June 8th saw the National Development and Reform Commission officially release the 39,000 word "2010-2020 Hainan International Tourism Island Development Planning Outline". Divided into 17 chapters with 63 subsections, the document outlines the philosophy, strategic positioning, development goals and key areas of focus in the establishment of Hainan International Tourism Island.
It also contains a comprehensive analysis of the underlying national and international factors affecting the island's development as well detailing specific arrangements in areas such as geographical layout, infrastructure construction, industrial development, safeguards, and immediate actions. The plan is the fundamental future blueprint and action plan for the development of Hainan International Tourism Island over the next few years.
According to the goals described in the planning outline, Hainan will become a worldwide first class island leisure resort by the year 2020. By then, value added from the tourism industry as a percentage of provincial GDP should exceed 12% whilst the total contribution of tertiary industries should reach 60%. Provincial urban and rural GDP along with people's standards of living should reach national advanced level whilst aggregate environmental quality should remain at a leading level nationally.
The planning outline proposes that development of the international tourism island should adhere to the six key points of following international standards to create quality products; continuing to enrich the people of the island and improving their standard of living; maintaining environmental protection priorities; encouraging reform and innovation in new areas; remaining within policy guidelines to ensure success and maintaining overall coordination to achieve the overall development goals.
Six integrated regions are detailed in the plan for the development of Hainan International Tourism Island. The northern region with Haikou at its center and covering Wenchang, Ding'an and Chengmai will focus on developing industries including entertainment, golf and real estate, modern service industries as well as automotive, bio-pharmaceuticals and high-technology.
Sanya's role is as the center for the southern region where the focus will be on developing hotel accommodation, sport and entertainment facilities as well as retirement nursing homes. The central region comprising Wuzhishan, Qiongzhong, Tunchang and Baisha will prioritize strengthening of their tropical and water resources whilst developing tropical agriculture and forestry industries.
Eco-tourism and local cultural tourism will also be developed in this area. Qionghai and Wanning make up the eastern region where fishery, coastal tourism and agricultural products will be the focus of activity. The western region includes Danzhou, Lingao, Changjiang and Dongfang as well as the Yangpu Economic Development Zone.
These areas will concentrate on developing maritime and high-technology industries as well as ecotourism, adventure tourism and business tourism. The maritime region will fully exploit available maritime resources, consolidate and upgrade the fishing and ocean transport industries, continue with oil and gas exploration as well as pay attention to the mining and machinery sectors.
Maritime tourism will also be expanded as will maritime sunrise industries.
Within the specific provisions of the outline plan, the provincial government has overall responsibility for the allocation of tourism resources and approval of major tourism projects. Coastal, shoreline, riparian and lakeside land resources will primarily be earmarked for construction of resort and leisure hotel developments. Coastal developments should as far as possible not block the view of the ocean and safeguard wide open spaces. Shoreline buildings should be at least 1-200 meters beyond the level reached by high tide.
The plan proposes that by 2020, the percentage of "clean energy" as part of primary energy consumption should be in the proportion 50% whilst vehicle exhaust emissions meet national advanced level standards.
By 2015, Hainan will have completed a "two hour tourism traffic loop", the basic structure of an around the island express rail system and "crossroads" highways running north to south and east to west. With provincial assistance roads in rural areas will also be upgraded and extended.
The longest section of the outline plan deals with industrial development. The eight primary sectors featured are tourism, culture & sport, real estate, finance & insurance, trade, commerce & modern logistics, advanced tropical agriculture, new and high technology and maritime. Hainan will focus on cultivating tourism spanning the ten areas of vacations, maritime activities, sports and leisure, recuperation, business and exhibitions, ethnic customs and culture, agriculture and rural along with tropical forest and self-drive.
On the island, six major tourism routes will be launched to include a tropical coastal sightseeing experience, an east coast resort and leisure tour, a central island folk customs and cultural experience, a west island coastal feature adventure, a virgin tropical rain forest eco-tour and a maritime adventure eco-tour.
According to the outline plan, reform and opening up should continue as should progressive institutional innovation with policy support mechanisms for international tourism in Hainan including construction safeguards. The international tourism island will continue with infrastructure construction, ecological construction.
The required investment will come from the central government investment budget and other central government special investment funds for the implementation of the development policy for the west part of the island. Vigorous and innovative investment and financing will be encouraged with the establishment of an international tourism island development fund and special funds for the development of a Hainan tourism investment and financing platform along with implementation of preferential tax and land policies.
The outline plan stresses the importance of improving both town and country dwellers standards of living and an equitable division of infrastructure and services between urban and rural areas. Development should ensure that for each family that is unemployed, displaced or without land or any family that lives in poverty that there is a job for at least one member of the family.
In total the outline details action plans for ten major items further divided into forty separate projects. These include the general public choosing a logo and mascot for Hainan International Tourism Island, the selection of tourism evangelists, a complete transformation of tourist toilet facilities as well as reforms to the tourism administration systems.
