Registrations for Boao Int'l Tourism Forum soar

Registrations for the Boao International Tourism Forum have soared during the countdown to its opening, Lu Zhiyuan, director of the Hainan Tourism Committee, told www.hinews.cn.

Nearly 600 VIPs have registered for the forum and organizers have received more than three times the 200 expected applications for press passes.

Lu told www.hinews.cn that public interest, heightened by the government's Hainan International Tourism Island initiative, has far exceeded the organizers' expectations. During the early planning period, there had been worries not enough people would be willing to attend.

But after the opening of the official forum website, the number of people registering grew sharply and organizers' concerns switched to how to manage the scale of the forum and assure its quality.

Accommodation for participants in the two themed seminars that will take place in Haikou and the four that will take place in Sanya has already been arranged. Other services, including security, vehicles, volunteer training and catering are being put in place and arrangements for the forum gala are at an advanced stage.