One lucky foreigner will be declared a modern-day Marco by the city of Hangzhou and will receive a free 15-day trip and US $55,000.

The competition was inspired by the visit of the famed traveller Marco Polo to Hangzhou, China that took place 700 years ago.

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Fast-forward into the future, the winner of the competition will become the city's social media ambassador of China in the 21st century.

There are five finalists for the competition. Finalists from Australia, France, Romania, Switzerland and the U.S. were carefully screened by the Commission from a group of 700 applicants.

The criteria the Hangzhou Tourism Commission used are the contestants' familiarity with China, their sense of adventure, and their social media presence. The winner will be announced on May 20.

The city of Hangzhou is located about 100 miles southwest of Shanghai and is home to 9 million people.

It is one of China's riches cities. Last month, the city suffered from a series of setbacks, which include public protest against plans to build a waste incineration plant, signs of declining property value and the headquarters of e-commerce giant Alibaba.

The city, together with the rest of China, is suffering from a declining tourism rate. Last year, Hangzhou recorded a 6.5 percent in GDP attributed to 97 million tourists that went to visit the city. However, the commission reported that of the 97 million, only 3.16 million are international tourists, which represented a 4.6 percent decline from last year.

China's overall tourism performance dropped to 2.2 percent from a 3 percent rating last year. According to the China Tourism Research Institute, the decline can be attributed to the spat between Beijing and the Japanese government over the World War II sentiments last year.

Thus, the Commission is pushing to reverse these negative trends and boost the city's profile. It launched a tourism campaign on social media that required submissions from people across the world. The topics of the submissions vary from campaigns like 'My Chinese Name,' a home recipe contest to sharing China-related love stories.

Li Hong, director of the Tourism Commission, said that he consulted western professionals about the account of Marco Polo's travel since 2004 and only last year that the city's local government extended resources to push through with his plan.

TagsHangzhou Tourism Commission, Marco Polo, tourism, Competition