A tourism festival bringing together Xiamen and the Taiwan counties of Kinmen and Peng-hu opens in the eastern Chinese city on April 19. [Photo/people.com.cn]

A tourism festival bringing together Xiamen and the Taiwan counties of Kinmen and Peng-hu opened in the eastern Chinese city on April 19, people.com.cn reported. 

Over 300 government officials, travel industry insiders, reporters and local residents attended the launch ceremony. 

Aiming to deepen tourism cooperation between Xiamen, Kinmen and Peng-hu and display the cultural connections across the Strait, this year's event consisted of 28 activities focusing on parent-child interaction, youth exchange, camping and hiking, running and cycling, study trips, folk customs and local delicacies. 

The event is expected to attract 450,000 tourists from both sides of the Strait. 

"In addition to the Peng-hu Fireworks Festival, our most popular event, this year's activities are designed to showcase everything we have to offer for tourists. I hope visitors from the Chinese mainland can come enjoy themselves in Xiamen, Kinmen and Peng-hu," said Liu Mei-fan, deputy director of the tourism bureau of Peng-hu. 

This was the first time for Peng-hu county to participate in the event. The three organizers will work together on a tourism product incubation mechanism and continue to strengthen the tourism market. 

The opening ceremony was held on the sidelines of the 15th Strait Travel Fair, which kicked off in Xiamen the same day.