Promotional meeting showcases deep integration of tourism, films in China

A special promotional meeting was held during the China International Travel Mart 2025 to showcase the new trends in the integration of China's tourism sector and film industry.

Kicked off Friday in Haikou, capital of south China's Hainan Province, the China International Travel Mart 2025 has attracted more than 1,000 business operators and representatives from 101 countries and regions.

Covering an exhibition area of 65,000 square meters, the fair features five sections to promote domestic tourism, overseas tourism, inbound tourist consumption, cultural-tourism integration, and tourism in Hainan.

The special promotional meeting of "Travel with Chinese Films" was held in one of the exhibition areas, where many film and television producers showcased China's rich cultural charm and diverse tourism resources to visitors, and shared their experience in integrating Chinese films with local tourism.

"We have restored the scene of Longjing (Dragon Whale) nuclear submarine from the movie 'Operation Leviathan' and created a film set that integrates film IP, national defense science education and study tour experience. Since it began operations, we have received hundreds of research teams and multiple groups of international school students," said Feng Shaodong, manager of movie and TV tourism office of Qingdao China Movie Metropolis, a mega movie and television industry center.

This year, China's films and tourism are increasingly empowering and complementing each other in an ever-closer way, with more films becoming symbols of city image.

The "China Travel with Chinese Films" initiative, launched in February, aims to integrate China's film industry with its cultural and tourism sectors. The initiative has explored an important pathway for promoting cultural consumption, stimulating tourism momentum, and advancing regional brand development, according to industry insiders.

"Since the 'China Travel with Chinese Films' initiative was launched this year, the number of tourists we received this year has increased by 33 percent year on year," said Xi Yu, deputy manager of the comprehensive service department of Xiangshan Global Studios Development Co. Ltd.

Promotional meeting showcases deep integration of tourism, films in China

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has reaffirmed his country's deepening ties with China, highlighting the relationship's advancement to become a strategic partnership that has produced growing cooperation across multiple fields.

In an exclusive interview with China Media Group (CMG) aired on Friday, Mohamud highlighted the evolving Somalia-China relationship, emphasizing the growing cooperation between the two nations.

Mohamud attended the 2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit in Beijing last September, where he and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the elevation of bilateral relations to a strategic partnership.

"I met President Xi in Beijing, and we had a very good discussion on improving the relationship between our two countries and the areas of cooperation that we can [pursue]. I also met a couple of Chinese companies there, as well as Chinese authorities from different departments of China. Some of the projects and development plans that we discussed have already been implemented. There were a couple of delegations from Somalia that visited China for experience sharing, and China (presented) their development track, the historical development of China. [We] got to experience how China started from a low level until today. This is power. So that has already started. The exchange of visits is taking place," said Mohamud.

"That's a partnership, and it is strategic. It's not piecemeal, here and there. So, being strategic, it takes some time to develop, to build, and then to implement. So we are engaging. We and China, our engagement had been (disrupted) by the civil war, by the conflict here. And these are the years that China has developed the most. And we were not engaging [with] China during all these years. So now, re-engaging and renewing our approaches will take some time, but it's [something we are] working on," said the president.

Somalia and China on Tuesday marked the 65th anniversary of their diplomatic relations, vowing to elevate their mutual cooperation and pursue more productive and shared interests.

Somalia-China cooperation expanding across sectors: Somali president