June 19, 2008 -- The magnitude 8 Wenchuan earthquake that damaged western and northern Sichuan province, located in southwest China, on May 12 seriously impeded the local tourism industry temporarily. Experts believe that the effects won't last long.

"Due to the Wenchuan earthquake, the government has already forbidden any tour line to Sichuan," Yunzhi Qiu, director of the Development of Research Center on Tourism Industry of Sichuan.

Since then, the number of visiting tourists in Sichuan province dropped sharply because of anxiety about security, according to Qiu.

To some extent, profit from tourism will be affected. Losses from the earthquake reached 5 million yuan (US$ 720,000). As for last year the gross profit of the tourism industry was over 7 million yuan (US$ 1,008,500), according to the statistics of Sichuan's travel bureau,

"The yearly revenue of Sichuan's tourism industry would be [affected] a little bit," Ding Wang, an analyst of Guangzhou-based GuangFa Securities Co., Ltd., told Emerging China. "However, the effect will not be longer than three years."

The earthquake did not have significant impact on Sichuan province's tourism industry, according to Wang.

"The basic facilities and transportation will be restarted in a short time with the support and capital funds from the government and enterprises all over the country," said Wang.

As for the Beijing Olympic Games, there may be some people with concerns about the effects of the earthquake.

"Generally speaking, I don't think the Wenchuan earthquake will affect upcoming Olympic Game anyway," GuangFa Securities Co., Ltd.'s Wang also pointed out.

Though, visitors may probably choose Anhui Huangshan Mountain of Anhui province in southeast China to replace the tour to Sichuan, according to Wang.

"The very first thing is to rebuild the confidence of the tourists towards Sichuan," Qiu added.

Several facilities, such as those required for transportation and reception, were slightly damaged by the earthquake. Parts of northern and western Sichuan were those that were damaged badly, according to Qiu.

"In the meantime, we are concerned a lot about [about the next few years and] the potential security issues in the related area," Qiu added. "For instance, a sparry flow disaster may be caused by loosened geological structure."

There were several tourist hotspots, such as the Jiuzhaigou Ravine, Huanglong Scenic area and Dujiangyan Dam that welcomed foreign visitors. After the earthquake this had changed, according to Qui.

"Besides the Sichuan province, Shanxi province and Chongqing municipality, the cities also had [felt] the earthquake [strongly]," said Qiu. "But I believe that it wasn't as severe as the center of the quake area."

As for Chengdu city's tour market, it wasn't affected much by the earthquake. In the future, with the way visitors consume tourism products, we can expect to see more and more business tours rather than sightseeing tours, Qiu added.

Qiu insisted that he still has confidence in city tours of Chengdu, as well as the whole Sichuan province.