Among the many provincial pavilions in Zone A of the Shanghai Expo Park, the Hainan pavilion attracts most attention and patronage for its unique design that combines advanced digital projection technologies with magic silk screen and blue strings. For all the "Local Weeks" staged to showcase their distinct culture and glamour, Hainan Week excels in its promotional tactics-a package of creative yet practical slogan, simulation experiences and free trip for lucky lottery winners.
"Better city, Better life" was the slogan Shanghai employed to win the hosting right for the 2010 World Expo eight years ago in Monte Carlo. In line with this theme, Hainan had its own slogan revealed as "Come and Exerience your better life in Hainan" at the openning ceremony of the "Hainan Week" held during 7-11 August.
By displaying her distinctive charms of the 3S (sea,sand,sun) inside the pavilion as well as in performances and shows stage, Hainan was successful in wooing and luring numerous visitors to flock to the paradise of vacation, tropical island of livability and also the largest special economic zone in China.
Now whereabouts in Hainan will these visitors go? It is no doubts that top on their itinerary would be destinations like Sanya and Boao, due to the established reputation at home and abroad of Sanya as a growing international tourist city and Boao as the venue of the Forum for Asia(BFA) in the past decade.
This can be seen by the lion's share of tourist market taken up by the two cities, leaving Haikou, the capital of Hainan, a miserable slice of cake, according to the statistics released by the tourism authority. A recently conducted survey showed 8 out of 10 tourists visiting Hainan would put their first choice of destination at Sanya, followed by Boao, the remaining two might choose Haikou as a stopover en route to other places.
Believe it or not, Haikou has been largely ignored, if not deserted altogether.
So what should Haikou do? Haikou has no choice but to catch up to share the potentially huge pie brought about by the goal of building an international tourism island. In fact, the Haikou city government has been sparing no efforts to make Haikou a tourist-attractive and visitor-friendly city by mapping out new strategies, improving quality of scenic spots, increasing tourist incentives and paying more attention to effective promotion, Zhu han-song, Hankou's Vice Mayor responsible for tourism in the city, appealed to the public to visit Haikou while in Hainan, when he was speaking at the "Promote Haikou" conference on the evening of August 10 during Hainan Week at Shanghai Expo.
Mr Zhu unveiled a package tour of six items in Haikou, that are either exclusive or impressive. The well designed package includes respective visits to the splendorous volcanic geo-park, architectural grandeur of the arcades in old town, fantastic sea-background live show of "Impression Hainan", golfing in any of the splendid courses built next to the blue sea or lush coconut trees, pleasant hot spring spa, and the enjoyable local delicacy.
Of course, Haikou has many more to offer than just this package. Being the capital of Hainan, it serves as the island province's center in politics, economy, culture, education. While Haikou might not be the premiere destination for tourists for the time being, it boasts the best infrastructures and medical care facilities in this province, which is of crucial importance to shore up the sustainable growth of the island's tourism. In recent years, Haikou has twinned with nearly 20 international sister cities, and successfully held a number of international cultural and sports events ( Ironman China, Inter Cities, WBC boxing games, International Cycling Race). All these have considerably reinforced Haikou's soft strengths and cashed in its overseas reputation. Moreover, two upcoming events will further put Haikou on national and world spotlight. The first is the Mission Hills Star Trophy, a golfing tournament to be held between 28-31 October, which will see presence of international celebrities like Hollywood's Michael Douglas, Christian Slater, Matthew McConaughey, British Hugh Grant and Japanese Sanma Akashiya along with many other well known faces. This will be followed by the Pan-Pearl Delta Mayors Forum, which is scheduled to take place in mid-December. Nine mayors from PPD capital cities will meet in Haikou for the first time to promote regional cooperation.
While tourism does not mean everything to Hainan, without tourism nothing else seems to be more meaningful to Hainan. Therefore, it is time to rethink Haikou's role in Hainan's tourism development. We are glad that Haikou's incessant efforts are paying off, It will never be too late for Haikou to catch up and become a leader in the drive towards Hainan international tourism island. With its unique advantages and combined clout, it is fair to say a better Haikou will definitely lead to a greater Hainan. Haikou cheers up! Hainan moves on!
