Yearender: The world's top 10 tourism industry events in 2015

[Photo/China National Tourism Administration]

The China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) released a list of the world's top 10 travel events for the year on Thursday.

The tourism industry is an important pillar in each country's national economy. The year 2015 witnessed a raft of significant changes in the worldwide tourism landscape. From the US's attempt to draw more international visitors by easing its visa policy, to the 10% contribution tourism makes to China's GDP, we see an ever-increasing role of tourism in a country's development strategy. From the short-term pain brought to Paris tourism by the ISIS attacks, to Russia's sanction against Turkey's travel industry, we see tourism's intertwined relations with international politics and world economic dynamics.

By presenting the major events that happened on the world stage in 2015, we hope you can have a new perspective in anticipating 2016.

1. Tourism contributes 10% of China's GDP

In 2015, visits paid by domestic tourists exceeded 4 billion and total revenue also surpassed 4 trillion yuan. The outbound tourist total hit a record 120 million.

China's domestic travels, outbound tourist visits, domestic tourism consumption and outbound tourism consumption all ranked among the top in the world.

The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) estimated that the total contribution of the travel and tourism sector to China's GDP will be 10.1% this year, performing better than the education, banking and automobile industries.

The National Tourism Data Center also estimated that the travel & tourism sector supported 10.2% of total employment in the country this year.