In August 2009, the number of inbound tourists into China was 11.0919 million person-times, up 3.06% on the year-on-year basis, including foreigners of 2.0135 million person-times, up 5.47% on the year-on-year basis.

This is the first time for China’s inbound tourism to achieve a positive growth rate after a 15-month consecutive decay beginning last May. The top 16 markets for China’s inbound tourism (except Russia) keep soaring, and the growth rate of 10 markets (including market for Japan, Germany, France, etc) exceeds 10%. According to estimates, China’s tourism (foreign exchange) revenue totaled USD 3.466 billion, down 5.38% on the year-on-year basis this month.

In August 2009, the number of outbound Chinese tourists with citizenship was 4.6486 million person-times, up 11.69% on the year-on-year basis. Based on the number of tourists first arrival of outbound destination, the top 10 countries and regions ranked in sequence were: Hong Kong, Macao, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, the United States, Taiwan, Russia, Singapore and Malaysia.

By Lucy