East China's Shandong Province aims to turn tourism into one of its leading industries in the coming half decade, according to Li Chunting, governor of the province.

The province has drawn up a blueprint in this regard, hoping to harvest an annual tourist income of 72 billion yuan (about US$8.67 billion) by the year 2005.

According to the blueprint, the tourist sector of Shandong is expected to secure an estimated income of 144 billion yuan (US$17.35 billion) by 2010, and finally reap 423.1 billion yuan (US$51 billion) by 2020.

As a coastal province with abundant tourist resources, Shandong last year reported 41.2 billion yuan (US$5 billion) in its tourist income, which accounted for 4.85 percent of the province's annual GDP.

(People’s Daily 02/15/2001)