tourism is also a big employer, accounting for 10 per cent of China’s working population. The sector directly employs 28.25 million people and indirectly 79.97 million.
Late last year, there were 13,332 A-level tourist attractions across the country. The China National tourism Administration adopts a rating system to evaluate the quality of all tourist attractions, which are scored on safety, cleanliness, sanitation, shopping and transport.
The number of visitors to an attraction also affects its rating. For instance, a 5A attraction – the highest rating available – usually sees more than 600,000 people, including 50,000 from overseas, each year.
Total inbound travellers surpassed 145 million in 2019, contributing revenue of US$131.3 billion, while some 155 million Chinese tourists went abroad.
China’s domestic tourism (2011-2020)
| Total Trips | Revenue (yuan) | |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 2.64 billion | 1.93 trillion |
| 2012 | 2.95 billion | 2.27 trillion |
| 2013 | 3.26 billion | 2.63 trillion |
| 2014 | 3.61… |
