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Yachting industry in Hainan's Sanya boosting incentive travel industry

Incentive travel refers to trips for employees of a particular company, which usually include both professional and recreational activities

HAIKOU /China/, May 29. /TASS/. The yacht industry in the resort city of Sanya has become a stimulus for the development of incentive travel and exhibition tourism in South China's Hainan Province. This sector is attracting the attention of thousands of vacationers from all over China and other countries on a daily basis over the last few years, Sanya Daily reported.

Incentive travel refers to trips for employees of a particular company, which usually include both professional and recreational activities.

"Sanya has always been a destination for incentive, exhibition, convention and conference tourism for many domestic and foreign enterprises," the paper quoted the city's commerce department as saying. "And the rise of the yachting industry has given such commercial travel a new impetus. This has a great impact on the relevant tourism sector and in making Sanya more diverse."

According to the department's forecasts, marina operators offering high-level service to yachting tourists will play an important role in driving the dynamic development of this tourism segment in Hainan. Last week, Sanya hosted an event with the participation of more than 4,000 people who came from different regions of the People's Republic of China under the program of yachting incentive travel.

According to Liu Kaiqiang, director of the Sanya Tourism Association, the event demonstrated not only the solid potential of the host country, but also great opportunities for innovation and the development of a distinctive yachting culture in this part of Hainan. He hoped that the sector would demonstrate "multi-faceted and multi-dimensional development."

Sanya is China's leading resort, home to more than 1 million people. In 2023, its gross product reached 97.13 billion yuan (about $13.66 billion), up 12%. Its average annual temperature reaches 25.4 degrees Celsius and its coastline is over 200 kilometers long. The surrounding waters have 19 bays and about 40 islands suitable for tourism, all of which allow the local government to successfully develop yachting and beach tourism.

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