Goal Set for Tourism Industry in 10th Five-Year PlanThe National Tourism Administration has set the goal for China's tourism industry development during the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-05), which is put into practice at the beginning of this year. Following are the main points of the plan.By 2005, the number of overseas tourists to China will reach 85 million (person/time, same below), including 34.5m overnight tourists, earning foreign exchange to the tune of US$22bn. The number of domestic tourists will hit 1.1 billion, bringing about an estimated earning of 500 bn yuan (about US$62.5bn). Chinese tourists going abroad will amount to 16.36m in number, the industry, as a whole, will yield 750bn yuan, equivalent to 5.8 percent of GDP. Efforts will be made to universalize tourist consumption, perfect the mode of development, serialize tourist products, standardize service quality, diversify sales promotion methods, employ hi-tech equipment, organize industrial groups, legalize macro management; modernize enterprise management, and introduce orderly economic operation. As China is to advance from an Asian tourist power to a world tourist power, the synthesis of the above 10 aspects embodies the overall competitiveness of a country's tourist industry, and eventually constitutes the general goal for building up a tourist power. By the end of 1999, China had boasted 237,000 lodging facilities, including 889,400 rooms in 7035 hotels for foreigners, 7,326 travel agencies, of which 1,256 were international travel services, as well as 292 tourist vehicle and shipping companies. There were 209 tourist universities and colleges and regular institutes of higher education opening tourism departments (specialties) and 978 secondary technical schools. By 1999, the number of China's overnight tourists and foreign exchange income ranked fifth and seventh in the world respectively, setting down China's position as an Asian tourist power. The tourist industry, if developed smoothly in the coming five years, will earn China a foreign exchange revenue of over US$90bn, add more than 3,000 billion yuan to the GDP and create job opportunities for more than 8 million people. The total output of world tourist industry accounted for 10.7 percent of world GDP aggregate, world people's expenditure on tourism for 11.3 percent of the total expenditure, and capital investment in world tourist industry for 11.9 percent. In comparison, China's current level is less than half of the above-mentioned indexes. First is the need to formulate general policies and various specific policies for all-out and serial support of tourism development. Second is, on the one hand, the need to comprehensively straighten out the tourist management system so as to reduce or eliminate overlapping functions between departments in tourism management; and on the other hand, the need to comprehensively reform and construct a micro foundation for the operation of tourist economy, and cultivate a new-type market mainstay. Third is the need to form and develop a new regional growth level through the large-scale development of the western region. And fourth is to deepen market sales promotion. There is the need to strengthen weak links, raise the ability to provide auxiliary items, promote balanced development and intensify promotional functions. Regarding this, travel services should control quantity, readjust structure, reform mechanism and improve quality; there is the need for tourist accommodation departments to fill up gaps, improve structure, enrich types and conform to the trends; for tourist catering trade, it is necessary to standardize the market, improve quality and give prominence to their distinguishing features; for tourism shopping, it is necessary to strengthen government direction, as well as the combination of production and marketing, designing strength, specialized technique and sales service. In accelerating the transformation from the advantage of tourism resources to industrial advantage and socio-economic advantage, we must regard the prominent development of products as the center, higher level of planning conception as the foundation, development and innovation as the lead, supplementation and perfection as guarantee and market expansion as the aim. We must improve old products and develop new ones; we must manufacture State-level super-quality products, create world-level products, strengthen national connotation, give prominence to construction of unique features and realize systematized development in accordance international standards. Consideration should be given to the adjacent state of geography, the continuity of culture, the complementarity of products as well as the connection of market. The focus of development is: for east China to raise its level, central China to expand its scale and west China to engage in large-scale development. This means promoting a balanced development of the three major regions; at the same time it is necessary to bring about breakthrough development in key tourist areas; coordinated development in key tourist sphere; accelerated development in key tourist belts; vigorous development in key tourist lines; and high-level development in key tourist cities. By PD Online staff member Li Heng |
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