China's central bank and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Monday jointly released a notice about enhancing financial support for culture and tourism industries, including expanding financing measures and lowering the financing costs for companies, so as to boost the recovery of this COVID-battered sector. 

The two departments said in a statement they would ramp up support for qualified companies to issue bonds, explore the establishment of a valuation system for related companies' assets and products, and support the revitalization of cultural and tourism enterprises' assets. 

For companies that have been hard-hit by the epidemic, financial service centers at all levels should actively gather information about these firms and offer them differentiated financial services. 

Banks and financial institutions need to improve service efficiency in issuing loans to culture and tourism companies, including optimizing credit management systems, post-loan services and risk management for the firms.

Culture and tourism industries have been badly affected by the epidemic. But with the recent Omicron flare-ups generally being brought under control and the summer vacation starting, there has been a recovery recently, Jiang Yiyi, deputy head of the School of Leisure Sports and Tourism under the Beijing Sport University, told the Global Times on Monday.

Enhancing financial support could help boost the recovery, Jiang noted, adding that it would allow companies to roll out innovative services and products to better meet consumers' demand in the post-COVID era.

The recovery of the culture and tourism industries is symbolic for the overall economic recovery. There is a smooth exchange of personnel in the industries and more importantly, their recovery could also revive a swath of upstream and downstream industries, such as catering, transportation and accommodation, Jiang said.

Scenic spots across the country have been actively rolling out measures to attract tourists, while maintaining epidemic prevention measures.

For example, tourism in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has been booming recently. Xinjiang's 5A-level scenic spots have seen average daily tourist visits exceeding 110,000 in July, up 201.08 percent month-on-month, according to the Xinhua News Agency.  

In June, Southwest China's Yunnan Province saw its tourist volume return to 89.8 percent of the level in 2019 before the pandemic. With a surge in tourist visits in July, many hot scenic spots in Yunnan have even seen their tickets sell out, Xinhua reported.