Shantou launches tourism promotion to help ailing economy

Shantou has launched a tourism promotion blitz overseas to shore up its battered economy.

Party Secretary Li Dongshu led a delegation to Taiwan from October 3 to 16, and officials are now mustering support from Southeast Asian envoys in Guangzhou for their countries to send delegations for a tourism promotion fair in Shantou before the end of the year, industry sources said.

Shantou has benefited from the opening of mini links between Taiwan and the mainland as it can siphon off Taiwanese tourists who land in Xiamen for religious tours.

Mr Li's visit was to lay the groundwork for the opening of direct links and companies are preparing to launch charter flights once the green light is given.

Southeast Asia, with its Chaozhou diaspora - descendants of migrants from Shantou - is a target of Shantou's tourism drive, although officials are concerned that the pool of potential visitors may be drying up as the ties that bind the younger generation to the ancestral homeland have weakened.

But Shantou Tourist General Corp deputy general manager Yao Taiyung said Shantou was also counting on domestic tourism for growth. This year, Guangzhou and other Pearl River Delta cities emerged as a major source of tourists for Shantou as the Sars outbreak deterred people from holidaying overseas, he said.