Inbound tourism in the Chinese mainland rebounded in August after it fell for 15 consecutive months since May last year, the National Tourism Administration said.

The mainland reported more than 11.09 million inbound tourist arrivals in August, up 3.06 percent year on year, according to data from the administration released on Friday.

Growth was recorded in the number of arrivals from 16 major sources of overseas tourists, except Russia, said the administration.

Foreign currency income from inbound tourism was estimated at 3.466 billion U.S. dollars in August, up 5.38 percent from a year earlier, data showed.

Those figures were compared to a year-on-year 3.05 percent decline of inbound tourist arrivals in July which stood at 10.72 million, and a 0.66 percent drop of foreign currency income to 3.325 billion U.S. dollars.

Meanwhile, Chinese mainland tourists made about 4.65 million outbound trips in August, up 11.69 percent from a year ago. The top three destinations are Hong Kong, Macao and the Republic of Korea.

China's inbound tourism suffered a heavy blow as the global economic downturn starting last year forced overseas tourists to cut travel spending.

(Xinhua News Agency September 19, 2009)