SANYA, China’s southernmost tropical city, is attracting more foreign tourists with the official launch of a regular passenger line by Star Cruises, one of the world’s largest luxury cruise operators.

More than 1,000 tourists on the Super Star Virgo, the flagship of Star Cruises, arrived at the tourist hotspot in Hainan Province last Monday and spent about eight hours enjoying the coastal scenery .

Sanya is a stop on Super Star Virgo’s regular Hong Kong-Sanya-Vietnam-Hong Kong route. The city’s frontier inspection station said the cruise line planned a total of 24 arrivals at Sanya from April 14 to Oct. 22, or once a week.

The scenic island of Hainan, dubbed China’s answer to Hawaii, is aiming to develop itself into a world-class tourist hotspot, although its international reputation does not match that of Hawaii.

Hainan plans to develop in line with the standards for international tourist destinations by improving tourist management, staff quality and infrastructure, says Zhang Qi, Hainan Provincial Tourism Bureau’s director.

With a landmass of 34,000 square kilometers, Hainan was established in 1988 as a province and approved as a special economic zone with preferential development policies.

Last year, the island hosted 18.4 million domestic and foreign tourists, reaping 17.1 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion). The tourist numbers were 24 times higher than in 1987 while revenue soared 150 times the previous year.

As of now, three major international passenger liners — Carnival Cruise Lines, Royal Caribbean International and Star Cruises, have all opened routes with a stop in Sanya.

Xinhua)

Tourists relax on a beach in Sanya. File photo