Wang Lei, director of the Shandong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, delivers a speech at the meeting. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A committee meeting for the 2020 Shandong Tourism Development Conference was held on Sept 17 in Jinan, East China's Shandong province, stressing key tasks to accelerate provincial development of culture and tourism.

Wang Lei, director of the Shandong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, delivered a speech at the meeting.

As the 2020 Shandong Tourism Development Conference and the First China International Culture and Tourism Expo recently opened in Jinan, the provincial capital, Wang said the conference and expo will be an opportunity for the province to further advance its culture and tourism industries.

The province aims to develop culture and healthcare as its two primary features, and will put effort into constructing demonstrative tourism destinations and cultural sites.

Wang says the department of culture and tourism will focus on three goals: building high-quality tourist sites, distributing vouchers in order to promote consumption and launching favorable policies to support the industry.

To promote the tourism brand "Friendly Shandong", the province will also integrate traditional media and new media, host large-scale cultural events and increase international exchanges.

"We will expand and deepen our cultural and tourism exchanges with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, regularly host promotion events, use cultural resources to enhance tourism and use the channel and platform provided by tourism to promote Shandong culture," Wang said.