Chinese Online Class - Tourism:China to have 68.8m inbound tourists

BIZCHINA / Biz Media Digest

Tourism:China to have 68.8m inbound tourists

(chinanews.net)
Updated: 2006-11-17 13:45

The China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) recently outlined a goal
for the tourism sector in China, saying that by 2010, it plans to raise
the number of tourists staying overnight in China by 68.8 million and the
number of domestic travelers by 1.78 billion. By then, total revenue
generated from tourism will touch 156.5 billion US dollars.

CNTA proposed the goal at the 2006 China International Tourism
Transaction Conference press briefing held on Wednesday.

In order to promote the sound development of tourism sector, Chinese
government has formulated the Eleventh Five-Year Program for Tourism
Industry (2006-2010). The program aims to make China a strong tourist
nation in the world. In 1997, the World Tourism Organization made a
forecast that China would become the most visited destination and the
fourth largest source of outbound travel in the world by 2020.

Liu Kezhi, head of the Tourism Promotion and International Contact
Department at CNTA, says that the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing
and the 2010 World Exposition in Shanghai will provide unprecedented
opportunities for the development of Chinese tourism industry. In the two
years to come, CNTA will develop more tourist products by focusing on the
theme of the Olympic tours and display, from a wider range of fields and
perspectives, the rich tourist resources and the colorful histories and
cultures of China, through its sightseeing tours to the natural and
cultural scenic spots, ethnic cultures tours, leisure activity tours, and
special tours. CNTA tries to promote the Olympic Games through tourism
and likewise, promote the country's tourism industry through Olympic
Games. Meanwhile, CNTA will organize some large tourist events for the
2010 Shanghai Exposition. It is hoped that the country's tourism industry
will reach a new high with the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2010
Shanghai Expo.

The latest statistics publicized by CNTA show that during the first nine
months of this year, the number of outbound travelers hit a new high to
reach 25.61 million, growing by 11 percent as compared with last year.
The rate of growth for China's outbound travel far exceeds the word's
average level.

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