BEIJING, May 7 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism has initiated the procedure to select new national tourist resorts.

The candidate tourist resorts should have sound public information service and high popularity across the country, according to a recent circular issued by the ministry, noting that the candidates should have no record of serious violations of laws and regulations and severe travel accidents in the past three years.

Tourist spots should be recognized as provincial-level resorts for more than a year before applying for the national-level title, said the circular.

Granting the first batch of "national resort" titles in 2015 to boost tourism development, China has 30 national resorts and 453 provincial resorts at present.