China tourism to reduce poverty for 12-14 million, official says

China will reduce the poverty-stricken population by 12 to 14 million in the next five years through facilitating tourism development, the head of the national tourism authority said on Thursday.

The population that will rise out of poverty via tourism growth will account for 17 to 20 percent of the national total of poverty-stricken people, according to the China National Tourism Administration, Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday.

China will pursue a new way to explore the tourism market that extends tourist attractions from spots to border regions, said Li Jinzao, chairman of China National Tourism Administration, at the first World Conference on Tourism for Development on Thursday, according to the Xinhua report. The conference began Thursday in Beijing and ends Saturday.

The national tourism authority will facilitate more regions to improve traffic networks and infrastructure development, promote the better use of the i internet in the growth of tourism, and fuel the rise of other economic sectors and social development - which will allow residents to get more benefits from tourism, he said.

In 2015, China saw tourism visits, including inbound and outbound, exceed 4.1 billion. People working in the tourism industry accounted for 10.2 percent of the total domestic labor market, the administration's earlier report showed.

China has become a strong force in the global tourism market, with the largest outbound travel visits since 2012. It accounted for 13 percent of global tourism revenues, according to data from the World Tourism Organization.

The number of outbound travelers from the Chinese mainland is estimated to hit 600 million in the next 5 years, Li said.

Li expressed the continued expectation of global cooperation, saying China would cooperate with more countries to boost global tourism and revenues in the future.

In the next five years, around 150 million Chinese tourists are expected to travel in the countries along the One Belt One Road initiative through cooperation programs, which will bring tourism revenues reaching an estimated $200 billion, Li said.