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Nation to further tap tourism resources

Editor's note: To help more Americans understand China better, the exhibition "2000 Experience Chinese Culture in the United States" is being held in New York from September 5-18.

As part of the exhibition, the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) is displaying the country's rich tourism resources.

He Guangwei, director of the CNTA, talked to Cao Min of Reports from China about the rapid development of tourism in China.

Cao Min: How has China's tourism industry changed in the past 20 years?

He Guangwei: Perhaps one of China's greatest achievement in the past 21 years would be its opening up to the world while simultaneously retaining its values and cultural traditions.

Since 1979, the country has made great progress in developing its tourism industry, which has been helpful in promoting understanding between the Chinese and other peoples.

As the most vigorous part of China's service industry, tourism has played an active role in increasing foreign currency revenue, promoting domestic demand and meeting the needs of China's people.

Last year, the number of overseas visitors coming to the Chinese mainland reached 72 million, increasing more than 40 times since 1978.

Total revenue from tourism industry was more than 400 billion ($48.2 billion) in 1999, which accounts for 5 per cent of China's GDP.

Cao: The world Tourism Organization has forecast that China will become the world's top tourist destination and the fourth largest exporter of tourists by the end of 2020. It is expected that about 137 million foreign tourists will visit China every year by that time. What do you think of this forecast?

He: I am very confident that we can reach the target if we spare no effort in the coming 20 years.

China is a member of more than 1,000 international organizations. It has moved from the 22nd largest trading nation to the 11th. It is projected to become the 2nd largest trader, after the United States, by 2020.

According to statistics from the World Tourism Organization, the number of stay-over tourists in China in 1999 was the fifth largest in the world, up from 18th in 1980. Revenue from overseas tourists is seventh in the world, up from 34th in 1980.

In the world today, as the economies of all countries and regions are closely interrelated, no country or region can develop in seclusion. The same is true with China.

We will continue to improve the investment environment. We are ready to assimilate and draw upon advanced science and technology and managerial experience to help our economy develop, which means more opportunities for our overseas partners in their business co-operation with China.

The challenges and opportunities that the future holds for tourism in China offer our partners in the United States a splendid chance to increase their interests in the country.

Therefore, on behalf of more than 10 million workers, I welcome more American travelers and business people to visit and invest in China.

China Daily
Author:  Cao Min

    TRIAL operation of China Tourism E-Commerce Trading Network (CTETN) is expected to begin next month. The network is expected to attract more overseas tourists and provide them with better services.

    The network, which will initially target tour operators and individual travellers from the United States, Canada and other parts of the world, plans to formally open for business on New Year's Day, 2000.

    Sponsored by the INTEC Group, China Information Highway Corporation, Bank of China, Citibank and IBM of the United States, the CTETN will ensure the precise cataloguing of services and products offered to the world from China's star-level hotels, travel agencies and airlines.

    Wei Xiao'an, director of Policies and Regulations Department of China National Tourism Administration, said at a weekend briefing that the establishment of the CTETN was a good beginning for international co-operation by the tourism, information and finance industries.

    The CTETN provides a network of Internet-based global, national, regional and local trade directories.

    The directories are presently available in 12 languages and offer buyers and sellers the ability to find information about goods and services offered by more than 700,000 companies worldwide. All will be able to travel to China.

    China's tourism businesses have decided to attract more foreign tourists through a series of promotion campaigns that target major overseas markets.

    

    

China Daily

http://www.creadersnet.com/newsPool/27P91209.html Foreign travel agencies will be allowed to control stakes in joint-venture companies by January 1, 2003 and wholly own companies by the end of 2005, Chinese travel authorities announced Thursday.

The moves reflects China's hasty move to uphold agreements made when it formally joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) earlier this month.

A China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) official said the State Council -approved the revised Regulations on the Management of Travel Agency on December 11 and added a chapter on foreign travel services.

"From now, such joint-venture and wholly owned firms can apply directly for approval from the CNTA and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation (MOFTEC) to simplify the processes of examination and approval,'' said Zhang Jianzhong, director of Policy and Legal Department of the CNTA.

Still, there must be caution, he noted.

"On the other hand, we should allow foreign travel agencies enter China's tourism market step by step in accordance with their qualification, '' he added.

According to the regulations, foreign investors entering China's tourism industry must be travel services or companies engaged in tourism and be members of their country's tourism association.

In the WTO agreements, China promised that a foreign travel agency with the minimum registered capital of 2.5 million yuan (US$302,000) could control stakes in a joint-venture within three years after China's entry into the WTO.

Such minimum registered capital and ratio of stock ownership in the joint-venture can be readjusted now, but it must be approved by the CNTA and MOFTEC, Zhang said.

Zhang noted that the regulations don't touch upon foreign wholly owned travel agency because there are some problems that will require more complex legal revisions.

"China's tourism industry is the earliest one to promote and benefit from the implementation of the policy of reform and opening up to the outside world,'' said Shen Huirong, director of the Tourism Promotion Department of the CNTA.

As early as the early 1990s, the country began to allow foreign travel agencies to set up joint-ventures in China, although it did not permit them to control stakes.

By the end of last month, there has been 11 travel service of joint-ventures. These investors hail from Switzerland, Japan, France, the United States and Singapore, as well as the regions of Hong Kong and Macao, Shen said. (China Daily by Cao Min)

Professionals in West China to be upgraded
(CAO MIN)
http://www.chinadaily.net/supplement/2001-12-11/47569.html