China ushers in a new era of mass tourism
By
Shang Kaiyuan from People’s Daily
Last
year, Chinese made more than 5.5 billion domestic trips, with an average of
four trips per person, which suggests that China has entered the era of mass
tourism, said the country’s minister of tourism and culture Luo Shugang.
Luo
made the remarks during a passage interview on the sidelines of the second
session of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC) on March 8.
According
to statistics released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in February,
Chinese nationals made 5.54 billion domestic trips and the number of inbound
and outbound tourists totaled 291 million in 2018, marking a year-on-year
increase of 10.8 percent and 7.8 percent respectively.
Preliminary
calculations indicated that the aggregate contribution of tourism to China’s
GDP was 9.94 trillion-yuan last year, accounting for 11.04 percent of the GDP.
The sector created 79.91 million direct and indirect jobs, contributing 10.29
percent of the country’s total employment.
The
rapid development of the domestic tourism market is attributable to the development
of cultural resources, said the minster.
As
an important cultural resource, museums have become popular tourist
destinations, Luo said. By the end of 2018, the number of museums in China had
exceeded 5,000, nearly 90 percent of which are free and open to the public.
The
commemorative exhibition of the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening
up being held at National Museum of China has received more than 3 million
visitors since its opening, setting records of daily visitors to the museum
time and again.
The
rapidly increasing tourist number also puts a higher demand on tourism
environment. Reports confirm that last year, relevant departments built and
renovated about 30,000 restrooms in scenic areas, and they will solve the
restroom shortage and improve sanitation of toilets in two or more years.
Luo
said in order to create a better tourism market, the ministry will strengthen management,
such as tightening supervision over hotels, restaurants, tour guides and the
shopping sector, and resolutely cracking down on bad conducts such as fraud,
swindling money out of customers, unreasonable low-cost travel products, and
forcing tourists into shopping.
China
has also brought a significant number of tourists to foreign destinations. The
number of outbound Chinese tourists reached 150 million in 2018, a year-on-year
increase of 14.7 percent. The country has become the world’s biggest source of
tourists.
Shanghai Pudong
International Airport started to see a rising number of outbound tourists on
Feb. 6, 2019. Tour groups are the major form of outbound travel. Photo from CFP
China ushers in a new era of mass tourism
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