Tourism revenue from this year's National Day holiday was reportedly to rise 20 percent over the same holiday last year, with the number of tourists up by almost six percent.

The holiday, which ended on Monday, is one of three seven-day breaks introduced by the government in the late 1990s to boost the economy by encouraging China's often frugal population to break into their savings.

It was reported that over the past three years, the so-called "Golden Week" holidays, which also fall around May 1 and the Lunar New Year in January or February, have each generated at least 30 billion yuan (US$3.61 billion) in tourism revenues.

Statistics also show that the year 2001 alone saw tourist numbers reach 780 million, much higher than the figure of 240 million in 1989. While China's outbound tourists rose to 12.13 million in 2001, a big jump from 3 million in the early 1990s.

Tourism is considered a major boost to China's economy as it can ignite other relevant industries, such as banking and insurance as well as transportation and communications.

The World Tourism Organization (WTO) predicts that when one-yuan profit is generated in tourism sector, 4.3 yuan profit will be created in related sectors.

Another optimistic note in China's tourism industry is that outbound and inbound tourist numbers are both on rising sharply.

From January to August this year, inbound tourist numbers reached 64.22 million, a 10 percent rise from the same period last year.

China's inbound tourism has continued growing remarkably. The country's international tourism revenue in 2001 scored a year-on-year 9.7 percent rise amid a world tourism slowdown affected by the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

Meanwhile, China was picked by the WTO as one of the world's 15most popular tourism destinations.

The WTO also predicts that by 2020, China will be the world's number one tourism destination and the fourth major source of tourists.

(Xinhua News Agency October 9, 2002)