Domestic and overseas investorsare now welcome to run independent tourist operations in Hainan, China's southern island province.

This has been made possible by the Hainan Provincial Regulationon Tourism which was passed recently at the provincial people's congress.

It is China's first legal document to be passed since the WTO entry which is designed to enable a Chinese region to fit in with the world tourism industry by opening its tourism market to outside investors .

Previously, there were many restrictions on overseas run tourist operations in China, for instance, outside travel agencieswere forbidden to guide tour groups themselves, so local travel services arranged guides.

The new regulation, removes the many of these restrictions.

Hainan, which is China's newest and largest special economic zone (SEZ), has become one of the country's most popular tourist destinations. It was visited by 11.25 million tourists last year and earned more than six billion yuan (about US 723 million).

( People's Daily February 22, 2002)