The China tourism industry has outpaced the GDP growth since 1990.The CAGR of total tourist number and tourism revenue have reached 9.6% and 16.4% respectively since 1993 when the tourism industry changed the statistic scope. The SARS of 2003 and its retaliative rebound resulted in the abnormal data of tourism industry in 2003 and 2004. By 2005, total tourist number amounted to 1.363 billion person-times, up by 10% yr-on-yr; the total revenue of the tourism industry achieved RMB 768.6 billion, up by 12.4% over the year of 2004.

Total Revenue of China Tourism Industry, 2001-2006
 (Unit: RMB Billion)
 

Along with the rapid development of China tourism market, domestic travel maintains a steady growth as well. From 1993 to 2005, the CAGR of persons-times of domestic travel reached 9.5% and 16.3% respectively.

Tourists of inbound travel market include foreign tourists as well as tourists from HK, Macao and Taiwan, of which tourists from HK, Macao and Taiwan share nearly 80%. Since 1993, the CAGR of inbound tourists approaches 9.1%, and the growth rate of China foreign exchange revenue from tourism achieved 16.5%, slightly higher than that of domestic travel. The market scale of inbound travel in 2005 amounted to 120 million person-times. However, in Jan-Sep of 2006, its growth rate slowed down, only increased by 2.86% over the same period of 2005; the growth rate of tourists from HK, Macao and Taiwan was just 1.9% while that of foreign tourists decreased to 7.76%; the foreign exchange revenue from tourism was USD 14.68 billion, up by 4.1% over the same period of 2005.

Currently, due to its outbound travel scale far exceeds that of Japan which ranked first previously in Asia-pacific region, China has become Asia's largest outbound tourist source nation as well as one of the countries with largest growth rate, hugest potentials and greatest influences in the global outbound travel market.

Driven by 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 Shanghai Expo, China tourism industry will witness a rapid growth, which will help to enhance the prestige of China and host cities. Besides, the holding venues will become the hot scenic spots in quite a long time.

With obvious resource advantages, scenic spot companies can gain steadily increasing income from the growing tourist flow and rising ticket price. Yet, they should concern issues on deep resources development as well as long-term expansion capacity.

As the large travel agencies accelerate the integration of resources and industry chain, the labor division system and industry concentration will get further upgraded and the status quo of lower gross profit margin is expected to be improved in the next few years. As a result, the leading enterprises with advantages in brand and resource will obtain higher profit margin over industry level.

As a typical promising industry, China tourism industry is provided with huge development room and favorable external environments. Particularly, it has been developing rapidly and now seen another round of business cycle since getting rid of SARS in 2004. The latest forecast from World Tourism Organization shows that the tourism industry of China will grow at a rate of 8.7% per year in 2007-2016, and China is expected to turn into the world No. 2 tourism economic giant within ten years.

At present, under the background of consumption upgrade, the demand structure and industrial structure of China tourism industry are being rapidly adjusted. The rampant competition and emerging tourist service pattern impel the professional labor division and integration to be the trend, and then, the brand is getting increasingly important.

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Tour Italy