eTN Asia, 11-16-2006
Even as China takes series of initiatives to strengthen its tourism culture, it has stacked up impressive figures when it comes to the overall performance of the tourism industry.
China received 92.2 million overseas tourists in the first nine months of the year, up 2.86 percent on the same period in 2005, the China National Tourism Administration shared.
Revenue from overseas tourists totaled US$23.03 billion during the same period, indicating a growth of 5.63 percent. Of the total 16.1 million were foreign nationals and the rest from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
Arrivals of overseas tourists totaled 10.4 million in September, a rise of 5.56 percent. As in September, the Republic of Korea was the largest source of foreign tourists for China, with 334,169 arrivals. It was followed by Japan, Russia and the United States. China is now ranked fourth in the world in terms of overseas tourist arrivals, as per the information available.
The World Tourism Organization has predicted that China will become the No. 1 tourist destination and the fourth largest source of tourists by 2020.
As part of preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the local government has already launched a campaign to correct and standardize the use of English. Keen on taking care of `Chinglish,’ China has initiated a new campaign to clamp down on bad English in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
