At the Hainan International Travel Island Tourism Promotion Meeting held in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Tourism Board and the Hainan Provincial Tourism Bureau signed a cooperation agreement on enhancing the multi-destination tour products and quality tourism services between Hong Kong and Hainan.

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Tourism Commission and the Hainan Provincial Tourism Bureau have signed an agreement on strengthening cruise tourism cooperation arrangement. This is the first time that both Hong Kong and Hainan governments have signed the official cooperation agreements on tourism.

The agreement says that Hainan will support Hong Kong in building itself into a regional cruise center, while Hong Kong is to help Hainan become a transfer destination for cruise tours. The two areas aim to leverage complementary advantages in tourism resources and tour products, jointly developing multi-destination tour products targeting the international cruise tourism markets.

At present the Hong Kong, Hainan, Guangdong, and Guangxi tourism sectors are making efforts to integrate an information platform of cruise tourism cooperation, including itineraries, ports, and onshore tourism resources. It is reported that for the first half of this year, 99 international cruises visited Sanya, most of which sailed via Hong Kong and Hainan.

(chinahospitalitynews.com September 1, 2008)