A yacht is displayed at a yacht show during the first China International Consumer Products Expo in Haikou, capital of south China's Hainan Province, May 7, 2021. (Xinhua/Yang Guanyu)
BEIJING, March 14 (Xinhua) -- South China's Hainan Province saw a thriving yacht industry in 2021, reported Chinanews.com on March 12.
Data from the Sanya Yachting Association showed that 159,800 yacht trips were made last year in Sanya, a resort city of Hainan, up 47 percent year on year. By the end of 2021, Sanya had 945 registered yachts, up 52.1 percent year on year, with the number of new yachts registered in 2021 alone reaching 323, surging 202 percent year on year.
Speaking of the reasons behind the rising sector, Hu Xiaoming, special consultant of Sanya Central Business District Administration said that yacht tourism is less affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as the space in a yacht is small enough to avoid large-scale gathering.
He added that the cost of yacht tourism has been slashed in recent years, and tourists only need to pay several hundreds of yuan to go to sea.
Also, young people's demand for new ways of playing like wakesurfing in recent years has underpinned yacht tourism.
Another factor was that some tourists who might have chosen overseas tourism turned to tour at home due to the pandemic, according to Hu. (Edited by Su Dan with Xinhua Silk Road, sudan@xinhua.org)
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