China aims for intensive tourism growth

BEIJING - China will transform its highly resource-dependent tourism into a "highly intensive" industry, according to an official Friday.

Li Jinzao, head of China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), said that authorities had a three-step strategy to finish the transformation.

The first step is to change the tourism industry into a "relatively intensive" one from 2015 to 2020; the second step is to develop an intensive tourism industry from 2021 to 2030; the third step is to achieve the goal of building a "highly intensive" tourism industry from 2031 to 2040, according to Li.

Li said authorities would vigorously implement the national five-year tourism plan (2016-2020).

He said that innovation would be carried out to provide people with diverse products and high-quality tourism, including countryside trips, and public services for tourists such as toilets would be improved this year.

China's tourism revenue totaled about 4.69 trillion yuan ($680.7 billion) in 2016, up 13.6 percent year on year, according to CNTA data.

Domestic tourists made 4.44 billion trips last year, an increase of 11 percent, the data showed.

The nation will work to develop tourism into a major driver of economic transformation and upgrading. By 2020, investment in tourism is expected to grow to 2 trillion yuan, and the sector will contribute more than 12 percent of GDP, according to the State Council five-year tourism plan (2016-2020).