Tourism development creates job opportunities

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 ◆ Tourism development creates job opportunities

Experts attending the Bo'ao Forum for Asia-Tourism Conference agree that further development of the tourism industry could create more job opportunities and alleviate poverty.

Kerstin Leitner, the resident representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in China, said Tuesday that, according to a theoretical assumption, every time 10 domestic tourists and three overseas tourist arrivals in a tourist destination, one job post is created there.

China is in the midst of a remarkable economic restructuring process. The labor forces in its vast rural areas are facing unemployment. Tourism can be a good employment source for those redundant rural labor forces, she added.

Leitner also predicted that the number of international tourist arrivals in China will quadruple in the next five years. Meanwhile, 13 to 14 million jobs will be created in the country's tourism and other related industries.

Gafarov Kasim, president of the National Tourism Administration of the Republic of Tajikistan, said that his government has worked hard to increase investment in building infrastructure as well as the training of tourism professionals. The country's tourism development creates jobs and increases tax revenue.

Kasim said that, in 1996, his country received only 170 overseas tourists, whereas in 2001, the figure reached 10,000, and today, Tajikistan is stepping up cooperation with its neighboring Asian countries to promote the industry.

With regard to tourism cooperation, Kasim cited the agreement reached between China and Tajikistan to jointly open up and develop a number of their renowned temples and other tourist sites in the area along the prestigious ancient Silk Road.