The beaches are starting to fill up as the tourist season approaches in Qingdao, which has long been renowned as one of China's leading tourist destinations.

Since the beginning of this year, Qingdao has stimulated the vitality of its tourism market, adding 90 new travel agencies to a total of 728, an increase of 41.6 percent over 2019. Since June, new travel agencies have been added almost every day.

Visitors take photos at Daxue Road in Qingdao, Shandong province. Daxue Road is a famous scenic spot that is usually packed with sightseers. [Photo by Wang Lei/Guanhai News]

"Qingdao is a popular tourist destination and also a city for summer heat escape. July and August are the best time for Qingdao's tourism market, and we're well prepared with tour guides, vehicles and hotels rooms to meet the surging visitors," said Wang Jianzhang, manager of a local tourism agency.

According to Wang, with the arrival of the summer travel season, Qingdao's travel agencies have seen significant growth in business.

Tour guides and tour buses can be seen everywhere at old favorite sites such as the Qingdao Underwater World, the Qingdao Polar Ocean World, and the Laoshan Mountain Scenic Area, and the city's lesser-known destinations such as the historic area, Xiaomai Island and other newly-built attractions are also crowded.

Tourists gather at Zhanqiao Pier, an iconic scenic area in Qingdao, Shandong province. [Photo by Wang Lei/Guanhai News]

The fulfillment of people's desire to travel, long-suppressed due to COVID-19 outbreaks, has injected new impetus into the rapid revival of the city's tourism industry, said local authorities.

Local authorities are working to create a market-oriented, law-based and internationalized business environment to improve the quality of tourism services, and attract more guests. Measures have been launched to implement the travel agency liability insurance subsidy, and create a number of characteristic travel agency brands.

Tourists line up to visit the PLA Navy's Museum in Qingdao, Shandong province. [Photo by Wang Lei/Guanhai News]