Photos: People's Daily app

Beijing (People's Daily app) - The Travel Channel of the People’s Daily app was officially launched on Thursday with the aim to speed up the integration of tourism and the Internet, to allow the central media playing a better role in the construction of high-quality tourism. 

A number of officials from the People's Daily attended the ceremony, including Deputy Editor-In-Chief of the People's Daily Wang Yibiao, Director of the News Coordination Department of the People's Daily Xu Zhengzhong, Director of the New Media Center of the People's Daily Ding Wei, President of the People's Daily Online Ye Zhenzhen and Editor-In-Chief of the National Humanity History magazine and Chairman of Baidai Travel Group Wang Xiangyu.

"So far, the cumulative downloads of the People's Daily app have surpassed 230 million, the number of followers of the People's Daily's official Weibo account reaches 100 million, the number of followers of People’s Daily official WeChat account exceeds 18 million," said Ding Wei, adding that the development of People's Daily English app has also maintained a good momentum during the past six months.

A new pattern of the mobile communication of the People's Daily, represented by the two apps and two social media accounts, has taken shape, he noted.

The Travel Channel aims to keep pace with the tourism industry and to display the latest and hottest content, said Wang Xiangyu. 

Various columns will be set up, such as Bellwether, Billboard, Read City, Live Broadcast, Tip-off and so on, he added. 

Bellwether focuses on news, industry insights and authoritative interpretation of policies; Billboard is designed to create the most authoritative, credible and influential tourism ranking list in China, gathering the views of experts, agencies and travelers; Read City analyzes the characteristics of different cities through stories and videos; Live Broadcast highlights exhibitions and lectures to show arts and humanities activities.

The Travel Channel of the People's Daily app will strive to deliver valuable news and information, highlight commentary and exclusive content. It will also offer government's and companies' in-depth reports on tourism policies, provide a platform for tourist attractions to build and promote their brands, and share first-hand and high-quality travel information with travel enthusiasts, officials said.

(Complied by Zhu Yingqi)