China tourism economy grows
(bizjournals.com)
Updated: 2005-12-05 15:12

While Hawaii tourism executives search for ways to lure visitors from China, China is looking for ways to lure visitors to China.

"China's tourism industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the national economy and is also one of the industries with a very distinct global competitive edge," Research & Markets says in a new report.

China inbound tourism is thought to be a $70 billion industry -- it was $67 billion in 2002 and $59 billion in 2003 when the SARS epidemic interrupted most Asia-Pacific tourism for months.

China gets almost 100 million visitors a year but two thirds of those are day visitors from Hong Kong and Macau. That still leaves 33 million who stay at least one night in China, 10 times the number in 1980.

China has more than 10,000 hotels and 11,000 travel agencies, but only 1,300 handle international business, and the vast majority of outbound China tourists never go farther than the foreign country adjacent to their home province.

Chinese officials do not yet encourage American-style vacations taken only for pleasure but are approving more business-and-pleasure trips. Hawaii tourism executives who are knowledgeable about China say most Chinese visitors to Hawaii stop here on their way back home after undertaking business or academic visits to the U.S. Mainland.