurance institutions still have shortcomings in providing comprehensive support for the cultural and tourism industry, developing exclusive financial products, and improving the comprehensive level of financial services. Some institutions have not yet incorporated cultural and tourism finance into their work planning, resulting in a shortage of exclusive credit products for cultural and tourism finance. 3.2. Insufficient Suitability and Innovation in Cultural and Tourism Financial Products Firstly, there is a mismatch between credit products and industry cycles. Projects such as the construction of tourism destination infrastructure and the development of tourism resources are characterized by "large capital demand and long payback periods." However, there is a scarcity of long -term credit products in the current market that match these operational cycles, leading to the common practice of "using short-term loans for long-term purposes and revolving loans," which increases corporate financing costs. Secondly, financing based on intangible assets is restricted. Intangible assets owned by cultural and tourism enterprises, such as equity in scenic spots, ticket revenue rights, and cultural tourism trademark rights, face difficulties in "value assessment, post-loan review, and transfer disposal." These "three difficulties" make it hard for financial institutions to recognize them as valid collateral, restricting the conversion of intangible assets into financing capacity. Thirdly, the scale of physical assets is limited. Most cultural and tourism enterprises (e.g., travel agencies, cultural creativity, performing arts) operate with light assets, having few assets and small scales; scenic spots, hotels, B&Bs, etc., are mostly lease-operated, lacking substantial physical assets themselves, which does not meet the traditional credit requirement for "effective collateral," severely limiting their credit enhancement capacity. 3.3. The Information Sharing Mechanism for Enterprise Credit Needs Further Improvement Cultural and tourism enterprises are predominantly small and micro enterprises. However, information regarding their operations and credit (especially external financing information) is scattered across various departments such as industry and commerce, taxation, finance, and judiciary. The cost for banking institutions to coordinate and obtain this data is high, making it difficult to fully grasp the true situation of enterprises. Information fragmentation hinders the widespread application of financial technology means like big data and artificial intelligence, preventing banks from accurately assessing corporate credit through technical means and exacerbating credit decision -making concerns. Furthermore, a unified information sharing platform between cultural and tourism departments and financial departments has not been established, communication and coordination mechanisms are ineffective, and financial institutions have limited understanding of cultural and tourism projects and insufficient customer reserves, further constraining credit support. 3.4. Unclear Ownership Definition for Some Cultural and Tourism Assets, Restricting Effective Conversion of Financial Resources Yibin is rich in cultural and tourism resources, but project management entities are dispersed, the definition of operational management rights is unclear, and there is a lack of clear borrowing entities and market-oriented channels for property rights disposal. For example, the Nanxi Ancient Street scenic area is jointly managed by the Nanxi District Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism and the Nanxi District Service Industry Development Bureau, with the investment and operation handled by the Nanxi Xianyuan Cultural Tourism Company. However, most assets of the ancient street have been sold to individuals, and the ownership, management rights, and profit rights are vague, making it difficult to use as collateral for credit assets and stalling subsequent projects like regular repairs and upgrades for the scenic area. 4. Pathways for Financial Support to Yibin's Cultural and Tourism Development 4.1. Policy Guidance: Fostering Awareness of Financial Services for Culture and Tourism First, integrate the integrated development of the financial industry and the tourism industry into industrial development plans and issue relevant policies to strengthen financial - tourism cooperation. At the level of financial regulatory authorities, encourage and guide financial institutions to develop an awareness of "mutual promotion between finance and the cultural and tourism industry," regard the cultural and tourism industry as a new driver for financial development, and, based on enhancing the qual ity and efficiency of financial services to the real economy, promote their own high-quality development. At the level of cultural and tourism industry authorities, it is recommended to introduce relevant policies to promote the standardized development and operation of market entities, provide professional training and guidance to cultural and tourism enterprises on laws and regulations, financial management, and financial knowledge, cultivate qualified borrowers, and enhance their ability to obtain loans. Second, optimize the mechanisms and systems for cultural and tourism finance. Enhance the initiative and professionalism in cultural and tourism finance by selecting banks and insurance branches with rich surrounding cultural and tourism resources, high tourist numbers, and strong financial service capabilities to pilot "Cultural and Tourism Feature Branches/Companies." Third, encourage financial institutions to actively build the "Yibin Cultural and Tourism Finance" feature brand based on Yibin's resource advantages and industrial characteristics. Fourth, regularly hold financial and cultural-tourism cooperation meetings, develop a financial service platform for communication on cultural and 93 tourism industry development, conduct research on high - quality development of cultural and tourism supported by finance, and focus on tasks such as innovation and development of cultural and tourism financial products, policy transmission, and exchange pro motion. 