China News Service, Guangzhou, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The integrated development of culture and tourism in the Greater Bay Area is surging with business opportunities in both directions.
China News Service reporter Cheng Jingwei.
According to the statistics of Gongbei Customs, 7 days before the Spring Festival holiday in the Year of the Dragon, the number of inbound and outbound vehicles at the Zhuhai Highway Port of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge continued to rise, and the customs inspected and released a total of 10 inbound and outbound vehicles90,000 vehicles, an increase of 2 compared with the same period last year5 times, including 7 "north" Hong Kong and Macao single-brand cars60,000 vehicles, accounting for nearly seventy percent.
With the successive implementation of the policies of "Hong Kong cars going north" and "Macao cars going north", the level of interconnection in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has been further improved, and it is more convenient for Hong Kong and Macao residents to "go north". "The passenger group, which is mainly 'family travel' for Hong Kong and Macao residents, has become the main force of passage at the port during the Spring Festival. Lin Meihong, political commissar of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Border Inspection Station of the Zhuhai Entry-Exit Border Inspection Station, said.
Mafengwo" big data shows that due to the "all-encompassing" food, beautiful scenery, New Year customs, and culture, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has become a popular travel destination for this Spring Festival. According to Guangzhou Guangzhou Travel International Travel Agency, during the 8-day Spring Festival holiday this year, the overall orders of the travel agency in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao market increased significantly, and nearly 100 travel teams around the province were sent out every day.
18 February marks the fifth anniversary of the promulgation of the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. During the Spring Festival, Hong Kong and Macao residents went north to Guangdong to visit relatives for vacation, and mainland residents went to Hong Kong and Macao for tourism and sightseeing, and the "two-way travel" boom continued to surge in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Behind this phenomenon is the further acceleration of the integrated development of the Greater Bay Area and the acceleration of the formation of a high-quality living circle suitable for living, working and traveling.
In the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, references to cultural and tourism development are mentioned in several chapters. The Outline Plan brings tremendous opportunities for the development of cultural tourism in the Greater Bay Area and further promotes the development of the Greater Bay Area into a world-class tourism destination.
In the five years since the release of the Outline Plan, the integrated development of culture and tourism in the Greater Bay Area has reached a new level. Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao have established a joint publicity and promotion mechanism to achieve "attracting tourists to Guangdong" and "attracting tourists to the Bay Area", and polish the cultural and tourism IP of the Bay Area. At the 2023 Guangdong Culture and Tourism Summer Promotion Conference, a new batch of 10 "one-way, multi-stop" high-quality routes in the Greater Bay Area were released, further enriching the product types and levels of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao tourism routes.
Last summer, Ms. Li's family in Beijing launched an in-depth tour of the Greater Bay Area with the "Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong linkage". Early in the morning, I went to Guangzhou for morning tea and Cantonese opera, and the next day I went to Nantou Old Town and Shekou Old Street in Shenzhen, and then entered Hong Kong from Shenzhen Bay. The multi-stop journey made her praise again and again.
With regional characteristic culture as the starting point, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area urban agglomeration has gradually formed a program of tourism interconnection, cultural linkage, and product and service sharing, and deepened regional cooperation from the aspects of developing characteristic tourism projects and innovating coastal tourism formats. For example, Shenzhen has taken the construction of China's cruise tourism development experimental zone as an opportunity to promote the tourism project of "seeing the bay area from the sea", opening four routes, including the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and Hong Kong Lantau Island, to connect various scenic spots in the Greater Bay Area.
An Ran, director of the Bay Area Economic and Industrial Planning Research Institute of China (Shenzhen) Comprehensive Development Research Institute, pointed out that Hong Kong and Macao and the nine cities of the Pearl River Delta have the same culture, close proximity, similar folk customs and complementary advantages, and have obvious geographical and cultural advantages in terms of tourism, both in terms of internal circulation and international opening-up. The two-way travel between Hong Kong, Macao and the mainland is becoming increasingly popular, and the "tale of two cities" has become the biggest feature of tourism in the Greater Bay Area.
The attractiveness of tourist attractions in the Greater Bay Area continues to increase. On the third day of the Lunar New Year, an indoor ski resort in Huadu, Guangzhou, welcomed more than 1,000 visitors from 34 Hong Kong tour groups. Wei Jianyu, the resort's marketing director, said that since its opening in June 2019, 60% of the ski resort's visitors have come from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. "On public holidays such as the Spring Festival, the increase in visits by Hong Kong and Macao tourists is particularly significant. (ENDS).