Inbound tourism in China witnessed a decline during the first nine months of 2008 due to the worldwide economic crisis, higher fuel prices and rising inflation.
An official at China’s tourism authority revealed that probably due to global economic crunch, the number of tourists to China declined during Jan-Sep 2008, as reported by xinhuanet. The country is expected to see the same trend this year also.
The figures show that despite the decline, a total of 132 Million international tourists visited China during Jan-Sep 2008, including 54.72 Million tourists who visited the country for the first time. As per the latest statistics, China stood fourth in the number of inbound visitors in 2007. Also, the country is holding the fourth spot in the world from the perspective of overall tourism revenue. It registered tourism revenue of US$41.9 Billion during Jan-Sep 2008.
The major reason that led to a decline in the number of inbound tourists during the said period is the global economic crunch, which has affected most of the industries. Also, higher fuel prices contained the number of visitors to the country. Meanwhile, earthquake in the Sichuan province of China brought a reduction in the number of official tourists.
High prices of oil and rising inflation also brought the China’s tourism sector on the back foot. This further added to the worries of Chinese tourism board. On the other hand, the hotel industry, which had earlier witnessed a boom due to record visitor arrivals and occupancy rates, is also suffering adversely due to low tourist arrivals.
According to a Research Analyst at RNCOS, “Worldwide financial turmoil made the China’s inbound tourism industry to witness a significant decline during Jan-Sep 2008. The industry is likely to remain sluggish this year also. However, some efforts should be made on part of the government and industry players to bring the industry back on track. For instance, they should undertake stronger promotional campaigns abroad. And the administration should make efforts to develop a leisure-related plan of the country to promote the domestic tourism.”
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