Tourists visit the Puyuan Fashion Resort in Jiaxing city, east China’s Zhejiang Province, April 26, 2024. (Xinhua/Mu Yu)
The CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council said travel and tourism are major contributors to China’s economy.
Martina Fuchs
LONDON, June 20 (Xinhua) — China’s travel and tourism sector is set to inject a record 12.62 trillion yuan (US$1.7 trillion) into the economy by the end of this year, the CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) said.
“Travel and tourism is a major contributor to China’s economy,” Julia Simpson, president and CEO of the council, told Xinhua in a recent video interview. “It will account for almost 10 percent of China’s economy this year.”
Domestic travel spending is also expected to hit a record high this year and contribute 6.79 trillion yuan ($954.88 billion) to China’s economy in 2024, according to the latest research from WTTC in partnership with Oxford Economics, the world leader in global economic forecasting.
“Over the next decade, this sector will account for almost 14 percent of China’s economy, employ more than 107 million people in China and be worth about $3.6 trillion. That’s a huge number,” Simpson said.
Simpson stressed the need for reciprocity in terms of streamlining visa application procedures for Chinese tourists: “We need to make sure Chinese tourists can get visas to travel around the world.”
Simpson also stressed the importance of Chinese aircraft manufacturers producing on a larger, international scale.
China’s passenger jet C919 is displayed at the Singapore Airshow in Singapore on February 20, 2024. (Photo: Zeng Chi Wei/Xinhua)
The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China unveiled the C919 passenger aircraft at the Singapore Airshow in February and announced plans in March to invest tens of billions of yuan over the next three to five years to expand C919 production capacity.
“The aviation industry is currently experiencing a shortage of aircraft following the pandemic and we want to be supportive and have a voice to ensure Chinese airlines can really expand,” Simpson said.
Founded in 1990, the WTTC is the world’s leading authority on the economic and social contributions of travel and tourism. The London-based non-profit organization has more than 200 members, including CEOs, chairmen and presidents of the world’s leading private travel and tourism companies.
