China is expected to earn US$156.5 billion from tourism in 2010, says Liu Kezhi, a senior official with the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA).

 

Liu says the number of foreign tourists who will spend at least one night in China is expected to jump to 68.8 million in 2010, when domestic tourists are expected to take 1.78 billion overnight trips.

 

According to the CNTA, both the number of tourists and the money they spent hit record highs last year. China's travel industry catered to 1.363 billion tourists last year, up 10 percent, while tourism revenue hit US$97.8 billion, a year-on-year growth of 12.4 percent.

 

Some 36.69 million foreign tourists spent at least one night in China, up 5.4 percent from a year ago.

 

China earned US$23 billion from foreign tourists in the first nine months with a year-on-year growth of 5.6 percent.

 

In the first nine months of the year, 25.61 million Chinese traveled outside the Chinese mainland up 11 percent from a year ago.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 22, 2006)