The urban landscape of Qingdao, Shandong province [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The eastern coastal city of Qingdao, Shandong province recently launched 10 supportive policies to promote the high-quality development of the local meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) industry.

The policies focus on expanding the market, strengthening brands and improving the environment, as well as giving rewards and subsidies for digital exhibitions, green exhibitions, international certification exhibitions, and large-scale marketization conferences.

Qingdao has increased support for large-scale exhibitions. Trade exhibitions spanning more than 10,000 square meters can apply for subsidies, and the maximum subsidy for a single project is 1.5 million yuan ($237,150).

The city has increased subsidies for consumer exhibitions of more than 20,000 square meters in order to promote the integrated development of domestic and international trade, bolstering the domestic market and ensuring smooth domestic and international circulations.

In order to encourage innovation and high-quality development of the MICE industry, Qingdao has set up subsidies for green exhibitions and digital exhibitions in line with the city's standards.

In order to attract more high-quality large-scale conferences and activities to Qingdao and promote the development of tourism and other related industries, a subsidy of 100,000 to 200,000 yuan will be given to large-scale marketing conferences, which last for more than two days and consist of over 500 participants.

For MICE enterprises that make outstanding contributions, the city will give a maximum subsidy of 300,000 yuan.

It has also established applicable bailout policies, such as subsidizing 20 percent of publicity costs for exhibitions canceled due to force majeure, such as the COVID-19 epidemic, to assist businesses in weathering the storm.