Xi Jinping launches video promoting Cork tourism to 1.4 billion Chinese people

The video package will stay online in China from now until next March. The special foreign trade initiative package was launched online in China by its President Xi Jinping. File Photo: MARK SCHIEFELBEIN/AFP via Getty Images

Cork County Council has scored a major coup by getting a video promoting tourism in the region included in a special foreign trade initiative package which has been launched online in China by its President Xi Jinping.

He launched the video at the China International Fair and Trade Services (CIFTS). It will be available to the vast majority of the country's near 1.4 billion population, among whom foreign travel is growing.

The video, and accompanying interactive tourism maps, was developed by the council's Economic Development & Tourism Directorate, which is headed by Sharon Corcoran.

The package includes short videos about each of the 23 towns in the county and an interactive breakdown of what is available to visitors within them and close by, so they can plan their vacation according to the types of interests they have.

There are 11 different categories of interest including adventure tourism, family fun activities, history/heritage and food etc.

The video package will stay online in China from now until next March and it's hoped it will significantly boost visits to the Cork region and therefore aid the local tourism industry which has suffered a significant downturn during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“For Cork to get an opportunity to showcase what we have to offer in this is absolutely huge,” Ms Corcoran said.

The local authority's also in the process of developing an app, which will include all this information and it will be launched next April.

In 2017, the local authority signed a special 'friendship agreement' with the Chinese eastern coastal province of Jiangsu, which has a population of 82 million.

It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism. It is also the most densely populated of China's 23 provinces with significant wealth among its population. 

In addition, it is home to many of the world's leading exporters of electronic equipment, chemicals and textiles.

The county council has engaged with the province in areas including education, heritage projects and cultural exchanges and promoting English language learning.

Most of the local authority's efforts have been centred on fostering relations in the province's principal city, Nanjing, formally known as Nakin, which has a population nearly twice the size of this country.