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As the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games draw near, Hebei province is
ready to promote its Olympic-theme tourism to visitors from home and
abroad.
Wang Xinyong, director of Hebei Province Tourism Bureau, talked
with China Business Weekly about the province's preparations for the Olympics
before the start of the Hebei Economic and Trade Fair on May 18.
Due to
its location surrounding Beijing, Hebei province will play a crucial role during
the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games that will bring its tourism industry more
opportunities and challenges.
According to statistics from previous
Olympics, more than 85 percent of the new tourism income during Games goes to
the host city and its neighboring regions. It is estimated that Beijing itself
will attract more than 3 million tourists from home and over 500,000 tourists
from abroad.
There is now a big push underway from almost every province
and city in China for Olympic-theme tourism. Hebei will gain its share due to
its "geographical superiority and splendid tourist resources," said Wang. It
will benefit through accommodating Olympic warm-ups and preliminary soccer
matches.
To meet the opportunity, Wang says Hebei has been improving its
tourism environment and raising the overall level of the industry to prepare for
an estimated one million international and 114 million domestic tourists that
will generate projected revenues of 70 billion yuan.
The Hebei Province
Tourism Bureau developed plans for six Olympic-theme approaches - preliminary
competitions, training, eating and accommodations, sightseeing, entertainment
and shopping.
Chinhuangdao city in Hebei will be among those that host
Olympic soccer teams.
Other soccer hosts include the municipalities of
Tianjin and Shanghai and the cities of Shenyang and Qinhuangdao.
"We will
provide high-quality stadiums for training sessions and warm-up matches and
provide rest and leisure facilities for athletes and tourists. Qinhuangdao has a
great opportunity in holding soccer trial matches," Wang said.
"Olympic
images are everywhere, Olympic hosts are everyone and we will provide green
traffic routes to ensure all the athletes, coaches, referees and visitors will
arrive and watch the matches on time with unimpeded traffic," he
adds.
"To meet the needs of the Games reception system, Hebei province
has selected 200 star-rated hotels with the total capacity of 40,000 beds in the
cities of Langfang, Baoding, Tangshan and Qinhuangdao - all within a drive of 30
minutes to an hour-and-a-half of Beijing," he says.
"They are all able to
meet international requirements for quality, environmental protection and
security," Wang adds.
"We support the building of 'green hotels' to
realize family-like services. We are also reinforcing training services to
ensure that all foreign visitors stay in hotels comfortably, eat delicious food
and enjoy satisfactory reception service. We will also provide discount offers
to make all visitors to Hebei province have a value-worthy
experience."
Hebei has beaches, plains, lakes, hills and mountains that
offer beautiful natural scenery. It also has 168 national antique heritage
protection sites, three world cultural heritage sites and five national historic
culturally famous cities. The province has a long history, ample natural
resources, exquisite traditional crafts and plenty of local
products.
"Our province will have 20,000 tour guides in 2008, among whom
nearly 1,000 can speak foreign languages. We will establish a website for Hebei
tours during Olympic Games, providing convenience for visitors to browse online
and make travel bookings" Wang said.
Domestic tourism income in Hebei
increased by 22 percent in the first quarter of the year, when 150,000 overseas
tourists visited, an increase of 32.32 percent.
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