Tourism sector witnessed full recovery. In 2004, a total of 109.04 million visitors from overseas came to China for tourist, business or family reunion purposes, an increase of 19 percent year on year. Of this total, 16.93 million were foreigners, a number up 48.5 percent over the previous year; 92.11 million were Chinese compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, up 14.8 percent. Of all the tourists from overseas, the number of those who stayed at least one night in China accounted for 41.76 million, up 26.7 percent. Foreign exchange earnings from international tourism topped $25.7 billion, up 47.9 percent. A total of 28.85 million Chinese went abroad, up 42.7 percent. Of this total, 22.98 million were on private visits, a year-on-year rise of 55.2 percent, accounting for 79.7 percent of all outgoing visitors. The year 2004 saw 1.1 billion domestic tourists, up 26.6 percent. Revenue from domestic tourism totaled 471.1 billion yuan, up 36.9 percent.

New Tourist Destinations By December 3, 2004, the number of ADS (approved destination status) countries and regions for Chinese travelers in groups had been increased to 64. These countries and regions are located across Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and Oceania. Since September 2004, with 31 European countries fully open to Chinese travelers, European tours have attracted an increasing number of Chinese tourists. In October 2004, China signed memoranda of understanding with eight African countries--Ethiopia, Kenya, Mauritius, Seychelles, Tanzania, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe--and Jordan, agreeing that Chinese outbound travel makers can organize Chinese tour groups to these countries as of December 15. In 2004, Southeast Asian countries remained the most favorable destinations for Chinese outbound travelers. The region has been the first option of many Chinese when making their first overseas tours.

UK Now An Approved Destination On January 21, 2005, He Guangwei, Director General of the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), signed a memorandum of understanding with British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Jack Straw, making Britain an ADS country for Chinese travelers. With the signing of this memo, all 25 countries of the European Union have become destinations for Chinese tourists. In the meantime, the UK is China's 10th largest source of overseas travelers, with tourist arrivals from the UK reaching 418,100 in 2004, increases of 21.92 percent and 45.03 percent, respectively, over 2002 and 2003.

Tapping Tourism Market In 2004, CNTA launched a series of tourism promotion activities both at home and abroad. It successfully conducted a large-scale tourism promotion activity themed "Welcome to China--2008 Beijing" in the United States, helping pave the way for Chinese tourist products to enter the marketing system of American travel operation. It hosted more than 2,900 travel dealers from 48 countries and regions at the China International Travel Fair in Shanghai. The "Olympics for Tourism" promotion activities were formally launched in Athens during the Athens Olympic Games. The China-France Culture Year and China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning, Guangxi Zhang Autonomous Region also provided opportunities for tourism promotion.