Shoppers bustle along the Zhongshan Road Pedestrian Street in early evening (SHEN YULING)

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In its attempts to upgrade its tourism industry, Xiamen is also placing a focus on its conference and exhibition industry and its cruise industry.

With beautiful seaside scenery, profound culture as well as a favorable environment for investment, Xiamen is a prime choice for international conferences and exhibitions. Many large-scale conferences and exhibitions have been held in the city since 2014, including the 18th China International Fair for Investment and Trade, 2014 APEC Ocean-Related Ministerial Meeting and the Seventh Xiamen International Animation Festival.

The city is making a push to become a premier conference city by offering professional services such as exhibition projects, customs clearance services and other services.

Top-notch exhibition halls and hotels are indispensable when it comes to developing the local conference and exhibition industry. The city now boasts a total of over 100,000 square meters in exhibition space and 80-plus star hotels and resorts.

Moreover, the Xiamen Municipal Government has pledged to make the hosting of conferences and exhibitions a pillar industry for the city, with a goal of 100 billion yuan ($16.35 billion) in annual business revenue. It recently released a set of guidelines for the industry, with clearer guidance on its upgrade and transformation, more subsidies and more favorable policies, and more construction projects promised to further improve relevant facilities.

Zheng Zhi, President of the Xiamen Conference and Exhibition Industrial Association, said developing the city's conference and exhibition industry can greatly bolster the city's development.

"It will help promote develop local industries and their technological upgrade," Zheng said. "With so many conferences and exhibitions being held in Xiamen, it provides a great opportunity for the industrial and technological development in the city."

Another industry that the city pins great hope on is the cruise industry. A cluster of cruise liners will greatly lift the local economy.

According to a plan formulated by the Ministry of Transport, four coastal cities have been chosen to carry out pilot runs on the cruise industry, including Tianjin, Shanghai, Xiamen and Sanya, so as to accumulate experience for the purposes of the long-run development for the nation's cruise industry.

To that end, Xiamen plans to build a 1-million-square-meter cruise home port by 2020 on the basis of the current 81,000-square-meter cruise center. A city-funded cruise company will be established to offer cruise lines to Taiwan, Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia. By 2020, Xiamen will have the most dynamic cruise home port in southeast China.

On July 14, over 2,000 tourists boarded a cruise liner to travel to Taiwan for leisure purposes. The trip was organized by Holiday on the Sea International Cruise Travel Agency.

Chen Lianbao, deputy general manager of the company, seems more than confident in the future development of Xiamen's cruise industry.

"The fledging cruise industry boomed this summer. In the future, Xiamen will become the Miami of China," Chen said.