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￥15b to be used on tourism
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IN the next five years 15 billion yuan will be invested to beef up Shenzhen's attraction for tourists, as the city pushes ahead with its mission to become one of the world's top tourist destinations.
The investment will include the construction of high-tech and interactive tourist attractions and three new tourist sights including Golden Beach in the east of the city, Shenzhen Bay in the central part, and Seaside Idyllic Life in the western part, which are currently on the drawing board.
But for existing destinations, emphasis will be laid on increasing the cultural focus of attractions and producing new programmes to attract tourists, like the indoor skiing venue that has been built in Window of the World, the first China carnival held by Overseas Chinese Town and the first China International Magic Art Festival sponsored by Happy Valley.
It is reported that Shenzhen this year is expected to receive 45.08 million visitors and achieve its tourism income target of 33.5 billion yuan plus US$1.53 billion in hard currency.
Last year, a total of 16 million Hong Kong people came to Shenzhen to shop and travel. Each person made an average of three or four visits.
Miss Zhang is one of them. She says she usually comes to SZ to have breakfast with some of her married girlfriends at 8am and spends the whole day in the city shopping or sightseeing. At about three or four in the afternoon, they head home to prepare dinner after first buying fresh vegetables in SZ.
Altogether about 42.94 million people visited the city in 2000, 18.18 per cent more than in 1999, bringing the sector's total income to 30.16 billion yuan and earning US$1.411 billion in foreign currency, growing by 17.3 per cent over 1999.
By the end of last year, there were 139 star-ranked hotels, 46 travel agencies and 20 billion yuan in fixed assets for the city's tourism industry. (Alfred Zhang)
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