Beijing announces APEC tourism routes

The Beijing tourism authority announced 10 new tourism routes on Wednesday, including popular sites which global leaders' wife visited during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting earlier this month.

Beijing's tourism commission introduced the routes to Hong Kong delegates, including the city's tourism board and travel agencies.

Hong Kong is an important market to promote Beijing tourism, said Song Yu, head of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development, adding that about 400,000 Hong Kong residents visit Beijing each year.

However, only 250,000 Hong Kong tourists visited Beijing from January to September in 2014, a decrease of 2.9 percent from the same period a year earlier.

The Beijing tourism authority wants to promote tourism in the capital in the Hong Kong market, such as by introducing the new routes.

After the APEC meeting was held in Beijing at the beginning of November, authorities and travel agencies saw the potential to boost tourism by introducing new routes related to the APEC meeting.

The tourism authority of Huairou district, which hosted country leaders during the meeting, announced six APEC tourism routes last week, including a panoramic view tour of the Yanqi Lake scenic site and the Sunrise Kempinski Hotel.

"The APEC convention center itself has become a popular tourism spot," Song said.

Li Mingde, deputy director of the tourism research center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said APEC brought opportunities for the tourism industry in Huairou and other suburbs of Beijing.