The rise and power of China's culture industry
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Golden era for tourism
While travelers in China are busy with picking destinations for the New Year and Spring Festival, experts and professionals in the tourism industry are preoccupied with drawing up a blueprint for the 12th Five Year plan, confident that the boom of the last five years in the industry will continue.
"Compared with five years ago, personal travel is more convenient and of more choices," said Chen Zhi, a 37-year-old high school teacher in Shanghai, who is planning to go to France for the Spring Festival. This would be his sixth overseas trip in the last five years. Nowadays more and more Chinese can travel more conveniently to other countries.
China Tourism Academy (CTA) statistics till the end of 2010 show that 140 countries signed approved destination status agreements with the government for Chinese travelers to go on group tours. Outbound tourists are expected to reach 52 million, an increase of 21 million compared with 2005. China's inbound tourism may rise to 132 million people - 12 million more than in 2005.
With tourists increasing, revenue is set to touch 1,440 billion yuan ($217.44 billion) by the end of the year, 670 billion yuan ($101.17 billion) more compared with 2005.
"In the 11th Five Year Plan, Chinese tourism has achieved a breakthrough, with the industry growing in scale and its system, standard and function improving," said Shao Qiwei, Chairman of China National Tourism Administration (CNTA).
In 2007, the central government announced festival vacations and paid-leave regulations, with two golden weeks and five three-day holidays, creating more options for tourism. These encourage more short-distance tours, and are a big boost to domestic tourism. The 2008 Olympics and 2010 Expo are other powerful drives of the tourism.
The central government has released a series of policies to promote tourism, such as countryside tourism, revolutionary tourism and the international tourism island development. Tourism has been upgraded as an economic pillar in 27 provinces and municipalities, and plans suited to local conditions are being launched, such as in Hainan, Guangdo."Developing Hainan as an international tourism island is to satisfy the growing demand for holiday and leisure," said Lu Zhiyuan, director of Hainan Provincial Tourism Development Commission.
"The 11th Five Year Plan saw tourism transformed, from sightseeing to leisure travel, holiday-making and theme tourism," Dai Bin, president of CTA, said.
According to Dai, urbanization, high-speed railways, and the business model based on information technology and capital markets would be strong elements in promoting the industry's development.
CNTA has forecast that by 2015 domestic tourism will fetch 3.3 billion; inbound tourists will bring in 150 million and outbound tourists, 83 million; and revenue target is 2,300 billion yuan ($347.30 billion) in 2015.
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