Authorities of Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone, Fujian province recently announced nine measures to accelerate the development of local tourism and help the zone become an international tourism island, ptnet.cn reported on Dec 15.

The measures covered tourist sites planning, infrastructure construction, scenic spots upgrading and tourism fund.

By the end of 2016, the authorities planned to complete the design of several scenic spots such as the Qiaoqiutou archaeological site and the construction of transportation facilities including the Qianbianao port.

They also set up roadmaps to help three tourist attractions –Haitan Ancient City, Shipaiyang scenic resort and Pingtan-Taiwan Duty-free Commodity Market to apply for 4A scenic spots in 2015 and another two in 2016.

As for the tourism fund, they planned to grant 100 million yuan ($15.5 million) per year and will add more if needed.

In addition, they rolled out subsidy measures for major tourism complexes, travel agencies and tourism villages to promote tourism. For instance, 3 million yuan will be awarded to scenic areas which are rated 5A, 2 million yuan to 4A and 1 million to 3A. Travel agencies which have been ranked the national top 100 for the first time will get 1 million yuan.

Local authorities claimed that more incentives will be carried out to support rural tourism, attract tourism investment and advance recruitment and training of tourism professionals in the future.