Big plans on holiday haven's horizons

Wanning is a latecomer to Hainan's tourism race. But the city's Deputy Party Secretary Fu Lidong says its government doesn't plan to play catch-up with established tourism hotspots; it instead wants to play leapfrog.

"Sanya city's tourism represents Hainan's past, and I think we represent Hainan's future," Fu says.

"Our tourism development started very recently, so unlike Sanya, we're beginning from a higher starting level."

According to Fu, the eastern coastal city has the best of both worlds - "green", or ecological, tourism and "blue", or beachside, tourism. And now, Wanning is raring to show its true colors.

"We have the mountains, and we have the sea," he says. "And we have high expectations and goals." The question seems to be whether the former or latter are larger.

The city's tourism plan calls for developing its mountainous forests into natural reserves while also building up its 109-km coastline - a roving stand that twists and turns to shape eight bays flanked by five flyspeck islands.

Because Wanning is situated directly on the tropical-subtropical climate divide, it's cooler than Sanya on the southern coast but warmer than the provincial capital of Haikou on the northern coast.

The city's beaches, forest reserve, golf course and the largest tropical botanical garden in China have made it the province's No 3 spot for overnight visitors. It hosted 2.4 million of them last year, a 6-percent year-on-year increase from 2006. About 1 million of them were foreigners - mostly South Koreans and Japanese.

The trick, it seems, is getting travelers to stick around.

"Most of our visitors now they stay one night, and then they leave," Fu says. "We need to develop attractions that would make them want to stay for more than one night."

The centerpiece of this development plan is the 24-sq-km Shenzhou Peninsula. With an investment of 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion), it is the biggest project in Hainan's 11th Five-Year Plan.

Construction has already begun on three hotels to open next year on the peninsula and is now starting on bridges and roads connecting Shenzhou to other attractions. The entire project is expected to take nearly a decade.

"Shenzhou Peninsula should become top-class among all peninsulas in Asia - No 1," Fu says. "That's our goal: To be No 1 and world famous."

And that, of course, requires luring more tourists from overseas.

"Internationalization is a pretty big focus in our development of Shenzhou Peninsula," Fu says. "It's only relatively focused on the higher-end market, but outside the peninsula, there are facilities and services aimed towards mid-range and lower-end visitors."

Wanning's attractions would be developed in one tourism zone divided into two districts: Xinlong, which is the first on the development docket, and Wancheng.

"As the tourism facilities and services improve, the structure of tourism will improve," Fu says.

"It won't be like Sanya, where you have hotels densely packed along the coastline. It integrates local residents' lives with tourism development much better," he says, adding the city's tourism development would be shaped to benefit its neighborhoods, hospitals, clinics and residential areas.

(China Daily 04/10/2008 page19)