Tourism a pillar industry of Shanghai by 2025

Shanghai's annual tourism revenue is projected to reach 700 billion yuan (US$108.86 billion) by the end of 2025, from 313.978 billion yuan last year, accounting for 6 percent of the city's GDP, a senior official with the city's cultural and tourism authorities revealed on Saturday.

Ten cultural and tourism projects are on the agenda between 2021 and 2025. Among them, the Huangpu River areas will be turned into a "world-class meeting room" and the Suzhou Creek areas a "city culture and lifestyle leisure belt."

The "five new cities" cultural and tourism upgrade project and Chongming international ecological tourism island upgrade project are also included.

"Tourism will become a pillar industry of Shanghai by 2025," Fang Shizhong, director of the Shanghai Administration of Culture and Tourism told a radio interview on Saturday.

A "red" tourism hop-on/hop-off sightseeing bus service will be launched in June to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China.

It will have five stops including the sites of the First, Second and Fourth National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), May 30th Movement Monument and Nanjing Road E.

A digital approach will empower the city's cultural and tourism development, and 600 "digital hotels" featuring 30-second check-in, zero-second check-out, and intelligent room control services with simple clicks will be established in the city within this year, according to Fang.