Shenzhen to begin tourism program for locals

Source: Shenzhen Daily | 02-02-2009 16:21

BEIJING, Feb. 2 -- A citywide program will be launched in Shenzhen's enterprises and public institutions to promote tourism in the city.

Called the Residents' Tourism Program," it will encourage award tours, welfare tours and study tours in these entities, officials with the city's tourism bureau said, without elaborating.

The program will be one of the measures to be taken by the city government this year to establish a tourism service system for local residents.

Bureau officials have vowed to take a people-oriented approach in establishing the service system.

Besides setting up a platform and an inquiry station offering updated tourism information, efforts will also be made to encourage travel services to open outlets in communities to help residents plan their domestic and overseas tours more easily. Campaigns will also be launched to promote tours to Hong Kong and Macao.

High-end tourism will be the focus of the city's new drive. High on the agenda are the development of the tourism project in Dapeng Peninsula and a study on how to build the eastern coast into a high-quality coastal resort. Among the key tourism projects listed by the city government are Phase II of OCT East, the Happy Coast theme park and the renovation of the 15-kilometer Haibin Thoroughfare.

Other measures include building more upmarket hotels in Bao'an and Longgang districts, promoting tourism relating to yachts, passenger liners, golf, hiking and gliding as well as individual travel, apart from attracting top travel agencies in Japan, the United States and Europe to set up branches in Shenzhen.

Editor:Liu Anqi