The eastern coastal city of Qingdao, Shandong province has achieved great success in promoting the integrated development of the cultural and tourism industries and building a world famous fashion metropolis during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), said local authorities at a recent news conference.
In 2018, the added value of the city's cultural industry reached 53.27 billion yuan ($8.22 billion), accounting for 4.9 percent of that year's GDP.
The beautiful urban landscape of Qingdao, Shandong province [Photo/VCG]
In 2019, there were 583 cultural and related enterprises above designated size in the city, achieving an operating income of 153.78 billion yuan, which accounted for 30 percent of the province's total.
In the first three quarters of 2020, the operating revenue of the city's cultural and related industries above designated size reached 84.16 billion yuan, up 15.4 percent year-on-year, 16 percentage points higher than the national average and 15.3 percentage points higher than the provincial figure.
From 2016 to 2019, the city received about 382 million tourists and generated a tourism revenue of 662.27 billion yuan.
The annual number of tourists saw an average annual growth of 11 percent, increasing from 74.56 million in 2015 to 113.02 million in 2019, while annual tourism revenue increased from 118.98 billion yuan in 2015 to 200.56 billion yuan in 2019, an annual growth rate of 13.9 percent.
Over the past five years, the city has launched a series of measures and guidelines to facilitate the integrated development of local cultural and tourism industries and the sectors' high-quality development.
Qingdao launched 20 specific measures amid the pandemic and allocated 30 million yuan to help cultural tourism enterprises tide over the challenging period.
Today, the city is home to 37 recognized cultural industrial parks (bases), including one of national-level, 25 of provincial-level and 11 of municipal-level.
It has 112 A-level scenic spots, including one 5A-level scenic spot, 26 4A-level ones and 69 3A-level ones.
There are 90 starred hotels in the city, of which nine are five-star, 23 are four-star, 55 are three-star and three are two-star.
The city has 594 travel agencies, among which 59 are engaged in outbound tourism.
By the third quarter of 2020, there were 557 enterprises in cultural and related industries above designated size in the city.
