China Publishes 2009 Tourism Economy Report

The China National Tourism Administration has released a report on China's tourism economy in 2009.

The report shows that China's tourism industry maintained a rapid growth and saw a big increase in total tourism revenue in 2009.

The report reveals that China achieved total revenues of about CNY1.26 trillion from tourism  in 2009, which was an increase of 9% over that of the year before. During the year, China's domestic travel continued its rapid growth, its inbound travel market resumed gradually and outbound travel market developed steadily.

According to the report, in 2009 China received a total of 1.9 billion domestic tourists, which was an increase of 11% over that of 2008. The country's domestic tourism revenue reached CNY1 trillion, an increase of 15%. Its inbound tourist numbers reached about 126 million, a decrease of 3% compared with that of the previous year and its outbound tourist numbers reached about 47.5 million, an increase of 3.6%.

The report states that big increase of investment in tourism related industries has directly driven the increase in tourism investment and injected vigor to the tourism industry. Regarding tourism enterprises' performance in the year, the report says that scenic spots achieved better performance than travel agencies and hotels; tourism companies in the west part of the country performed better than their counterparts in the middle and east part of the country, which have suffered a bigger impact from the global financial crisis; scenic spots in cities and the surrounding areas of cities achieved better results than long-haul destinations; and scenic spots with mature resources did better than those that do not possess any resource advantages.