As marine sightseeing tourism, sea island tourism and cruise ship tourism continues to improve and expand, and the 15th Five-Year Plan for Building a Tourism Powerhouse explicitly includes Qingdao among the key tourist cities, the key cities for inbound tourism and the list of cruise ports to be supported for improvements, Qingdao has mapped out clear goals for its marine cultural tourism.

As this year unfolds, the market influence of Qingdao’s joint operation model for marine tourism is emerging rapidly. Qingdao Tourism Group has taken the lead in coordinating efforts among 92 shipping companies, and making utmost use of 11 terminals and 235 ships and boats to develop China’s largest joint operation consortium for marine tourism. The program “Touring Qingdao on the Sea” has converted scattered landmarks into a consumption network that can be extended across the country. The consortium in the first eight months of 2026 received a total of 3.5213 million tourists, and gained 17.37% more revenues from the year before, thereby providing “a solution with Qingdao’s characteristics” for coastal Chinese cities to modernize their governance of marine tourism.

Qingdao took continuous steps to develop new inbound tourist products. For example, Qingdao launched the first large-scale tourist group with pets from South Korea in Shandong Province and received many cycling groups. Qingdao pressed ahead with the “marine tourism plus” strategy to deliver more comfortable experiences in sailing, yachting and offshore angling, and pioneered many projects in China such as the static state tourist event “cruise beer festival”. Sea islands one after another are being incorporated into Qingdao’s landscape of coastal tourism. Qingdao is currently coordinating efforts to advance the integration of “land, sea and islands”, and taking steps to better conserve and develop Lingshan Island, Zhucha Island, Xiaoguan Island and Zhaitang Island in an aim to take the lead in the province in securing breakthroughs in terms of sea island tourism.  (Ma Xiaoting)

The pleasure-ships are driving on the sea surface between Zhanqiao Pier and Little Qingdao.  By Wang Lei

The scenery of Qingdao Lingshan Island.  By Wang Lei