According to the latest statistics published by the China National Tourism Administration, in August 2008, China hosted a total of 10,762,400 inbound tourists, a decrease of 6.97% compared to the same month of 2007.

In contrast, the number of Chinese outbound tourists was 4,162,200 in the same month, representing a year-on-year growth rate of 3.37%.

This August, the number of international arrivals to China went down by 20.33% to 1,909,000. From January through August this year, the total number of inbound tourists in China was 86,733,400, an increase of 0.35% from the same period of last year; of these 16,469,400 were from overseas markets, two percentage points lower than before.

(China Hospitality News September 25, 2008)