Shandong recently made a proposal to accelerate the construction of the modern ocean-featured industry cluster area, and clearly put forward support for coastal cities to develop marine service cluster areas with their own competitive advantages. Sustained by the in-depth integration of marine culture and tourism, marine cultural tourism industry clusters in Qingdao are moving faster to take shape, and unleashing increasing economic vigor through land-sea coordination and industrial linkage.

In Qingdao, the top nine bathing beaches have been upgraded across the board, the 13km-long scenic byway along Laoshan Mountain and wooden trestles that stretches more than 40 km by the sea have all been completed and put into use, and such marine tourism projects as sailing, motorboating, surfing, powered parachute and water cycling have become readily available in Qingdao. As of October 20, 2024, Qingdao Joint Operation Alliance for Marine Tourism has welcomed 2.3416 million tourists, a year-on-year surge of 159%, and generated RMB146.79 million in revenue from passenger tickets, increasing by 67.88% from the year before.

Clusters of resort hotels along the coast in Qingdao are emerging faster. About 30 high-end hotels has so far been put into operation in Qingdao, where such international brands as St. Regis and Marriott have had presence, and eight of the world’s top ten high-end hotel groups have operations.  (Ma Xiaoting)

A wide range of marine tourist products make an increasing number of tourists fond of Qingdao. By Wang Lei