SANYA /China/, May 23. /TASS/. A festival designed to boost tourism kicked off in the resort city of Sanya in Hainan province in southern China. According to the Sanya Daily newspaper, it will end in September.
The event is organized by the Department of Culture and Tourism in cooperation with the Tourism Bureau of the resort city of Sanya. The opening ceremony of the festival was held on May 20 on the territory of one of the city's key attractions, Luhuitou Park.
According to Sanya Daily, the city will host special events during the four months to encourage duty-free shopping, as well as various sports, music and cultural events will be organized to develop and enrich the city's tourism industry. Several hotels and tourist attractions in the resort plan to provide discounts and special deals to attract tourists.
The city authorities also intend to cooperate with the Chinese social network Douyin (a domestic version of TikTok) in order to promote themed events on the web.
By 2025, the Chinese government intends to create an "international center for tourism and consumption" on Hainan. In order to do so, the "Eastern Hawaii" with their unique natural landscapes, thick rainforests and great climate will establish a developed network of hotels, which blend perfectly with white sandy beaches stretching along the coastline. The combination of an exotic subtropical nature and a modern eco-friendly infrastructure will boost tourist inflow to the island from the most distant parts of the world. In 2021, Hainan Island welcomed more than 81 million Chinese and foreign tourists, an increase of 25.5% year on year. Revenue of the tourism industry grew by 58.6% to 138.4 billion yuan (about $21.8 billion).