Chongqing Residents Increase Spending on TourismResidents in Chongqing of southwest China are increasing their spending on tourism, according to the municipal statistical bureau.Chongqing residents spent an average of 78.2 yuan (US$ 9.42) on tourism last year, registering a year-on-year increase of 23 percent, a report from the bureau said. The report also shows that the city's per capita consumption was 5,300 yuan (US$ 639) in 1999, a 9.4 percent increase over 1998, while spending on travels was among the expenditure items that had the largest increases. Tourism has now become one of Chongqing's booming industries, and it scored an annual income of more than 10 billion yuan (US$ 1.2 billion) last year. Chongqing used to be known as an old manufacturing center in China. Among the city's tourist attractions are the well-known Three Gorges route on the country's largest river of Yangtze, and the more than 50,000 stone sculptures in Dazu (literally "Big Foot" in Chinese) in northwestern Chongqing. Over 450 enterprises in the city currently engage in tourism service, employing some 60,000 persons. To encourage local residents to travel, the Chongqing branch of the Commercial and Industrial Bank of China and the China Merchants International Travel Agency jointly sponsored a tourist loan in January this year. Chongqing residents aged over 20 with a regular job and stable income are eligible to the loan, with a ceiling of 50,000 yuan (US$ 6, 157). |
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