City's tourism rebounds with 144 million domestic visits in H1

Shanghai's culture and tourism development is on a fast track toward its goal of becoming a world-class tourist city by the end of 2025.

The city recorded 144 million visits by domestic tourists in the first half of this year, reaping tourism revenue of 172.4 billion yuan (US$26.64 billion), Shanghai's cultural and tourism authorities announced on Friday.

The activity represented an increase of 55 percent in visits and 69 percent in revenue from the same period in 2020, and marked an 83 percent and 78 percent recovery respectively from 2019, the Shanghai Administration of Culture and Tourism said.

The city's tourism recovery level between January and June was 6 and 8 percentage points higher than the nation's average in terms of the two indexes.

"Shanghai has a unique location to develop its tourism industry, advantages in the consumer market, rich resources featuring 'red' culture, Jiangnan culture and haipai (Shanghai-style) culture as well as a large number of good tourism firms," Shanghai Vice Mayor Chen Tong told a press conference.

"Tourism has become one of the pillar industries boosting the city's economic development," said Chen.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, the city recorded 8.39 million visits, close to the figure in the same period in 2019.

"Shanghai has seen strong signs of tourism recovery," said Fang Shizhong, director of Shanghai Administration of Culture and Tourism, during the press conference.

Shanghai has 130 A-level tourist attractions, 11 national-level historic and cultural towns, 3,449 immovable historical relics, 1,058 historic buildings, 44 historic protection zones, 153 museums, 94 art galleries and 217 theaters and performance venues.

About 100 performances are held in the city daily, enriching people's cultural life.

"The target is to turn the city into the top choice for urban tourism, an international tourism hub, an investment portal for Asian-Pacific tourism, and an international digital tourism capital by 2025," said Chen.

A world-class waterfront leisure tourism belt along the Huangpu River and a cultural life belt merging the city's history, culture, industry and green spaces are also on the agenda.