The Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport welcomed a special tour group on July 23. It was the first health and fitness tour group in the coastal city of Xiamen in Fujian province since the resumption of interprovincial travel on July 23.

Since mid-July, the number of people visiting Xiamen has amounted to 55.29 percent of the number during the same period last year, ranking 20th among all cities in China. People from Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang are most interested in touring Xiamen, according to data from Ctrip.

People walk down a street in Siming district, Xiamen. [Photo/WeChat account: xmgd2015]

Xiamen cultural and tourism enterprises, mostly located in Siming district, have been struggling since the onset of COVID-19, and have been under increased pressure in terms of rent, stock, and water and electricity bills.

Siming district has been promoting the development of the cultural and tourism industries through the introduction of supporting projects and services in order to solve difficulties faced by enterprises, according to Shen Ping, deputy district major of Siming district.

For instance, Siming issued The Implementation Plan for Supporting the Development of Tourism Enterprises during COVID-19 to reward certain tourism enterprises for receiving overnight visitors.

Siming has also provided one-on-one services for enterprises seven days a week, distributed "policy packages to support the development of tourism enterprises amid COVID-19", and promoted policies to help online enterprises.

In addition, Xiamen's taxation department has reduced social insurance premiums and value-added tax by a total of 7.2 billion yuan ($ 1.04 billion) in the first five months of this year. The taxation department is also expected to reduce corporate social insurance premiums by eight billion yuan and defer another one billion yuan throughout this year.

So far, 395 tourism enterprises have received 116 billion yuan in subsidies from the Siming district government, while 22 cultural enterprises have received 3.72 million yuan in support funds, according to Zhang Jianbin, director of the culture and tourism bureau of Siming district.

Siming district, in cooperation with the Xiamen municipal central leading group office for cultural reform and development, is currently reviewing 7.55 million yuan in special funds for the development of cultural industries for 15 printing and distribution businesses and 3.89 million yuan in subsidies for 52 movie theaters.

Siming district also launched its first summer tourism and shopping activity – Happy Siming (Xingfu Siming) – in an effort to boost consumption in the tourism and cultural industries.

The July 18 Flash Sale Festival held by Xialv.com is a part of the Happy Siming event. Shen Ping helped formulate plans for the event, while Chen Guozhen, general manager of Xialv.com, launched a livestream flash sale, which generated 2.6 million yuan in revenue in only 24 hours.

"Moving forward, Siming district plans to support the cultural and tourism industries through a variety of projects and services in order to create a myriad of cultural industrial IPs, improve tourism facilities, and promote the brand visibility of Xiamen," Shen Ping said.

Night lights come on as night falls in Siming district, Xiamen. [Photo by Zuo Jianan/chinadaily.com.cn]