China's State Council has issued a national plan for the development of tourism industry in the 13th Five-Year (2016-2020) Plan period.
According to the plan, China will strive to develop tourism into the major driver of economic transformation and upgrading.
The plan laid out the development goal for the tourism industry during 2016-2020, aimed at reaching annual growth in number of tourists, tourism revenue, and tourism investment of 10 percent, 11 percent, and 14 percent, respectively.
By 2020, investment in tourism is expected to grow to 2 trillion yuan (about 280 billion U.S. dollars) and total revenue in the industry will reach 7 trillion yuan (1 trillion U.S. dollars).
The tourism industry will contribute more than 12 percent to the nation's GDP.
Innovation will be carried out in the tourism industry to provide people with diverse products and high-quality tourism, including countryside trips, red tourism, automobile tourism, maritime tourism, ice-snow tourism, and low-altitude flight tourism.
The plan called for building new-type tourism function areas, such as regional tourism city clusters, cross-regional tourism function areas, national competitive tourism belts, national scenic roads and featured tourism destinations.
Public services for tourists, including transport and travel consultation, need to be improved.
At the same time, green tourism will also be promoted.
Additionally, the document required promoting openness and cooperation for the tourism industry, boosting inbound tourism, strengthening cooperation between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan and deepening the orderly development of outbound tourism.
The plan also urged the implementation of rural tourism anti-poverty projects, promoting tourism entrepreneurship and employment generation, and standardizing tourism market order.
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