The tourism bureau of southwest China's Yunnan Province announced Monday that local travel agencies could resume both domestic and overseas tourism business from July 1.
At the peak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Yunnan's tourism industry was adversely affected, though it was one of the country's five provinces where no SARS cases were reported.
As SARS has ebbed from the Chinese mainland, Yunnan, which boasts of numerous internationally-known attractions, is intensifying its tourism promotion in a bid to attract more tourists from home and abroad.
The 2003 China International Tourism Trade Fair and the fourth China International Tourism Festival are both expected to be held this November.
New tourism attractions are also under design, including the Shangri-La nature reserve area and the Lancang-Mekong river tourism route.
(Xinhua News Agency July 1, 2003)
