Criteria for Best Tourist Cities in China to Be Mapped outOctober 23 saw China's National Tourism Administration and World Tourism Organization signed an agreement in Beijing for jointly working out a Standard System for China's Best Tourist Cities.Ever since 1995, China has set off a campaign for excellent tourist cities and so far there have emerged a total of 125 such cities that have effectively pushed forward the modernization in city construction and development of tourism in China. Based on the result, the National Tourism Administration has decided to launch an activity for selecting China's best tourist cities from among the said 125 cities. Shortlist for this selection must have such advantages as with distinctive features in tourism, complete and harmonized tourism functions, and outstanding conditions of a highly developed internationalization and modernization greatly appreciated by visitors and the like. To cater better to the needs of the world, the World Tourism Organization was specially invited for jointly working out a standard system for the selection. The selection will be launched soon after the formal publication of the standard system in February 2002. According to estimation of the World Tourism Organization, by 2020, the number of tourists will reach 1.5 billion person/times worldwide and China will become the top tour destination in the world. By then, the planned visitors to China will reach 145 million person/times, of which 33.5 million are foreigners with a foreign exchange earning amounting to US$75bn while the tourism income from domestic market will reach RMB2700bn yuan and in 2020, the gross revenue from tourism industry will account for eight percent of the GDP in China. By PD Online Staff Huang Ying |
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