China's Tourism Industry...China's tourism industry racing full-steam ahead
BEIJING - In 2001, China's flourishing tourism provided great vitality to the
growth of its economy. Statistics show that tourism revenue has grown 12.7
percent annually in recent years, higher than the national average gross
domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 7.4 percent. Tourism has quickly
become a major new growth area for the domestic economy.
The sound performance of China's tourism is in sharp contrast to the sluggish
international tourism, and has drawn worldwide attention. China has become
the world's sixth-largest tourist destination and is expected to become both
the largest tourist market and tourist destination in the world in the near future.
The World Tourism Organization has predicted that China is to be the world's
largest tourist market by 2020. China has mapped out its 20-year tourism
development plan which estimates that by 2020, the country's tourism revenue
will skate past 3.3 trillion yuan (US$398.7 billion), equal to 8 percent of the
country's total GDP.
China obviously has what it takes to reach the goal, with its unique tourism
resources and the world's biggest domestic tourism market. According to the
plan, by 2020, the number of overseas tourists to China will reach between
135 million and 145 million, up 1.1-1.3 times over the figure from 1998.
More than 73.34 million overseas tourists visited China during the first 10
months of 2001, an increase of 5.66 percent on the same period of 2000.
The amount spent by the overseas tourists in the 10 months was estimated at
US$14.8 billion, up 9.28 percent. The number of tourists from South Korea,
Thailand, Russia and Japan maintained double-digit growth. China's major
tourist source countries include Japan, South Korea, the United States,
Russia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Singapore, the Philippines, Britain, Thailand,
Germany, Canada, Indonesia, Australia and France.
In 2000 China registered the arrival of 83 million overseas tourists, and its
tourism revenue reached 450 billion yuan, with US$16 billion in foreign
exchange and 320 billion yuan from domestic travelers. The latest figures
show the fixed assets of the tourism industry reached 786.1 billion yuan by
2001, with 268,000 tourism businesses. There are now 8,993 travel agencies
and more than 33.35 million tourism employees in China.
China will focus on the comprehensive development of tourism by combining
sightseeing with holiday-spending and special traveling so as to turn China into
one of the world's leading tourist destinations. China now expects 90 million
arrivals in 2002.
The country now boasts more than 500 famous scenic spots, covering an area
of 96,000 square kilometers, 1 percent of the country's land territory. It also
has some 4,000 parks in cities, covering an area of more than 73,000
hectares. Among the famous scenic spots are Anhui's Huangshan, Jiangxi's
Lushan, Sichuan's Ermei Mountain, Shandong's Taishan Mountain, Guangxi's
Guilin-Lijiang tourism circuit, Guangdong's Xinghu at Zhaoqing, Zhejiang's
West Lake, Beijing's Summer Palace, Hebei's Chengde Summer Resort,
Jiangsu's Huqiu Hill in Suzhou, Yunnan's stone forest, Fujian's Wuyishan
Mountain, Liaoning's Qianshan Hill at Anshan, Jiangsu's Shugang at
Yangzhou, Hebei's Qinhuangdao-Shanhaiguan Scenic spot, Guizhou's
Huangguoshu Scenic Spot, Shaanxi's Huashan Mountain, Hubei's Donghu
Lake in Wuhan and, first and foremost, Beijing's Great Wall.
Hotel service has developed rapidly in China to become an industry with
considerable capacity. According to the China Hotel Association, there were
some 270,000 hotels by the end of 2000, with an annual turnover of over 150
billion yuan. With China's accession to the WTO, more and more foreign
hotel operators are coming to do business in the country. China now has more
than 5,200 hotels designed for overseas tourists, among which 45 are
five-star hotels.
China is encouraging overseas investors to establish joint-venture travel
agencies in the country, in order to expand the opening of the tourism sector
to the outside world and promote the growth of China's tourism industry.
There are now some 5,000 travel agencies in China, including some 1,000
international travel agencies. The three largest travel agencies in the country
are China International Travel Service Group (CITS), China Travel Service
Group (CTS), and China Youth Travel Service Tours Corp (CYTS).
He Guangwei, director of the China National Tourism Administration
(CNTA), said on Wednesday at a national conference in Bo'ao that tourism is
expected to bring in $18.5 billion this year. The overall revenue from domestic
and overseas tourists will be 535 billion yuan, 8 percent above last year. He
said Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan will contribute 85 percent to the total
number of arrivals.
The CNTA is the government organ in charge of the tourism industry. Its
responsibilities include formulating tourism development guidelines and plans,
drawing up tourism legislation and industry standards, marketing and training.
It will enhance the network management of travel agencies this year,
particularly during the holidays around National Day, May Day and the Spring
Festival.
Now that it is a full-fledged member of the World Trade Organization, China
will speed up the opening of its travel service industry, Vice Premier Qian
Qichen said on Wednesday. Addressing the national conference on the
tourism industry, Qian said China will allow big-name international travel
agencies to enter the country so as to learn from their management and
expertise. Meanwhile, China will hone its approval system to stop the entry of
unscrupulous small travel agencies, which might disturb the domestic market
order, Qian said.
The vice premier also called for the use of more overseas capital in
developing the country's tourism resources, especially those in the remote
western regions. To attract more overseas tourists, Qian said, China should
market itself as the safest tourist destination in the world. Enhanced marketing
efforts should be directed toward traditional markets such as Japan, southern
Russia, the United States, Western Europe and Southeast Asia, while
emerging markets such as India, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Latin
America should be further developed, he said.
Leading foreign travel agencies will be encouraged to open joint ventures in
China, and tourism should become a major industry of the country's vast
western region. In addition to joint-venture travel agencies opened by foreign
firms in China, leading domestic firms should also start travel services
overseas. The central and western areas should take advantage of their rich
and unique resources to turn themselves into new tourist attractions, said
Qian.
The travel-agency market is beginning to open. At this stage, foreign
developers are allowed to be involved in joint-venture travel agencies in the
country's 12 state-level holiday resorts. According to a new guide catalogue
of industries for foreign investment, foreign investment is allowed in launching
travel agencies, although wholly foreign-owned operations are not allowed.
And from now on, China's unqualified tourist guides will find it difficult to
survive because of stricter government supervision. Sources with the CNTA
said in Bo'ao on Wednesday that China will set standards for guide behavior
to bring more order to the industry. From this March, a legal and more
transparent payment system will be established between tourist guides and
travel agencies. Under-the-counter deals will be forbidden.
Tourist guides will be graded according to their performances, and will be
supervised on a national as well as local level.
The number of tourist guides in China is increasing rapidly to keep pace with
the booming tourism industry. According to experts' predictions, China will
have 150,000 qualified guides by the end of 2002.
Neighboring nations the prime target
China will intensify tourism promotion campaigns in its neighboring countries
this year, said He. "This year marks the 30th year of the normalization of
Sino-Japanese relations. The CNTA and the Japanese tourism administration
will jointly carry out the promotion."
The CNTA will organize a tourism friendship exchange group to visit different
regions of Japan this May. In addition, delegations from both sides will gather
in Beijing to plant friendship trees at the foot of the Great Wall.
He noted that 2002 marks the 10th year of the establishment of diplomatic
relations between China and South Korea, and China also expects more
tourists from there.
He said the commencement of flights between China and India this year will
also help bring more Indian tourists to China.
China has so far signed more than 20 bilateral tourism agreements with foreign
countries, many of which are neighbors.