A special loan fund worth 100 million yuan will be allocated annually by the Bank of Taizhou to support the culture and tourism sectors. [Photo/WeChat account: tzfb001]

Taizhou in East China's Zhejiang province will ramp up credit support for enterprises in the culture and tourism sectors which have been hit hard by the epidemic. 

The Taizhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports reached a strategic cooperation agreement with the Bank of Taizhou on May 9. 

According to the agreement, a special loan fund worth 100 million yuan ($14.49 million) will be allocated annually to support the culture and tourism sectors. 

Xu Fingbao, who runs a homestay in Huangyan district, is among the first group of applicants for the loan. He borrowed 300,000 yuan from the bank in hopes of saving his struggling business. 

To further ease financing burdens on said enterprises, the bank has offered coupons waiving one million yuan in interests on loans. 

In addition to the loan, the local government has rolled out a string of measures, such as returning 80 percent of security deposits for tourism service quality to registered travel agencies, to bail out the culture and tourism sectors. 

In 2019, Taizhou received a total of 130 million tourists from home and abroad, bringing in a total revenue of more than 147 billion yuan, an increase of 13 percent over the previous year. 

The city saw strong signs of recovery in its tourism market during the May Day holiday. Its key scenic spots received a total of 769,100 tourists during the five-day holiday, raking in 18.4635 million yuan in revenue.

At present, 93 A-level scenic spots, 35 star-level hotels, 167 travel agencies and more than 1,100 homestays in the city have resumed operations.