Tourism in China on the up

The Chinese mainland received 89 million visitors last year

HONG KONG, China -- Defying the current global downturn in the travel industry, China has reported a 10.5 percent increase in tourism revenue for 2001.

Tourism on the Chinese mainland continued to grow rapidly, reaching 499.5 billion yuan ($60.2 billion) for the year, the official China Daily reported on Monday.

An even bigger market is expected this year, the report said, owing to supportive government policies and the country's "safe, stable situation."

The report said that while more and more Chinese were using their holidays to explore their country, the number of foreign tourists also increased.

The statistics, from the National Tourism Administration, said that overseas visitors accounted for $17.8 billion of the tourism revenue, and domestic travelers the remaining $42.4 billion.

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There were almost 90 million overseas visitors to the mainland last year -- an increase of 6.7 percent compared with the previous year.

Most were from the Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions, accounting for 58.57 and 15.78 million tourists respectively.

Travelers to China from outside Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan numbered 11.23 million.

The tourism administration said that new visa policies implemented last year made the mainland more attractive for visitors.

Among the changes, foreigners can visit Shanghai without a visa for up to two days or stay in South China's Hainan province for up to 15 days without a Chinese visa, China Daily reported.

A large amount of funding had also been directed at tourism infrastructure such as airports, the report said.

The administration said that China was largely unaffected by the depression in the world tourism economy since September 11 and remained one of the safest destinations for travelers.