Tourism festival met with apathy in Beijing

Although former visitors to the festival have expressed little enthusiasm, Chaoyang district will host its fourth International Tourism and Culture Festival in October, featuring foreign tourism resources, carnivals, sports and music activities.

The festival, with a main venue in Chaoyang Park, will invite related businesses to participate. "It is not only used to celebrate tourism and culture, but also aims at promoting consumption," Ma Yinghui, deputy chief of the Chaoyang district tourism bureau, said Wednesday.

Different from previous years where only one foreign country was invited to showcase its tourism attractions, this year around 10 countries and 10 foreign travel agencies will get to showcase their culture and cuisine in the park.

When a reporter from Guangming Daily asked about nearby residents' possible lack of environmental awareness, the organizers said it could not be fixed overnight. "We can learn from our failures and improve ourselves," said Yang Shu, the general manager of sponsor company Yu Quan International Education & Communication Company.

This year's festival will feature an international tourist resources exhibition, a "world city" music festival, competitive sports, the KAKU Carnival amusement park, a social networking party and a Gulliver's Travels theme park.

Organizers' efforts to arrange diverse activities have yet to impress prospective guests. "I won't go to the festival even if they give me free tickets," said Li Yucheng, a manager of a mining company in Beijing. "I'd rather do something else."

Liang Shuang, a project manager for the event, predicted that 450,000 to 500,000 tourists will visit Chaoyang Park during the National Day holidays, and that total number of visitors to the festival, including its venues beyond the park, will exceed 1,500,000 over the course of the holidays.