Hainan Tourism Bureau held a press conference today and revealed that the province's international tourism developed rapidly in the first three quarters of this year, with the number of inbound tourists who had stayed at hotels reaching 305,200 and forex revenue via tourism reaching US$88.2479 million, up 41 percent and 56.8 percent respectively year on year.

In the first nine months, Taiwan market picked up its pace of growth to 28.6 percent, Hong Kong and Macau markets rebounded after several years of continuous decline and rose 31.5 percent and 5.9 percent respectively year on year.

International markets also accelerated their steps into Hainan, with overall growth rate reaching 49.8 percent year on year. Tourists from other Asian countries and regions jumped 61.34 percent, those from Europe surged 137.65 percent, those from America were up 70.74 percent, and those from Russia soared 214.36 percent.

Hainan Tourism Bureau held a series of special tourism promotion activities such as surfing tourism for Japanese tourists and ice-breaking journeys for Canadian golfers, and opened new charter flights for tourists. All these efforts contributed to the remarkable growth of international tourism of the province.

According to the Bureau's vice director Chen Yao, the powerful tourism promotion campaign this year prepared for Hainan a rich resource of foreign tourists. Hainan has opened new charter flights for tourists from Taiwan, Macau, Russia, Japan and South Korea and recalled the Star Cruises this year. Moreover, Hainan has the advantage of good seasons to attract tourists. Therefore, the province can expect another peak period of tourism in the fourth quarter.

(Chinanews.cn October 26, 2005)