China's domestic, inbound tourist trips to top 5.1b this year

BEIJING - The total number of China's domestic and inbound tourist trips will surpass 5.1 billion this year, up by more than 11 percent from 2016, a report showed.

Tourism revenue this year will be more than 5.3 trillion yuan ($802 billion), up 13 percent from a year earlier, according to a report jointly released by the China Tourism Academy and the data center of the China National Tourism Administration.

In 2016, the overall contribution of tourism to the national economy stood at 11 percent, with total tourism revenue up 13.6 percent to 4.69 trillion yuan.

With the fast expansion of tourism, China has become the world's largest source of outbound tourists and the fourth largest destination of inbound tourists.

In the first three quarters this year, the number of domestic tourists rose 13.17 percent year-on-year, with revenue from domestic tourism surging 16.55 percent.

The report forecast that China's tourism revenue would be more than 6 trillion yuan in 2018.