Sports events serve up success for Zhuhai's tourism industry

Sporting events on the one hand help to build up local people's interest in sports and hence the vitality of the city, on the other, they offer must-see programs for tourists, especially sports fans, explained Wu Xiangming, deputy director of the Zhuhai culture, radio, TV, tourism and sports administration, during a recent news conference.

"Sporting events are expected to give impetus to the city's endeavor to become an international seaside recreation and tourism destination by 2025," he said.

Apart from tennis events, the city hosted a Bay Area sailing championship in September and will organize an urban bike challenge in November. For the same purpose, Zhuhai has organized and will continue to hold cultural events, the official said.

The city has held a citizens' art festival, the third Zhuhai International Mozart Competition for Young Musicians and the Zhuhai Beach Musical Festival among this year's events, and will host the sixth China International Circus Festival in November.

The biennial Airshow China, one of the world's top air shows, is set to next be held in November 2020, and is expected to be an even bigger draw card.

A tourism development plan the city issued in 2017 detailed four major categories - sightseeing and touring, convention and exhibition, recreation and holiday, as well as special festivals and events - to achieve its goal.

Zhuhai's Hengqin New Area received the green light to become an international recreation and tourism island from the National Development and Reform Commission.

The recreation and tourism sector is expected to become a pillar industry of Hengqin with the added value of the tertiary industry accounting for at least 75 percent of its total GDP in 2020, while an international island traveling destination is expected to take shape there by 2020, according to the international recreation and tourism island construction plan for Hengqin, issued by the National Development and Reform Commission in April.

The city this year has also hammered out a couple of regulations for keeping the tourism industry and the development of tourism resources, particularly ocean resources, right on track.

According to Zhuhai's latest development plan for tourism released in August, the city is expecting 50 million visits to its scenic spots annually in 2020 and 75 million by 2025.