China Sets Goals For Tourism Industry

China has set goals for its tourism development in 2009 and aims at receiving 1.85 billion tourists for domestic travel, 50 million for outbound travel, 132 million tourists for inbound travel and a total tourism income of CNY1.23 trillion.

Shao Qiwei, director of the China National Tourism Administration, said at a recent national tourism work conference that to realize these goals the Chinese tourism industry needs to be active in coping with the financial crisis, to enlarge the demand for domestic travel, and ensure the smooth and steady growth of the tourism industry. Shao said that every opportunity should be taken to enhance the tourism market, including putting the national leisure and travel plan into trial operation in some areas and exploring middle and short travel routes near the big cities. In addition, Shao said that ecological travel should be developed strenuously and green consumption should be guided based on the theme of China Ecological Travel Year, 2009.

Shao added that efforts should also be made to explore the inbound travel market by focusing on Russia, Japan, South Korea, and other Southeast Asia countries and regions to achieve a stable inbound market share and equal attention should be paid to long-distance market such as Europe and the United States.

To enhance the confidence of Chinese travel service providers CNTA says it will release quarterly early-warning information on the tourism economy from this year, reinforcing travel enterprises' confidence, guiding their normal operation and strengthening their capability to handle risks.