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Forging Ahead to Make China a World's Tourism PowerOur Commentator's article, written on the occasion of the publication of the book "Deng Xiaoping On Tourism", hails the brilliant achievements scored by China's tourist industry over the past 20 years and calls for efforts to turn the dream of being a tourism power in the world into reality at an early date. The commentary runs as follows:"Deng Xiaoping On Tourism", a historic document, which systematically reflects Comrade Deng Xiaoping's thinking concerning the development of tourist industry, has been compiled, published and distributed by the Literature Research Center of the CPC Central Committee and the State Tourism Administration in the first spring of the new millennium This document, which enriches Deng Xiaoping Theory, is of important guidance significance and far-reaching historic significance in accelerating the cross-century development of China's tourist industry. Comrade Deng Xiaoping paid much attention to and showed great concern for tourism during his lifetime. From October 1978 to July 1979, this chief architect of China's reform and opening-up program made concentrated, systematic and concrete expositions on the question regarding the development of China's tourist industry for five times in a row, pointing out the orientation for the development of tourism and setting the objectives for the endeavor, thus forming the ideological system for developing the tourist sector. Deng clearly advocated running the tourist industry as an economic sector, he pointed out that there's a lot to do for the tourist undertaking and it must be run in a prominent and faster way. We can say that Comrade Deng Xiaoping's thinking on the development of tourism is closely related with the overall planning for reform and opening up and with the major guiding principle for taking economic construction as the central task which was set forth at the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, it is an important component part of Deng Xiaoping's economic thinking, as well as an important component of Deng Xiaoping Theory. The practice over the past 20 years has amply proved that Deng Xiaoping's thought concerning the development of tourism is the foundation for starting the tourist undertaking and the program for development. It is under the guidance of this thought that China's tourist industry has completed the transformation of this sector from a "business reception type" to an "economic foreign-exchange earning type, has scored rapid development and brilliant achievements and brought about a historic leap from a large tourist resources country to a tourist power in Asia. Over the past 20 years, internally, China's tourist industry has always been growing at a rate ahead of that of the national economy, and internationally, it has been developing with the momentum of a growth rate ahead of that of the world tourist industry, moreover, in 1996 it had achieved the objective ahead of schedule, set forth by Comrade Deng Xiaoping requiring that by the end of this century, the foreign exchange earned from the tourist industry should have reached US$10 billion. Last year, the total income from China's tourism exceeded 400 billion yuan, accounting for 4.88 percent of the GDP, making it a new growth area of the national economy. The tourist industry is producing comprehensive, extensive and lasting special effect on promoting economic development and social prosperity. In the next 20 years, China should achieve another historic leap from being a tourism power in Asia to a tourism power in the world, the proportion of tourism in the GDP should reach 8 percent. China's long history, splendid culture, beautiful landscape, multiple nationalities and uniquely abundant tourist resources have a great appeal to overseas tourists. The world tourist organization predicts that by the year 2020, China will have become the world's first large tourist destination. It has become increasingly clear that tourism is playing an irreplaceable role in expanding domestic demand and stimulating consumption, and in improving the quality of the nationals and bettering the quality of life. At present, the enthusiasm displayed by various localities in developing the tourist industry has soared to an unprecedented height, an encouraging situation has universally appeared which features government attention, departmental united action and public participation. Under this situation, speeding up the development of the tourist industry, so that it will genuinely become a pillar industry of the national economy is not only possible, but also necessary. At present, China is in the period of economic restructuring, the central authorities have decided to list tourism as a new growth area of the national economy, calling for great efforts to foster and support its development. The prelude to the large-scale development of the western region has been struck up, the process of negotiation on China's WTO entry has been accelerated noticeably, opening to the outside world has been further expanded, all these factors have brought about a good development opportunity for the tourist industry. However, it should be noted that there is still a wide gap between China and the world's tourist powers in many aspects, to further develop the tourist industry, we still face various difficulties and challenges. At this moment, the publication of the book Deng Xiaoping On Tourism reflects the hope that various quarters will conscientiously study, profoundly comprehend and accurately grasp Deng Xiaoping's thinking on the development of tourism, and flexibly apply the essence of his thinking in practice, to adapt to the new situation, explore new ways and jointly spur the tourist industry to play a still greater role in the national economic development and social progress, thereby forging ahead in a pioneering spirit in order to realize the dream of making China become a tourist power in the world at an early date!
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