The Shanxi Department of Culture and Tourism and the Shanxi Department of Finance jointly drafted and issued incentive measures recently to financially reward travel agencies that attract lots of overnight visitors to Shanxi and meet certain standards, a circular announced.

The move aims to promote the high-quality development of cultural tourism in North China's Shanxi province. 

According to the circular, there are three financial awards categories: reception accumulative awards, bulk tourism awards and new business format awards. 

The reception accumulative financial award is 10 yuan ($1.55) per person per night for travel agencies that receive more than 3,000 overnight visitors from outside Shanxi province in a year. 

The bulk tourism awards involves agencies that receive tourists using charter flights, special trains and large groups of visitors. The charter flight award, for instance, goes to travel agencies that charter planes each carrying over 50 tourists from outside Shanxi and that guide visitors to at least one A-rated paid scenic spot. 

The new business format awards are for travel agencies that receive self-driving tourist groups of more than 20 members, conference and exhibition groups of visitors with more than 100 participants, as well as study tour groups with 50 participants or more.