China's tourism industry enjoyed robust growth in the first 10 months this year, Beijing-based English newspaper China Daily reported Tuesday.

According to statistics from the National Tourism Administration, China received 89.79 million tourists in the mainland areas in the first 10 months this year, up 20.34 percent year-on-year, an 11.09 percent increase over the same period in 2002.

Among tourists, 13.84 million were from overseas countries, up 52.66 percent year-on-year; 55.03 million were from Hong Kong, up 14.68 percent; 17.83 million from Macao, up 15.63 percent; and 3.08 million from Taiwan, up 39.41 percent.

The top five countries on a list of those that witnessed the fastest growth in tourists entering China in the same 10-month period included India, Russia, the Republic of Korea, Australia and Singapore with growth rates of 45.32, 40.96, 31.93, 27.28 and 27.16 per cent, respectively.

The administration said foreign currency income from the tourism sector in the surveyed time period was estimated at 19.26 billion US dollars, which rose 37.45 percent and represented 14.08 percent in additional income over the same period in 2002.

And 49.79 percent of the tourism exchange revenue came from overseas tourists, 26.89 percent from Hong Kong, 9.81 percent from Macao and 14.01 percent from Taiwan.

China's inbound tourist arrivals set a record in 2002, when China ranked fifth in the world in terms of both overnight tourist arrivals and tourism income in foreign exchange.

In 2003, however, Chinese tourism suffered a heavy blow due to the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), which resulted in a sharp reduction in visitors.

In 2003, the tourist arrivals totaled 91.66 million, a decrease of 6 percent from the previous year.

After SARS, the Chinese government adopted a series of measures to reinvigorate the sector.