Shanghai and partners go for “Five One-Hundreds

TO strengthen tourism cooperation and promote new local tourism products,Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administrative Commission (SMTAC), the Travel and Tourism Bureau of Jiangsu Province and the Travel and Tourism Bureau of Zhejiang Province have decided to take the advantage of Beijing Olympics to combine efforts to integrate local tourism resources into various tourism packages in order to attract more inbound tourists.

According to Cheng Meihong, SMTAC director, Jiangsu, Zheijang and Shanghai officially launched the “Five One-Hundreds” marketing promotion campaign on January 1.

Cheng commented that for the time being everything is going on smoothly as planned.

To boost the promotion of Shanghai as a business events destination, SMTAC plans to improve and update its business events website in 2008 along with continued implementation of the “Conference Ambassador” activity and regularly holding promotion campaigns in foreign countries.

Meanwhile, with the change in China’s national holiday arrangement, more priorities will be given by SMTAC Commission to the newly announced national holidays such as Ching Ming Festival, also called the Tomb-Sweeping Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival. They will work on integrating China’s traditional festivals with appropriate tourism products.Zhang Zhiqiao, SMTAC deputy director of the Domestic Tourism Department, cited Fushouyuan Garden in Shanghai. This garden is going to be changed into a cultural theme garden so that it will not only become a place for local residents to enjoy their leisure time but also an important stop for foreign tourists to be involved personally with Chinese culture.

Wanglan, manager of the Planning Department of Fushouyuan Garden, said that the garden released its ”Pressure-Reducing” trip for white-collar workers last year, which was received enthusiastically by the market.

For Ching Ming Festival this year, they will continue to organise this tourism activity together with other new tourism products sponsored by other five major places of interests in Qingpu District of Shanghai.