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Hainan aims to be a world-class tourist hotspot

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-04-16 10:10

Sanya, China's southernmost tropical city, is attracting the eye of more and more foreign tourists with the official launch of a regular passenger line by Star Cruises, one of the world's largest luxury cruise operators.

More than 1,000 tourists on the SuperStar Virgo under the flagship of Star Cruises, arrived at the tourist hotspot in Hainan Province around midday on Monday and spent about eight hours enjoying the beautiful coastal scenery .

Sanya is a stop on SuperStar Virgo's regular Hong Kong-Sanya-Vietnam-Hong Kong route. The city's frontier inspection station said the cruise planned a total of 24 arrivals at Sanya from April 14 to October 22, or once a week.

The scenic island of Hainan, dubbed China's answer to Hawaii, is aiming to develop itself into a world-class tourist hotspot, although its international fame currently still cannot match that of Hawaii.

Hainan will build itself in line with the standards for international tourist destinations by improving tourism management, staff quality and infrastructure, says Zhang Qi, Hainan Provincial Tourism Bureau's director.

With a landmass area of 34,000 square kilometers, Hainan was established in 1988 as a province and approved to be a special economic zone enjoying preferential development policies.

Last year, the island hosted 18.4 million tourist arrivals from both home and abroad, reaping 17.1 billion yuan ($2.4 billion). The tourist number and revenue were 24 times and 150 times respectively greater than those of 1987.

"Currently accounting for 14 percent of the island's gross domestic product, tourism has become a most promising sector in the island's development," says Chen Yao, the provincial tourism bureau's deputy director.

As of now, three major international passenger liners -- Carnival Cruise Lines, Royal Caribbean International and Star Cruises, have all opened routes with a stop in Sanya.

The number of foreign tourists to Hainan has been rising rapidly over the past few years, thanks to a series of tourism promotion activities abroad.

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