China Business

Nov 2, 2005

Tourism sector earns US$22 bn Jan-Sept

BEIJING - China's tourism industry reported foreign exchange earnings of US$22 billion in the first nine months of the year, up 18.2% year-on-year.

China received 89.63 million tourists from outside the mainland in the nine months, up 12.2% year-on-year, said Sun Gang, deputy director of the National Tourism Administration at the 42nd congress of International Hotel & Restaurant Association held

recently in Beijing. Of the total, overseas tourists who stayed over in China (as opposed to day-trippers from Hong Kong, Macau, Russia, Vietnam, and other border states) numbered 34.79 million, up 14.4% year-on-year, Sun said.

Sun recalled that in 1978, when China began its economic reforms, the country only received 1.81 million overseas tourists and had foreign exchange earnings of $263 million. In 2004, the number of tourists from outside the Chinese mainland reached 109 million, including 41.76 million who stayed overnight, with foreign exchange earnings from tourism reaching $25.7 billion.

The International Hotel & Restaurant Association is the only global organization in the hotel and catering sector that is ratified by the United Nations, with nearly 150 members from different countries and regions.

(Asia Pulse/XIC)

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