TAIYUAN, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Cultural and tourism related events have provided new impetus for the tourism development in Datong, Shanxi Province and have driven local tourism index up by 10.87 percent on year in the third quarter of 2019.
The tourism index of the north China city averaged at 1438.85 points in the third quarter, peaking at 1749.69 points on July 27 when the Fifth Jackie Chan International Action Film Week dropped the curtain. This also registered a 11.13 percent increase compared with the peak level a year ago, the report by Xinhua Index Department under China Economic Information Service (CEIS) showed.
The report presents bright prospect for Datong’s tourism development with sub-indicators of the index, namely tourism flow, consumption as well as public attention all heated up during the report period.
Specifically, the number of tourists continued to rise since July 11 and reached a quarter-peak of more than 350,000 on July 14, right before the 2019 Datong Yungang culture and tourism series activities. It is noted that such kind of events brought Datong some 8.8 million tourists in July, up 16.43 percent on year.
Meanwhile, the report cited insights from industry experts, noting that the open of Datong-Zhangjiakou high-speed railway for traffic by the end of this year is likely to further boost Datong’s tourism development as the city becomes more accessible and convenient to visit.
Also, Datong could further link with Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei circle with the new high-speed railway line, said Liu Yanping, deputy director and researcher with the city and competitiveness research center under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).
Statistics from the culture and tourism bureau of Datong showed that the city received some 10.685 million tourists during the seven-day national holiday period this year,realizing some 5.24 billion yuan of revenue, up 19.03 percent and 28.05 percent year on year, respectively, both higher than the province’s average level. (Edited by Niu Huizhe, niuhuizhe@xinhua.org)
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