More than 6.5 million tourists visited the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China in 1999. And 220,000 of them were from overseas.

Foreign exchange earned by the Xinjiang tourism industry stood at 85 million US dollars. Income generated from domestic tourism was close to 6 billion yuan (720 million US dollars).

Xinjiang has so far this year designated two new tourism routes and five tourism zones, including scenic spots, cultural relics, local customs and a tourism zone in Ili.

In July this year, Xinjiang will host a national tourism Trade Fair to expand its tourism market.