China expects to host 150 million overseas tourist arrivals by 2010, said a senior Chinese official in charge of the industry.

While addressing the China international service conference and forum on packaging and tourism in Beijing on Thursday, Sun Gang, deputy director-general with China National Tourism Administration, said the targets for overnight tourist arrivals, hard currency revenue from international tourism and overall tourism earnings in2010 are set at US$60 million, US$35 billion and 1.2 trillion Yuan (about US$144.58 billion), respectively.

According to prediction made by World Tourism Organization (WTO)in 1997, China would become the world's No.1 host of tourists and the fourth biggest source of tourists on earth in the year of 2020.

However, the growth rate for China's in- and out-bound tours, as well as domestic tourism during 1996 and 2002 proved to be faster than the 6 percent annual growth rate set in the prediction, said Sun.

According to Sun, in 2002, China hosted 97.91 million overseas tourists, up 91.5 percent from that of 1996 or 11.4 percent on a year-on-year basis, and raked in US$20.39 billion in international tourism revenue, up 12.2 percent on a year-on-year basis.

China also had 16.6 million people for out-bound tours, up 21.9 percent on a year-on-year basis, and netted 556.6 billion yuan in overall tourism earnings, up 14.4 percent on a year-on-year basis.

(Xinhua News Agency July 3, 2004)