Grand ambitions: Sanya upgrades infrastructure in its bid to host 20 million visitors per year by 2018

Sanya is expecting an increase in overseas visitors this year as a result of its efforts to improve its tourism infrastructure and increase international flights, according to the city’s tourism officials. Last year, Sanya received 15 million visitors, including 358,000 from outside mainland China. Those numbers are expected to increase to 20 million by 2018, with overseas visitors reaching 1 million, making Sanya the largest international tourism hub in South China.

Hong Kong has been the largest source market for international visitors, with about 60,000 last year. Fan Mu, director of the Sanya Tourism Development Commission, says visitors from Hong Kong generally require a higher quality of service and a safer environment. As a result, the government put a lot of effort last year into regulating the tourism industry and providing better service to visitors.

The Sanya Resident and Visitor Information Centre, which was set up last year, now has a 24-hour hotline, and can be contacted via WeChat and SMS.

Last year, Sanya also set up China’s first tourist police, initially with 22 members to be increased to 40 by the end of this year. Hundreds of officers from Sanya’s relevant government units, such as price control and industry and commerce, are also involved in the protection of visitors’ interests, Fan says. “For example, we provide legal assistance and mediation services to visitors, and last year we were able to recover compensation totalling 3.7 million yuan [HK$4.3 million) on behalf of the visitors,” he explains. “We also blacklisted some travel agencies because of their malpractices.”

Fan expects more international visitors in the coming year, due to an increase of international flights at the Sanya Phoenix International Airport, and because more visitors would make use of the visa-free access scheme.