4.2. Innovating Specialized Services to Meet the Diverse Needs of the Cultural and Tourism Industry First, increase financial support for key areas of the cultural and tourism industry. Guide financial institutions to focus on the key areas and major projects of Yibin's cultural and tourism development, using urban tourism as the core and leveraging the cultural heritage and tourism development of Yangtze River culture, liquor culture, bamboo culture, red culture, Nezha culture, etc., to proactively connect with relevant enterprises to address their credit financing and insurance needs. Second, attach great importance to financial services for small and micro cultural and tourism enterprises. Guide financial institutions to precisely focus on small and micro market entities in the cultural and tourism industry, deeply understand their financial needs, identify integration points, increase the proportion of credit loans and the proportion of "first-time borrowers" among small and micro cultural and tourism market entities, fully leverage the positive role of insurance in risk management and safety production for small and micro enterprises, and continuously expand the coverage of financial services. Third, encourage financial institutions to innovate exclusive financial products and services in response to the deepening integration of culture and tourism with other industries in the new era and the emergence of new formats such as study tourism, sports tourism, performance tourism, night tourism, and low-altitude tourism. 4.3. Optimizing the Development Environment for Cultural and Tourism Finance to Break Down Financing Barriers First, standardize the statistical system for cultural and tourism finance data. It is recommended to include the cultural and tourism industry as a key focus industry for banking and insurance regulatory attention, standardize the statistical scope for cultural and tourism finance data, and regularly aggregate and analyze data related to cultural and tourism financial services. Second, establish an information sharing mechanism for the cultural and tourism industry, integrate information from finance, industry and commerce, taxation, judiciary, etc., break down data exchange channels between banks and enterprises, and support banks in obtaining enterprise information for pre-loan review and credit granting, thereby enhancing credit accessibility. Thi rd, establish and improve a financing demand database for tourism enterprise projects, guide financial institutions to increase credit input for eligible operational units and key cultural and tourism market entities in scenic spots, tourist resorts, tourism performances, sports tourism, study tourism, etc., with promising development prospects, and appropriately increase loan amounts. Encourage banking financial institutions to provide classified small loan support to tourism-related startups, small and micro enterprises, and individual businesses like themed B&Bs. Fifth, strengthen service guarantees. Compile a Yibin Cultural and Tourism Financial Service Product Manual, publicize and interpret policies, collect exemplary cases, aggregate financial products, and establish a dedicated cultural and tourism finance hotline. 4.4. Broadening the Financing Environment for the Cultural and Tourism Industry, Cultivating and Strengthening Market Entities First, explore the establishment of an asset and product evaluation system for cultural and tourism enterprises to support the revitalization of their assets. Cooperate in exploring methods and standards for the evaluation, transfer, and disposal of the equity and resource property rights of cultural and tourism entities, establish a property rights registration and mortgage management platform, broaden the scope and value of financing collateral and guarantees, and promote the realization of the intangible asset financing function for cultural and tourism entities. Second, through the joint establishment of government guidance funds by public finance and finance, and the use of PPP models, encourage and support more social capital investment in the development of the cultural and tourism field, better assisting the high-quality development of the cultural and tourism industry. Integrate various types of fiscal support funds, absorb enterprise capital, bank credit funds, trust funds, insurance funds, etc., to set up cultural and tourism industry development guidance funds, and invest in major cultural and tourism projects through fund management methods. Third, encourage enterprises that are well-established, have promising development prospects, and meet the requirements to pursue listing for financing, refinancing, and mergers and acquisitions, reducing the reliance of cultural and tourism enterprises on bank credit, and promoting a more rational structure of financial support. 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