The tropical resort city of Sanya in China’s southern island province of Hainan is experiencing a boom in demand for wedding and travel photography services, driving local tourism consumption.
Lu Xiaoqian is an early childhood educator from northwest China’s Gansu Province. She and her fiancé is among the many couples who traveled to Sanya for their pre-wedding photo shoot during the Qingming Festival holiday.
“I’ve always longed for the sea and love seaside so I chose to come to Sanya,” Lu said.
Data shows online searches for travel photography packages surged 20 percent in February 2024 compared to last year, with Sanya ranking as one of the top destinations along with Dali, Xiamen, Lijiang and Xishuangbanna.
“The business orders we received in the first three months of the year increased by about 10 percent compared to last year,” said Zhao Fangxian, department manager of Sanya Tianyahaijiao Wedding Service Development Company.
The maximum can reach more than 20,000 a year, he added.
To meet the growing demand, Sanya Wedding Tourism Association has planned to launch more travel photography products taking advantages of Sanya’s reputation for beach weddings.
“In 2023, we hosted over 10,000 weddings and provided travel photography services for 200,000 couples. There were many honeymoon vacationers as well. The tourism revenue reached nearly 10 billion yuan. We will continue to launch more quality products, with distinctive shooting scenes and more elements to meet the increasing demands of our customers,” said Xu Wei, president of Sanya Wedding Tourism Association.
A new analysis for 2023 shows “travel photography” has become a distinct market in the Chinese tourism industry. In addition to traditional wedding shoots, more tourists are seeking photography packages for family trips, parent-child portraits and more.
Sanya sees surge in demand for wedding and travel photography, boosting local tourism
Russia and Ukraine released the latest updates on their conflict on Friday. Russia claimed to have launched multiple attacks on Ukrainian military and energy infrastructure, arms depots and shooting down its warplanes, while Ukraine reported attacking Russian command posts, soldiers and military equipment.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that in the past week, the Russian army launched dozens of comprehensive strikes on Ukrainian military and energy infrastructure, deployment sites of mercenaries, arms depots and other targets, and occupied more favorable positions in multiple directions such as Kupiansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, repelling several attacks by the Ukrainian army.
The Russian army also destroyed Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jets and An-26 military transport planes at a Ukrainian airport and the Russian air defense systems intercepted a number of Ukrainian missiles, rockets, aerial bombs and drones, it said.
On the same day, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces also issued a report saying that the Ukrainian army fought dozens of battles with the Russian army on the front line on Friday, hitting Russian command posts, clusters of personnel and equipment and other targets.
In addition, the military commissioner of the Odesa region said on social media that the local port infrastructure was attacked by Russian missiles, and one person was injured in the attack.
On Friday, air raid sirens blared in northern, central and eastern Ukraine, including in the capital Kiev.
A special meeting of the Ukraine-North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Council at the defense minister level was held on the same day in Brussels.
Speaking at a news conference after the meeting, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said NATO has agreed to provide more military support to Ukraine, including more support of air defense systems.
On the same day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on his official social media account that at the meeting, he said Ukraine needs at least seven Patriot air defense systems or similar systems.
In addition, he said the one million artillery rounds promised to Ukraine must be delivered in time. Zelensky also stressed the urgent need of the army for long-range missiles and artillery on the front line.
Russia says it downs Ukrainian warplanes, while Ukraine claims it attacks Russian command posts