S China's island province receives more foreign tourists

HAIKOU -- The number of overseas tourists visiting south China's tropical island of Hainan grew 12 percent year-on-year to 383,800 from January to June, the province's tourism commission said Wednesday.

Tourists from European countries and the United States grew 33.5 percent to 155,720 in the first half year-on-year, the commission said in the statement.

The number of Russian tourists visiting the island continued to grow 44.83 percent in the January-June period to 105,174, especially thanks to the opening of new airline routes this year to five Russian cities.

Hainan has long been a favorite destination for holiday makers from the Russian Far East region.

However, the number of tourists from Asian countries only rose a moderate 3.16 percent to 85,321, the commission said.

Tourists from Japan shrank 18 percent from a year ago to 10,597, mainly due to the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster, it said.

From January to June, Hainan received 14.04 million domestic tourists, up 8.86 percent from the same period of last year.

Hainan's total tourism revenue in the first half of the year totaled 15.33 billion yuan (2.36 billion U.S. dollars), up 10.36 percent year-on-year, according to the tourism commission.