Sanya welcomes arrival of year’s first yacht from Taiwan

On June 4th, 2019, Sanya Visun Yacht Marina welcomed a Taiwanese yacht. This was the first yacht from Taiwan to visit the marina this year. With a length of 25.3 meters and a capacity of 11 passengers, the yacht set sail from Kaohsiung, and was headed to Vietnam.

During his visit in Sanya, the yacht’s owner and his guests enjoyed a three-day yacht-themed sightseeing tour, including a golf game, night market shopping, a visit to the 108-meter Nanshan South-Sea Kwan-yin Bodhisattva Statue, and scuba diving. The visitors were impressed with Sanya’s natural environment, climate, and clear seawater, as well as the city’s convenient entry-exit inspection and follow-up services.

Ye Kaizhong, Deputy Director of the Sanya Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television and Sports Bureau, said that Sanya will organize a series of pilot projects with the goal of promoting the yacht industry, including the launch of an “Invite In” campaign for individual yacht tours in Hainan, Hong Kong, and Macau, a Sanya Yacht Tourism Service Center, a Service Platform for Individual Yacht Tours in Hainan, Hong Kong, and Macau, and a Yacht Industrial Cluster. The city will also focus on the development of more tour routes for overseas yachts.

On March 15th, 2019, Hainan became the first province in China to carry out a pilot program that would temporarily allow overseas yachts to enter some of its waters. The waters that will be open to overseas yachts under the pilot program include the waters around scenic spots in and around the island of Hainan, but exclude restricted military areas and waters around the Nansha Islands and the Xisha Islands. The move is part of a local government effort to upgrade the region’s tourism sector and to help transform the island into a globally influential international tourism consumption center.