China Approved Destination Status To Reach 100

May 2, 2005

China Approved Destination Status To Reach 100
May 2, 2005 – According to a senior Chinese tourist official, the number of countries and regions granting China Approved Destination Status will reach 100 by the end of 2005.

"As more and more foreign countries become approved tourist destinations, China`s outbound tourism market is expected to grow dramatically," said Gu Zhaoxi, vice-chairman of the China National Tourism Administration.

Travel Daily News reports that China opened outbound travel in 1997, when 5.32 million people made their trips overseas. As of April 1 of this year, China had already acquired ADS with 64 countries and regions, with 30 in Europe, 18 in Asia, 10 in Africa, three in Oceania and one in America, Gu said in a presentation at 54th Annual Conference of the Pacific Asia Travel Association.

Gu also stated that the signing of ADS agreements will gather speed this year to meet the market expectations both at home and abroad. The number is expected to increase to 100 by the end of this year.

According to the statistics from CNTA, the number of outbound tourists from China reached 28.85 million in 2004, and to 4.9 million in the first two months of this year. This is up 11.6 percent for the year.

Also speaking at the PATA conference, Yao Yuecan, executive vice president of the Head Office of the China International Travel Service, said that overseas traveling has become a phenomenon in China due to a rising population of affluence, and more importantly, more countries and regions in the world have opened their travel markets to China.