SANYA, April 9. /TASS/. Hainan's Sanya registered 67 new pleasure boats in the first quarter of 2021. According to a newspaper, this is almost four times more compared to the same period last year.
Statistics from the first quarter show an increase in Sanya's attractiveness for yacht owners. Thus, during the first three months of 2021, 17 agreements on the re-registration of pleasure craft previously assigned to the berths of other regions of China were signed here, which is 13 higher than in the same period in 2020. From January to March, owners and lessees of yachts in Sanya made more than 46,000 voyages to the sea, about 298,000 people made voyages. This is 238% and 185% higher compared to the same period in 2020, and 77% and 33% higher compared to the first quarter of the pre-pandemic 2019.
"We will make every effort to promote the creation of a pilot zone for development, transformation and innovation in the yachting industry, and we will be guided in this by existing needs and problems," the publication quoted the representative of the city's maritime administration as saying. To further boost yachting industry, the Sanya administration intends to provide training in ship management, simplify the registration procedure for these vehicles and promote environmental standards in the industry, he noted.
In 2020, 139 new pleasure boats were registered in Sanya, an increase of 28% over the previous year, and their total number reached 641 by the end of the year.
There is a special zone aimed at the development of cruise and yacht tourism in Hainan's Sanya resort. The Chinese island is often referred to as the "Eastern Hawaii" — natural landscapes, tropical forests, a developed hotel chain, combined with beaches and a coastline atretching along more than 1,900 kilometers, draw guests from the most remote parts of the world.