Report: Barbecue tourism doing well in Zibo

Countering recent reports that tourism in Zibo, Shandong province, is in decline, a staff member of the Zibo Tourism Bureau told a reporter from chengdu.cn that visits to the urban area remain at a high level as the summer vacation period approaches.

Zibo has been one of the most popular tourism destinations in China this year, as its barbecue cuisine has been touted in Chinese social media.

"Recently, we have received feedback from tourists about the difficulty of booking hotel rooms," the staff member was quoted as saying. There might be a slight decrease in tourists from surrounding counties and districts, but "with the summer vacation approaching, there will be more university students coming to Zibo".

According to chengdu.cn, a search on Tianyancha, a corporate information platform, indicated that in the past three months more than 450 barbecue restaurants had opened in Zibo.

A market management staff member in Zibo said the level of enthusiasm for barbecue will inevitably decrease to a certain extent, but compared with the time before the barbecue enthusiasm spiked, the current number of visitors to the market has increased more than tenfold.

"We are planning new cultural activities to promote Zibo's culture and tourism, such as calligraphy and painting events," the staff member at the Zibo Tourism Bureau said.

None of the staff members were named online.