LANZHOU, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- Northwest China's Gansu Province helped 31,000 households with about 130,000 people rise out of poverty by developing rural tourism in 2018, the provincial tourism authorities said.

Rural tourism areas received up to 85.2 million visitors last year, and the income of rural tourism hit 16.5 billion yuan (2.43 billion U.S. dollars), up 21.1 percent and 29.4 percent respectively, Chen Weizhong, head of the provincial department of culture and tourism, said on Thursday.

Gansu has been making efforts to promote rural tourism in recent years by introducing preferential policies and improving infrastructure and public services to make rural tourism more convenient, according to the department.

The province has opened 50 rural tourism routes and is developing more rural tourism products and enhancing the level of service and management.