Initiatives to further boost China's tourism

Shao Qiwei, director of the China National Tourism Administration, addresses the guests.[Photo by Feng Yongbin/China Daily]

The increasingly larger domestic tourism market will boost the development of China as well as other foreign countries, the national tourism authority said on Thursday.

China has already grown into the largest outbound tourism consumption country in the world. In next five years, it’s expected that the domestic tourism market in China will be worth about two trillion yuan and outbound visits from Chinese people will reach 500 million, said Shao Qiwei, director of the China National Tourism Administration at the 2014 Beijing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit, which kicked off on Thursday.

Shao suggested that governments need to simplify passport procedures to allow tourists to feel more welcome and the country more open to the world. Besides, there should be more airlines, railways and other ways to connect different tourism markets to ensure smooth visitor traffic. Through development in the past 30 years, the tourism industry in China still has another decade of booming growth.

In July, the State Council, China’s cabinet, released a series of reform measures in the tourism industry, saying the country will optimize the structure of tourism to make better use of resources and protect the environment when fueling its growth.