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Rediff.com  » Business » China to become largest tourist destination by 2015

China to become largest tourist destination by 2015

Source: PTI
March 22, 2010 13:00 IST
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China is expected to become world's numero uno tourist destination by 2015 beating countries like France, US and Spain which are at present more preferred by foreign visitors, a senior UN official has said.

"China, as we predict, is going to become world's No 1 tourist destination by the year 2015," United Nations World Tourism Organisation secretary general Taleb Rifai has said.

"China is now world's fourth largest destination when it comes to incoming tourists, and the rates of growth are moving so quickly that we think this is a realistic target," Rifai was quoted by Xinhua, China's official news agency.

He noted that France currently is the country receiving the largest number of foreign tourists, at 80 million per year, followed by US and Spain, both at 60 million a year, while China receives about 48 million visitors annually.

"China's tourism economy has moved incredibly in the last ten years. The number of incoming tourists rose from 8 million to 48 million. The potential of the growth is still big because of the size of China," Rifai said.

Rifai said the global tourism industry is improving but challenges remain due to the weak economy.

"The tourism industry is very much affected by the general economic situation, and for sure the general economic situation has started to turn around. But we cannot call it a full recovery at the moment," he said.

Recent studies here said China's outbound tourism was also set to increase this year as about 54 million Chinese tourists were expected to set out of the country for various destinations abroad spending over $6 billion.

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