Aug 30 was the final day of the 2011 China • Shanxi Tourism Expo, at the China (Taiyuan) Coal Trading Center, which, in five days, went a long way toward improving Shanxi’s tourism image was praised for its excellent presentation.

More than 600 companies and institutions, and 4,000 delegates, attended the five-day event, which also attracted 150,000 visitors. Participating companies signed 33.7 billion yuan worth of deals.

In recent years, Shanxi has worked harder to explore for tourism resources to improve the industry. It has opened quite a number of new scenic spots, which have helped to restructure the provincial tourism business. Some areas have become a new force for improving the local economy and support growth.

The expo helped provincial tourist companies learn how to get the public’s attention and make themselves more popular. It had a castle built on the left side of the main hall and its 120-square-meter booths were well equipped with modern acoustics and lighting. There was even a Miss World on hand for the opening to add some spark and help present Shanxi tourist culture to the outside world.

It also had 11 of the province’s cities represented with novel ideas on how to present the beauty and fascination of their scenic spots. They interacted with the visitors through tourism route events, folk-custom performances, and reality shows to get people more interested.

The expo also had some success in attracting investment, with participating companies signing 43 deals, valued at of 33.7 billion yuan in all. This clearly injected new energy into the province both for expanding the tourism industry and for helping industrial transformation.

The expo also created more regional interaction in the tourism sector and the province was able to learn a lot from other regions.