In order to attract more tourists, Hangzhou started offering travel vouchers to tourists from Shanghai. One coupon has a face value of 10 yuan, with each tourist entitled to a maximum of 200 yuan in vouchers. They can use one with every 40 yuan in cash spent on tourist sights, hotels, restaurants, bars and various entertainment shows in Hangzhou.

The multi-million yuan voucher program was recently extended to foreigners living in Shanghai. Local media reported that it was a chaotic sight at Bank of Hangzhou branches in Shanghai when people started to queue up for the coupons from early morning even though distribution was from 2 pm. The municipal tourism commission predicted that out of all the coupons issued, so far worth a total of 150 million yuan, if just 40 percent are used it would rake in around 1 billion yuan in revenue for the city from 1 million tourists.

The vouchers are mainly distributed to cities in Yangtze Delta Area, such as Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Ningbo, Hefei and Wuhu. The travel coupons will also be handed out in other Metropolitan cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing, Ha’erbing, Changchun, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.