Hainan's "Sunshine Awards" To Invite Top Creatives To Promote Its Tourism Industry#
From the press conference held in Beijing's 798 (Photo: ChinaVisual)
Hainan island, which China has long promoted as its own "Hawaii," launched an industrial design competition last week to further promote its burgeoning high-end tourism industry. The "Sunshine Awards," as the provincial government is calling them, will invite top international creatives to design tourism commodities and products, including large items such as yachts, houseboats, water planes and smaller items such as clothes, food and souvenirs highlighting Hainan's natural and cultural aspects.
People's Daily Online reports that the award will collect design entries over the next three months in ten categories, with one category specializing in design related to space flights, as Hainan island now hosts China's fourth satellite launch center and will be home to a space flight-themed amusement park in the future.
Ding Shangqing, the director of the organizing committee, told People's Daily Online that the "top prize winner will get 500,000 to 1 million yuan (US$ 76,1000 to 152,210)," and winners of each category will receive prizes of up to 100,000 yuan, to ensure the highest quality design entries, with a special interest in environmentally friendly and low-carbon designs, as well as designs for special needs groups. The entries will be judged in August by a panel of 17 top industrial designers, which will include the Red Dot Design Award winner Ron Nabarro.
The Sunshine Award campaign is wrapped up in Hainan island's bigger ambitions to become an international tourism destination, an initiative the central government announced in December of 2009. In 2010, only 663,000 of Hainan's 25.87 million overnight tourists came from overseas, but in 2011, rules were changed to allow overseas tourists to claim tax refunds on purchases from certain shopping malls on the island. An additional incentive to attract international travelers is the upcoming second edition of the Hainan RendezVous, which will take place next weekend, and aims to promote the luxury jet-setting lifestyle.