December 18, 2007 -- The World Tourism Organization predicts that China will become the world's largest tourist destination -- and the fourth largest source of tourists -- by 2020. Industry developments last year indicate that it is well on track to do that, with expansion by both domestic and international tourism-related companies, and new, pro-tourism government policies.
"Most cities in China consider the tourism industry an important sector due to the rapid growth of the national economy and the needs of the citizens," professor Deqian Liu, former deputy director of the China Academy of Social Science's Tourism Research Center, told Emerging China.
Chengdu and Xiamen, for example, both benefit from their natural resources and geographic conditions, he said, as well as from their convenient transportation and distribution center role.
"At present, there are 24 provinces, including autonomous regions and municipalities across China that consider the tourist industry a ‘pillar' industry for future development," Ding Wang, an analyst at Guang Fa Securities Co. Ltd., told Emerging China.
"Enjoying a vacation has become a more and more popular part of lifestyle for the citizens in the second- and third-tier cities over the last couple of years," Song Jin, a spokeswoman for online travel agency Ctrip.com International, told Emerging China.
The agency has already developed local branches in cities such as Chengdu, Hangzhou, Xiamen and Qingdao.
"Furthermore, for the second tier cities, we resort to promote the short vacation products targeted at overseas and domestic destinations," said Jin.
Traditionally, people go traveling during the public holiday breaks. These government-mandated holidays, such as the Chinese New Year, sometimes combine several holidays into a single week, allowing workers to take a substantial time off to travel.
However, a downside to this policy is that everyone in China travels at once – overburdening the transportation system.
To help resolve this problem, on December 7, the State Council approved a new legal holiday policy.
The main change is that it adds three one-day holidays -- Tomb Sweeping Day, the Dragon Boat Festival, and the Mid-Autumn Festival. The May Day 'Golden Week' will be reduced from three days just to one day of vacation.
In addition, the Spring Festival holiday will begin from Chinese New Year's Eve and continue three days. The National Day holiday also remains at three days.
"The adjustment of the holiday policy is to address the issue of uneven public leisure time that has existed for a long time," Yunzhi Qiu, director of Sichuan's Development and Research Center on Tourism Industry, told Emerging China. "It can alleviate the pressure upon peak holiday traveling during the long vacation. Meantime, people would have a more flexibility and more choices to plan their travel."
Shorter holiday breaks mean that people might be less inclined to travel large distances within China, but may look closer to home for holiday destinations.
"There are a many small or medium-sized counties and even villages that have great potential to make further development in the future, such as Jiuzhaigou of Sichuan province, Zhangjiajie and Fenghuang of Hunan province, and Pingyao of Shanxi province,," said Liu.
"The historical resources and extraordinary local character of these small cities could be the best way to promote themselves," Liu added.
Foreign investors have noticed the potential of China's tourism industry, said said Guang Fa Securities`s Wang.
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, for example, will open its second hotel in Xiamen in January 2008.
"We are targeting secondary cities in China with good business and industrial hinterland as part of our China expanding strategy," Michael Sengol, chief operating officer of Millenium and Copthorne said in a statement. "Besides Xiamen, Chengdu and Wuxi will see the presence of Millennium properties."