South China's Hainan Province hosted 7.45 million tourists and raked in 6.2 billion yuan (US$765 million) in the first six months of the year.

Information from a recent provincial meeting on tourism said both figures showed increases of 5.2 percent and 9.4 percent on a year-on-year basis, respectively.

Of the total tourist arrivals, tourists from overseas made up 211,500, up 38.51 percent, producing US$60.41 million in revenue.

Hotels in Sanya, the most famous scenic site in the province, handled 2.03 million tourists arrivals for night stopover from January to June, up 10.04 percent, and chalked up 2.72 billion yuan (US$328 million) in earnings, an increase of 32.83 percent.

In addition to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, which are Hainan's conventional source of tourists, the number of tourists from Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK), Russia, other European countries, the United States and Australia all rose dramatically.

Hainan, with its ample tropical tourism resources and gradually-improving environment, attracted more visitors from Japan and ROK for vacations with their interest in golf, diving and herbalist medical care compared to the same period of last year.

(Xinhua News Agency July 25, 2005)