In the 2024 New Year holiday, Qingdao ranked among the most popular destinations where tourists celebrated the New Year’s Eve. In the just-concluded holiday, the overall number of tourism orders surged 211% over the same period last year, and 76 grade-A scenic spots welcomes 1.0882 million tourists, increasing by 181.34% year on year. The data show a positive signal for Qingdao’s tourism market in the new year. Furthermore, the newly-unveiled Several Measures on Promoting High-quality Development of Qingdao’s Tourism Lodging Industry has shown Qingdao’s great sincerity to appeal to tourists.

Qingdao is currently home to 4,660 hotels and restaurants of all kinds (214,000 rooms), 78 star-rated hotels and 6 star-rated homestay hotels, including more than 30 highly rated tourism hotels. Thanks to the compelling tourism resources consisting of mountains, seas, urban areas and bays, a number of homestay hotels that find enormous favour with tourists have emerged nearby Badaguan, Fushan Bay and Laoshan Mountain Scenic Spot and along the West Coast, and Imeroui, Cape No. 7, Mohai Boutique Villa and Linlan Sea Villa have become internet-famous tourist destinations in Qingdao. Despite so many hotels, it is hard to get a room in peak tourist seasons.

According to the New Measures, by the end of 2025, Qingdao will finish the introduction of more than 10 high-end brand hotels, build 5 hospitable Shandong-themed boutique hotels, help these districts and county-level cities, where there are no five-star tourism hotels, to fulfill zero breakthrough, boast a total of more than 100 star-rated tourism hotels, including more than 15 five-star tourism hotels and 25 four-star ones. Qingdao will make sustained efforts to build outstanding homestay hotels. By 2025, Qingdao will strive to build 15 five-star tourism homestay hotels and 40 four-star or above ones. Qingdao will work hard to diversify the supply of lodging for rural tourism. By the end of 2025, Qingdao will newly build 4 provincial level tourism homestay hotel cluster area, more than 10 rural hotels and 10 featured hotels. All these efforts are aimed at making guests from afar reluctant to leave and enjoy themselves to their heart’s content.  (Xu Nuo)

The exterior of Qingdao Yifan Senhai Camping Hotel.