Tourism summit opens Rizhao to development possibilities

By Guo Xin (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-11 09:41

Rizhao - The 2008 International Seaside City of Tourism Development summit was held this morning in Rizhao, a beautiful costal city in east China’s Shandong Province.

With the theme of "Ocean, Ecology, Environmentally-friendly and the Future", this year’s gathering is building a platform to encourage exchanges among tourism cities home and abroad on the topics including the travel industry, image-building tourism and management, as well as environmental protection.

The summit is jointly hosted by the Shandong Provincial Tourism Administration and Rizhao Municipal Government. More than 300 representatives from 23 international organizations, including the World Tourism Organization, the International Green Industry Cooperation Organization, the United Nations Industry Development Organization, and the Pacific Islands Forum Trade Office, as well as ambassadors from 47 embassies in China are participating in the summit.

Through various forums and discussion sessions, the summit provides a good opportunity for coastal cities to learn more about the development of tourism in terms of innovation, and studying previous experiences and efficient management models.

"Holidaying in costal cities has become a popular way of traveling in many developed tourism countries, from which the number of people visiting beaches covers half of the total visitors' numbers", Yu Chong, director of the Shandong Provincial Tourism Bureau, told China Daily.

Holiday tourism is still new in China. However, as more people have leisure time and are interested in taking “fashionable tours", , having a holiday on the beach will attract more travelers in China. Learning from other tourism coastal cities and making Shandong a unique and favorable holiday destination has become one of the most significant tasks for Shandong's tourism development in recent years.

Located in the southeast Shandong Province, Rizhao is a coastal port city and enjoys abundant tourism resources. The city boasts a coastline of 100 kilometers, 64 kilometers of which are golden beaches and meet the standard of world first-class bathing beaches.

In the last few years, Rizhao has been granted many honorable titles, including China’s Outstanding Tourism City, National Model City of Environmental Protection, Environmentally-friendly National Model City, and National Garden City.

The summit held in Rizhao will further develop the city. More importantly, it will play an active role in conducting exchange and collaboration on tourism development between China and other countries, as well as in promoting the development of the economy, culture, environmental protection and other relevant aspects of tourism industry for the seaside cities home and abroad, Yu explained.

In conjunction with the summit, other events like the Thousand Travel Agencies Conference, Dialogue between Nordic Investment Bank and Rizhao, and Rizhao Beer Festival are also drawing attentionin the city.