A Taiwan-funded travel agency in Pingtan, Fujian province has ramped up investment to widen its business, reported local news portal ptnet.cn.

An official with the Haixia Friendship (Pingtan) Travel Agency, a Taiwan-funded company in Pingtan, shows his upgraded business license. Optimistic about the potential of Pingtan’s tourism, the company announced more services in the future. [Photo/ptnet.cn]

The Haixia Friendship (Pingtan) Travel Agency announced that it will roll out a variety of services ,including a special “Pingtan Holiday” tourism plan, a large academic visit by Taiwanese students to Pingtan and facilitating the entry of Taiwan-registered vehicles in Pingtan.

To proceed with those businesses, the company increased its registered capital from 2.5 million yuan to 50 million yuan and obtained a new business license.

The “Pingtan Holiday” will offer several tourism routes , some exclusive to Pingtan and others combined with other famous destinations in Fujian province. Taiwan travelers can reach Pingtan by ship within three hours.

“We will organize about 2,000 tourists from Taiwan to Pingtan in September, and make specific plans for them,” said Zheng Xubin, an official with the travel agency.

“Pingtan Holiday” is not only a tourism brand. The agency is hoping to bring more Taiwan people here to get a better understanding of the city, and ultimately attract more of them to invest, live and work in Pingtan, he added.

Meanwhile, the travel agency will organize thousands of Taiwan students on an academic exchange trip to Pingtan. Fujian’s tourism authority has invited more than 4,000 college students from Taiwan to visit the province since July, 2013.

“Previously the students participating in the activity would travel to Xiamen by ship to kick off their tour in Fujian. Now we will try takeing them to Pingtan first,” said Zheng.

There is a growing interest among Taiwan people in driving their own cars in Pingtan since it first approved Taiwan vehicles in May. Zheng revealed that the travel agency is working with authorities to accelerate the process and smooth things over to allow more ways of travel.