Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has officially initiated a strategic campaign to make the tourism industry one of its key business sectors in the coming years.

"We are speeding up our efforts to build up the tourism industry into one of the region's pillar industries in the coming 10 years," said Zhang Zhou, vice-chairman of the ethnic region.

He said tourism in Xinjiang is expected to record a historical high of 10 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) by 2010.

The region's GDP totalled 148.5 billion yuan (US$17.5 billion) last year. The tourism industry accounted for 5 per cent of the GDP last year.

Xinjiang saw a total of 8.5 million domestic tourists last year, bringing a total of 7.18 billion (US$867.1 million) in tourism revenues, while the number of foreign visitors stood at 273,000, up 44.5 per cent from five years ago, according to statistics from the region's tourism bureau.

A recent tourism festival in the region, co-hosted by the China National Tourism Administration and the local government, lured about 3,000 visitors and agencies, including tourism officials from 12 foreign countries and more than 200 travel agencies and service organizations from China and abroad.

But the economy of the region is still dominated by other traditional industries, such as heavy industry, agriculture and energy.

With three designed routes, the festival showed tourists a panoramic view of the region, covering the north, middle and southern parts of Xinjiang.

"Complying with the country's ambitious western development programme, Xinjiang will play a major role in this historical drive and witness a rapid increase of tourism thanks to low costs but higher returns," said Sun Gang, vice-director of the China National Tourism Administration.

Meanwhile, officials and tourism agents that attended the event said the expensive traffic fees and backward accommodations and services could hinder the smooth development of the region's tourism.

Tourists who plan to travel to Xinjiang, also home to a dozen ethnic groups, could be scared away from coming after learning that half of their cost would be for the flight, said Zhao Baisheng, an official from the China International Travel Service Head Office.

Due to a lack of competition, the price of a round-trip flight from Beijing to Urumqi is 4,160 yuan (US$500), which is about the same as a flight from the capital to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, according to Zhao.

Takada Naoki, a Japanese tourist, was also taken aback by the high price. He said there should be a direct flight between Xinjiang and Japan as soon as possible to shorten traveling time.

He was also annoyed by the lack of telecommunications in some places in Xinjiang, saying he could not get access to the Internet at the Qinibag Hotel, one of the best hotels in Kashgar, the largest city in southern Xinjiang.

Covering one sixth of China's total area, Xinjiang, best known for its role along the "silk road" - the well-known ancient trade route linking China and West Europe, has many renowned tourism resorts, including ancient but now abandoned city relics and natural scenic reserves.

The region's local ethnic traditional cultures, such as the famous singing and dancing from the local Uygur people, is an attraction to arriving tourists.

( China Daily July 15, 2002)