There will be 10 million Chinese serving in the tourism industry by 2010, representing an annual increase of 500,000 new employees.
A total of 44.5 million employees served in the tourism industry last year, accounting for 5.2 percent of China's total workforce, said Shao Qiwei, director of the China National Tourism Administration.
Addressing the annual Tourism Work Conference held in Beijing on Tuesday, Shao said that China will further promote inbound, outbound and domestic tourism markets in order to create more job opportunities.
In the next five years, inbound tourists and overnight tourists will grow 8 percent respectively. By 2010, international tourism income is to reach 53 billion U.S. dollars.
As the largest tourism source nation in Asia, China will see 34 million Chinese people traveling overseas this year.
Over 31 million Chinese people traveled overseas last year and this year will see a 10-percent growth, Shao Qiwei said.
He predicted that the number of inbound travelers for this year will reach 130 million, up 8 percent over last year. The international tourism income will climb to 33.6 billion U.S. dollars.
China will enhance tourism cooperation and exchanges with other nations, including Russia, the United States, Japan, Republic of Korea and many European nations, this year, Shao said.
China will become the world's biggest inbound tourism nation by 2019, one year earlier than the World Tourism Organization predicted, Shao Qiwei said.
Shao said that China's inbound visitors will grow by eight percent in next five years and foreign currency income will increase at an annual rate of 12 percent. Thus, he added, China will receive some 137 million inbound travelers by 2019.
China's tourism will enjoy more favorable conditions for development in next five years, including the growth of national economy, information technology and infrastructure improvement, he acknowledged, adding that the Beijing Olympics and Shanghai World Expo will provide more opportunities for China's tourism.
China has so far utilized more than 93 billion US dollars in foreign capital, Shao said.
China will promote a policy of further opening to the world in the tourism industry in the next five years by introducing advanced tourism management systems and enhancing foreign capital utilization, Shao said, and the country will also encourage its qualified tourism companies to invest overseas.
Shao said the world's top ten hotel groups all invested in China and the world's top ten travel agencies have all established joint venture companies in China.
(Xinhua News Agency January 11, 2006)
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