Drive to develop tourism pays off in Baotou in first half year

(chinadaily.com.cn)

Updated: 2016-07-20

The income generated by the Baotou tourism industry for the past six month period was reportedly 15.1 billion yuan ($2.26 billion), a year-on-year growth of 23.5 percent, showing that efforts the city has made in key project construction, cross tourism promotion, marketing, regional integration and cooperation as well as in smart tourism development during the last couple of years are bearing pleasant results.

In the past six months, the city attracted some 4.38 million tourists, up by 13.6 percent compared to the same period last year.

Earlier this year, the city made long-term plans for an overall tourist development strategy supported by a host of official documents and policies. The strategy sorts out key projects and involves systematic work on district scenic viewing routes, rural tourism, and self-driving choices.

Baotou has signed a string of cross-border tourism cooperation agreements with Mongolia including entry and exit permits, route design, environmental protection, resort zones and related facility construction.

The city has also intensified promotion in the first half of 2016 through pictures and videos shown on TV and websites, and at airports, informing more people about the city. It also held promotional conferences in several provinces.

Baotou has taken part in regional tourism cooperation, holding the 4th Hohhot-Baotou-Yinchuan-Yulin economic conference, and tapping into joint efforts in tourism promotion, talent sharing, traffic optimization, and use of the Internet with 12 other cities in the region.

The city has also launched several "smart tourism" projects, which feature integrated tourism resources and stronger interactivity between tourists and their destinations via the Internet. It has developed a website offering public information, a portable tour guide system and a digital information inquiry network.