Dandong held the municipal tourism work conference on March 16, 2012, advancing the goal of promoting key tourist projects and developing the tourism industry as a pillar industry for Dandong, Liaoning province.

Shi Guang, mayor of Dandong, said that Dandong's tourism industry development is enjoying a good basis, unique features and has huge potential. Priority should be given to the development of tourism industry to drive service industry development for the city.

The tourism departments of different levels should pay attention to the construction of key tourist projects and quality tourist services. An emphasis needs to be laid on the Yalu River tourist area, combining with a border tour, countryside tour, hot springs tour and folk culture tour.

The city should also work on improving supporting services and facilities for the tourism industry and speeding up the construction of the tourism industrial chain like building top hotels and restaurants. The tourism industry should also strengthen publicity and marketing promotions, standardizes management and improve the service level to accelerate tourism development in Dandong. It should aim to make the city a tourist destination in northeastern China.

In 2012, Dandong plans to take utmost efforts to build the Yalu River tourist area into a national 5A scenic spot. The city will also continue to raise the scale and level of the Phoenix Hill, Tianqiaogou, Dagu Mountain and Daludao scenic spots. It hopes to realize a tourism income of 33.55 billion yuan ($5.31 billion) in 2012, an increase of 20 percent year-on-year.