The latest numerical data provided by the World Travel Organization (WTO) indicate that in the year of 2001 China hosted 33.2 million tourists, ranking itself in the five strong destination countries of the world.

As reported in Beijing Morning Post, the four countries at the list top of the world travel are France (76.5 million), Spain (49.5 million), the USA (45.5 million) and Italy (39 million) in arrivals.

The bulletin published by the WTO in Madrid, Spain indicates: travelers the world over totaled some 693 million person/times in 2001, a short of 4 million than that of 2000, a decrease of 0.6 percent. The tourist revenue reached US$ 462 billion, a short of 2.6 percent than that of US$ 472 billion in 2000. Nevertheless, the WTO holds it that the numeral promises that tourism is "an endurable and stable industry in economy".

It witnessed a slowdown in tourism increase even before the "Sept. 11 Incident", says the WTO. And the incident made the growth slower. The seriously affected regions include America and South Asia, a decrease of 6 percent, Middle East a reduction of 3 percent and Europe 0.6 percent down while East Asia and Africa saw a respective increase of 5 and 4 percent.

( People's Daily June 25, 2002)