Tourists return to mainland

Source: Agencies  |   2009-9-20  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

INBOUND tourism on the Chinese mainland rebounded in August after falling for 15 consecutive months since May last year, the National Tourism Administration said.

The mainland reported more than 11.09 million inbound tourist arrivals in August, up 3.06 percent year on year, according to data from the administration released on Friday.

Growth was recorded in the number of arrivals from 16 major sources of overseas tourists.

Foreign currency income from inbound tourism was estimated at US$3.466 billion in August, up 5.38 percent from a year earlier.

Those figures compared to a year-on-year 3.05 percent decline of tourist arrivals in July which stood at 10.72 million, and a 0.66 percent drop of foreign currency income to US$3.325 billion.

Meanwhile, Chinese mainland tourists made about 4.65 million outbound trips in August, up 11.69 percent from a year ago. The top three destinations were Hong Kong, Macau and South Korea.

China's inbound tourism suffered from the global economic downturn last year which forced overseas tourists to cut travel spending.