LANZHOU -- Northwest China's Gansu province plans to lift 500 villages out of poverty by helping them develop rural tourism in the next three years, government sources said on Friday.

The provincial government will allocate funds and offer preferential policies to villages in the underdeveloped Gannan Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Linxia Hui autonomous prefecture, Tianzhu Tibetan autonomous county, and another 18 counties to help them develop rural tourism.

To meet the goal of lifting 20 percent of impoverished population out of poverty through rural tourism by 2020, the province will also build new roads, and construct or renovate 1,000 toilets.

According to the China National Tourism Administration, the country aims to lift 12 million people out of poverty through tourism from 2016 to 2020.