The city of Yantai, East China's Shandong province, recorded strong results in the tourism sector during the first half of 2016, according to the city's tourism bureau.

Between January and June, the city welcomed around 29.46 million tourists, including both domestic and foreign visitors. This pushed visitor numbers up by 8.5 percent and tourism revenue by 14.01 percent, to hit 36.75 billion yuan ($5.54 billion).

To promote its brand of "Wonderland Yantai", the city increased the pace of construction on key tourism projects. The 83 tourism projects in progress have already received investment of 10.44 billion yuan in the first half of this year, 4.38 percent of the total planned investment.

In a bid to further enhance the city's image, a series of promotional events were undertaken both offline and online during the past few months.

The city has held promotion events for its tourism sector in many cities covering the north, northeast and northwest parts of China; such as Sanya, Hainan province; Beijing, the capital of China; Xi'an, Shaanxi province; and Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Also a major advertising campaign has taken place, utilizing major transportation stations to place billboards containing catchy tourism slogans.

In the field of online marketing, Yantai undertook further promotional activities. Its official Wechat and Weibo accounts now have 2.86 million followers, and its official website has launched editions in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, and Russian.

Marine tourism is another highlight of Yantai’s tourism industry. "Mount Tai" cruises will have welcomed 23,000 tourists travelling on 31 separate voyages by the end of June this year.