Shao Qiwei, the director of the China National Tourism Administration, told local media that the tourism industry of China will start to issue travel coupons to encourage tourism in 2009.
Shao said that tourism is an industry that is both vulnerable to negative incidents and strong in that it can resume business quickly after accidents.
Shao disclosed that CNTA will encourage travel companies to issue travel coupons and launch travel incentives, travel consumption credits, and travel promotions on a trial basis to stimulate domestic demand this year. In addition, it will focus on travel markets as holiday travel, rural travel, eco-travel, and leisure travel.
According to Shao, China hosted 109 million tourists during the 2009 Spring Festival Golden Week and this was an increase of 24.7% compared with the same period in the previous year. Tourism revenue during this period reached CNY50.93 billion, up 23.1% over the same period of 2008.
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