To help its tourism industry recover from the novel coronavirus outbreak, Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province held a conference on recommended summer travel routes and issued tourism deals and coupons in its capital city Harbin on June 12, local officials said.

In order to meet the tourists' desire to be close to nature, short-distance travel and self-driving breaks, the Heilongjiang Department of Culture and Tourism released summer tourism products covering five themes including forest recreation and wetland leisure travel.

They include 100 weekend travel routes that follow 12 themes and 10 self-driving travel routes that feature crossing China’s northernmost places near the Arctic region and exploring the ancient courier routes.

The Heilongjiang Department of Culture and Tourism will cooperate with online travel agency Ctrip to issue 2 million yuan ($281,800) worth of coupons for tourism products, to grant 1 million yuan in subsidies for traveling by high-speed trains, and to issue free tickets to scenic spots.

Users can book their holidays on Ctrip's official website and app, and use the coupons and subsidies when paying.

The coupons will be available for collection from June 12 to July 31.