As of June 11, the Qingdao Marine Tourism Consortium welcomed more than 1 million tourists, chalking up a new record even prior to the tourist peak season.

Over the recent years, Qingdao Tourism Group has been leading efforts to unite 63 maritime merchants to set up China’s largest marine tourism consortium in a bid to provide Qingdao’s model for joint operations for marine tourism. In the Spring Festival holiday, the consortium received 77,800 passengers as “Celebrating the New Year on the Sea” began to catch on. Thanks to the “Dragon Boat Festival+Children’s Day” dual effect, the Qingdao Marine Tourism Consortium in June carried 57,600 passengers, growing 14.01% year on year, with the number of voyages surging 38.79% over the same period last year.

As the internet-famous shipping routes “Touring Around Jiaozhou Bay” and “Undersea World Round Trip” can be operated by private maritime merchants, joint operations ranging from pleasure boats and small boats in Zhanqiao Pier wharf, Qingdao Bay, sailboats, motorboats and water flying board in the Olympic Sailing Center to ferries and the internet-famous route around the Undersea World have helped fully unleashed the vitality of marine tourism in Qingdao. The marine tourism consortium was rated as an outstanding case for the building of a modern tourism industry system for 2025 in April, and now serves as a China’s model. (Ma Xiaoting)

Tourists depart by pleasure-boat from Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center. By Wang Lei