On June 29, Qingdao Xinyou International Travel Agency Co., Ltd. was registered in Qingdao International Economic Cooperation Zone and officially established in Qingdao Area of China (Shandong) Pilot Free Trade Zone. It is the first solely foreign-owned travel agency in the area, which marks another unprecedented accomplishment of the Qingdao Area. Industry insiders believe that such travel agencies will further enhance the area’s international cooperation in the tourism industry and strengthen the promotion of the area in overseas markets, thus facilitating the transformation and upgrading of service trade of Qingdao.

It is learnt that this travel agency was invested and established by Korean Xinhua International Co., Ltd. It can serve more than 2 million customers annually. To diminish the impact on cross-border investment caused by COVID-19, the Qingdao Area used “Cloud Approval” to complete the approval procedures efficiently and helped the company register and operate smoothly. It took only less than one hour to complete the whole procedure from online application to license issuance, creating the model of whole-process cross-border services on the cloud with interviews, signing and approval all conducted online.