|
Announcing a new plan for the sector, China said it aims to
invest 2 trillion yuan ($290 billion) in tourism between 2016
and 2020 which would translate to annual growth of more than 14
percent in direct investment in the industry.
Old industrial and resource-dependent cities, particularly in
the north of the country, will be encouraged to develop tourism
and the government has promised to set up "demonstration tourist
bases" in those areas. Several depleted coal cities have already
made efforts to turn defunct mines into parks.
The plan also promised a "toilet revolution", prompted by
wide-spread complaints about toilet hygiene levels at China's
tourist spots and said the country would aim to build or
renovate as many as 100,000 public toilets over the period.
The investment will help China's emerging tourism industry
account for 12 percent of annual economic growth by 2020, up
from 10.8 percent last year, the country's cabinet said.
The total sum of tourism services purchased by the country is
set to reach 7 trillion yuan ($1 trillion) by 2020, equivalent
to more than an 11 percent increase in tourism revenue per year,
the State Council said.
The government predicted domestic travelers would take 6.4
billion trips annually by 2020, up from 4 billion in 2015, while
the number of trips to China by overseas travelers is set to
rise to 150 million, from 134 million last year.
China's state planner said this month that tourism investment
targets will be met by attracting more private investment into
the industry.
China has been keen to develop and expand services industries to
offset the impact of persistently weak global demand for its
exports.
(Reporting by Yawen Chen and David Stanway; Editing by Edwina
Gibbs)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
|
