The fifth Shandong Culture and Tourism Consumption Season is expected to kick off at the end of March, according to the Shandong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism.

Vouchers worth no less than 100 million yuan ($15.46 million) will be distributed by the provincial and municipal governments via online platforms to unleash the consumption potential in cultural and tourism markets as well as fuel market vitality.

Consumers will be able to use the vouchers for both offline and online payments in restaurants, cultural and tourist sites, hotels, and related online stores.

A traditional music performance is staged during the 2020 China International Cultural Tourism Fair in Jinan, capital of Shandong. [Photo/WeChat account: qufutt]

A series of large-scale events will also be staged during the festival. These events include the 2021 Shandong Tourism Development Conference, the second China International Culture and Tourism Expo, the 2021 China (Qufu) International Confucius Cultural Festival, the Nishan Forum on World Civilizations, the fourth China Opera Festival and the 12th Shandong Culture and Art Festival.

The province will ramp up efforts to promote the development of pilot and demonstration cities for national cultural and tourism consumption.

Last year, Jinan and Qingdao were included in the first batch of national cultural and tourism consumption demonstration cities, while Yantai and Zibo were among the first batch of pilot cities.

The night view of Daming Lake in Jinan. Shandong province boasts rich and diverse cultural and tourism resources. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The province will beef up measures to develop the nighttime economy and introduce more post-dusk business activities and later closing hours at museums and art galleries.

The Shandong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism will also continue efforts to deepen supply-side reform in cultural and tourism industries. Measures will be taken to lower tourism venue prices and develop more diverse cultural and tourism products such as art performances, leisure agriculture, study tours and healthcare tourism.

Since 2017, Shandong has held four consecutive culture and tourism consumption seasons, which has become a landmark event in the province. Over the past four years, governments at the provincial, municipal and county levels have issued about 474 million yuan in cultural and tourism vouchers, directly driving consumption worth more than 2.35 billion yuan. About 46,783 themed activities have been carried out, engaging over 870 million customers.