Actors from the Golden Opera Troupe performed at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Shanxi Tourism Development Conference in Taiyuan city, Shanxi province, on Friday.
Shanxi province plans to enhance the province’s culture and tourism industries by leveraging its abundant resources and boosting cooperation with a major tourism event that kicked off on Friday.
Guests including representatives from foreign embassies in China, international tourism organizations and institutions, and foreign cultural tourism enterprises gathered in Guxian, Taiyuan, Shanxi Province to attend the inauguration ceremony of the 2024 Shanxi Tourism Development Conference.
The event will continue through Sunday.
The state’s comprehensive cultural and tourism activities conference was held on Friday morning.
“In addition, a series of supporting activities will be held, including visits to Shanxi by internationally renowned intellectual property enterprises and international travel agencies, as well as an international tourism industry matching conference,” said Wang Aiqin, director of the Shanxi Provincial Culture and Tourism Bureau.
“One of the innovative highlights of the conference will be a series of demand and supply intermediation activities for market actors,” she said.
The Shanxi Tourism Development Conference has been held since 2015 and has become an important platform for enhancing the province’s image, promoting the high-quality development of the cultural tourism industry and expanding international exchanges and cooperation.
“Shanxi is world-famous for its three UNESCO World Heritage sites: Yungang Grottoes, Wutai Mountain and Pingyao Ancient City,” said Zhang Zhiren, deputy director of the bureau.
“Shanxi Province has 531 nationally protected cultural relics, ranking first in the country, and is known as the Museum of Ancient Chinese Architecture and Art.”
As of the end of last year, the total number of A-level tourist attractions in the province had reached 390, of which 10 were 5A-level tourist attractions.
Taiyuan Vice Mayor Li Yongqiang, co-organizer of the event, highly recommended the city, which has a history of civilization dating back 5,000 years.
“We have prepared luxury packages for tourism investors and set up a special fund of 1.3 billion yuan ($179 million), with rewards of up to 50 million yuan for project investments,” he said.
Travel agencies that attract tourists will be rewarded according to the number of tourists they attract, and top-ranked travel agencies will receive a one-time bonus of up to 1 million yuan.
At the meeting, Iceland’s ambassador to China, Torill Ibsen, said he hoped there would be direct flights between Iceland and China within a few years.
“This is my third time in Taiyuan. The Shanxi Museum is very exquisite and beautiful,” he said.
“The Xuan Kong Temple and the Yungang Grottoes are also very impressive.”
The author can be contacted at zhouhuiying@chinadaily.com.cn.
