Guangzhou city of south China's Guangdong Province is taking effective measures to revive its tourism and trade development, which was badly affected by the SARS epidemic.

"Taking the year's target as a whole, our tourism and trade growth will not be affected," said Wang Xiaoling, deputy-mayor of the provincial capital.

During the first four months of the year, the city's tourism sector was seriously hit by the SARS outbreak. The average occupancy rate in the city's star-rated hotels stood only at 43.1 percent, down 26 percentage points over the same period of last year.

A total of 4,760 tourist groups canceled their trips and tourists numbered only 81,514 from April to May.

In addition, the commerce and trade sectors experienced difficulties. The city's social consumer retail sales dropped month by month with declines ranging from 103.8 percent to 139.58 percent from January to April.

Total sales in the catering sector showed a slight increase of 5.8 percent year-on-year.

Taking the year as a whole, the city's economic growth trend will not be held back, the deputy mayor noted.

The city's GDP, total industrial values and export volumes during the first four months were slightly higher than the figures recorded for the same period of the previous year, Wang said.

To boost tourism and trade development, the city government is set to launch a series of city-wide festivals month by month, including a beer festival, garment festival and gifts and toys exhibition.

Moreover, the city will develop an "auto town" for exhibiting automobiles and recreation centers, and expand more consumption areas in food, health and sports sectors.

Moreover, the city has pledged to develop a range of food safety systems and enforce sanitation inspection and monitoring.

(Xinhua News Agency June 5, 2003)