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Tourism key in growth equation

By Wang Yu (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-01 10:50

The 80-year-old Liberation Bridge on the Haihe River is a famous tourism attraction in Tianjin. [China Daily]

 
As the Olympic Games approach, Beijing is attracting increasingly intense attention, which has spread to its coastal neighbor Tianjin, co-host of Olympic soccer games.

Tourism chief She Qingwen expects Tianjin will attract 1.2 to 1.3 million foreign tourists across the world this year, up about 25 percent over 2007.

The Fifth Avenue gathers most of the Western-style buildings in Tianjin. [China Daily]

As a host city of the Olympics, the city is projected to attract 65 million domestic visitors, a 10 percent increase.

"These are conservative figures," She said. "The year of 2008 will turn out to be positive for Tianjin's tourism sector."

To meet demands of the rising numbers of tourists the city's tourism authority has developed more products and trained more tour guides. Last year, it trained about 10,000 guides.

City plans call for tourism is to be a key industry by 2015, accounting for about 8 percent of the local gross domestic product (GDP), according to She.

A bronze horse-drawn wagon sculpture on the Fifth Avenue. [China Daily]

Tourism revenues are projected to contribute 5.6 percent to Tianjin's GDP this year.

"It is a difficult mission, but we will try our utmost," She said.

In the next five years the city will invest 52 billion yuan to build 20 projects and boost Tianjin's leisure and vacation tours. Among them is an ocean park and Panshan Mountain Cultural City.

As the Binhai New Area of Tianjin further develops, the number of business and exhibition visitors is also expected to grow "to become a core component of Tianjin's economic structure", She said.

The tourism authority is also developing a range of tourism urban spots, including 12 new attractions, eight of which are already completed.

Large projects in the Binhai New Area, such as the Airbus A320 assembly line, a factory for next-generation rockets and a new shipbuilding facility, will attract talents from all over the country and the world and also serve as tourism sites.

"Economic development in the Binhai New Area and Tianjin as a whole will fuel the local tourism industry, and vice versa," She said. "Through promoting Tianjin as a tourism destination, we want to market its overall resources and promote its image."

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