China is using the 7th Global Travel and Tourism Summit that opened at Lisbon on Friday as its latest effort to promote China's tourism industry and resources.
"China has become an attractive tourist destination worldwide and a prominent tourist-generating country," said Wang Zhifa, vice chairman of China's National Tourism Administration, when addressing the opening session of the summit.
"Last year, the number of overnight inbound tourist arrivals in China was almost 50 million, while the country's outbound tourist trips reached 35 million, and the number of domestic tourist trips was almost 1.4 billion," he said.
China is a safe tourist destination, he said, noting the Chinese government is always attaching great importance to security and the country enjoys a peaceful atmosphere.
China's tourism industry income is expected to reach 600 billion yuan (US$78.2 billion) in 2007, accounting to 2.5 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), according to 2007 China Travel and Tourism Economic Research, a report released by the World Travel and Tourism Council earlier this year.
The report also predicted that in 2017 China's tourism income would jump to nearly 2 trillion yuan (US$260.8 billion).
China will seek cooperation with the world's tourism management giants to learn from their advanced management experience for boosting the development of China's tourism, Wang told Xinhua.
"China's tourism industry has become globalized, so we need to let the rest of the world know more about China," he said.
Some leaders from the world's top tourism companies who attended the meeting expressed their interest in investing more in China's tourism market.
(Xinhua News Agency May 14, 2007)