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| Tourists at the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront in December. Photo: Felix Wong |
China aims to heighten its tourism sector by upgrading infrastructure and giving the public easier access to travel information. The National Tourism Administration unveiled the plan in a development guideline for the tourism industry during the 2016-2020 period. It echoes the country’s national strategy to spur the service sector.
By 2020, the roads to the country’s major tourist attractions will be renovated. This will be done to meet the increasing travel demand. Important tourist destinations will have easy internal transportation. In the next four years, the country will add 20 inter-region bike lanes with a total length of 5,000 kilometers to boost zero-emission travel. More tour buses and RV campsites will also open.
Toilets at tourist sites will be revamped for better facilitation. China has plans of installing and upgrading 100000 restrooms with hygienic standards. China’s tourism revenue totaled about 4.69 trillion yuan ($689.7 billion) in 2016, up 13.6 percent year on year.
Domestic tourists made 4.44 billion trips last year, an increase of 11 percent. By 2020, the country will spend about 2 trillion yuan on the tourism sector, which will contribute more than 12 percent of GDP.
