Travel Fear Affects Tourism in China

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 ◆ Travel Fear Affects Tourism in China

China will face some difficulty attracting overseas tourists largely because of people's fear of air travel after the September 11 US terrorist attacks,according to today's China Daily. Although many North American tour groups have already cancelled trips to China, the repercussions are expected to be minimal in the long term, China tourism industry officials said. In October, the number of foreign travellers dropped about 4.3 percent compared to the same month last year. But the total number of overseas tourists actually increased about 4 percent when including tourists from Macao and Taiwan, which grew 34 percent and 3 percent respectively, according to the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA). The total number of overseas tourists reached 73.3 million from January through October, an increase of 5.7 percent over the same time last year. Tourism revenue from the past 10 months is expected to reach US$14.8 billion, up 9.28 percent over the same time last year. "The loss caused by the decline of overseas tourists is not as great as we had anticipated," said Zhang Xiqin, CNTA's vice-chairman. A survey shows that China International Travel Service (CITS), the country's largest, lost 120 million yuan (US$14.5 million) when 20,000 tourists called off trips in September and October. "In general, those who plan to visit China this spring should be booking their seats and hotel at our travel agencies, but business is slow," said one tourism official.