The fifth office meeting of Pingtan Association of Tourism Industry was held recently, during which all attendees explored topics including how to develop featured homestay hotels, and how to solve the problems existing at most of the city's travel agencies.

Ding Chenxing, director of Pingtan Association of Tourism Industry, expressed his view that Pingtan's tourism development is an ongoing process and currently there are still some deficiencies that need to be ironed out. He also called on the attendees to come up with valuable suggestions.

"A tour guide is the cultural messenger of a city. We ought to further improve the service quality offered by a Pingtan tour guide," suggested Qiu Yingqiang, director of Pingtan Association of Tourism Industry's homestay hotel and rural tourism branch.

He also predicted Pingtan would see an increase of tourists during 2017 and that Pingtan will promote more local food specialties in order to attract tourists, including laver, squillid and oranges.

Squillids produced in Pingtan, Fujian province [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Li Caihong, manager of Pingtan Leyou Tourism Co, who runs a dozen homestay hotels in the city, suggested that homestay hotels should be endowed with their own distinctive features based on the local culture of the village where they are located.

Laver is left out to dry in Pingtan, before being shipped to market.[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Other attendees also put forward their own valuable suggestions, with the aim of building Pingtan into an international tourism destination and a national civilized city.