Prospering Tourist Industry
2 min readXinjiang has its unique minority cultures and natural landscapes, which provide rich re-sources for the development of the tourist industry. As Xinjiang gradually opens wider to the outside world, its tourist industry develops rapidly.
(1) Gradual improvement of tourist agencies and facilities Reform of the tourist industry in Xin jiang has accelerated with the gradual expansion of the opening-up since 1978, especially after 1990. Under the principles of “quality services and bigger profitability”and “overseas promotion and domestic development”, the number of travel agencies and service quality level rose rapidly. The number of travel agencies in the autonomous region increased from 79 in 1995 to 391 in 2011. Xinjiang now has the ability to receive international tourists speaking 9 languages including English, Russian, German, Japanese, French, Italian, Spanish and Arabic. More than 250,000 people directly engage in tourism, and 1 million people indirectly engage in tourism.
Xin jiang’s guiding policy for the geographical distribution of the tourist industry is to “improve the middle route of the Silk Road and reinforce the development of the northern and southern routes”. Under the guidance of that policy,a total investment of RMB 430million was made from 1978 to 1997 on the construction, expansion and renovation of a number of hotels, restaurants, tourist sites and natural conservation areas. By 2011, Xinjiang had 462 star-rated hotels, among which 17 were five-star hotels. Xin jiang hasdeveloped and utilized 1,171 scenic areas(spots) including 266 National Level A scenic areas and five Level 5A scenic areas.
(2) Increase and diversification of tourists
When the tourist industry was first resumed in Xin jiang in 1978, the whole year only saw 88 inbound tourists from 6 countries. Now tourists from almost all countries in the world come to Xinjiang for sightseeing. In 2012, Xinjiang received 1.5 million inbound tourists. The rising revenue from international tourists has become a ma jor source for the non-trade foreign exchange earning in Xin jiang.
The rapid development of the tourist industry leads to fast growth in the revenue from tourists. In 2012, Xinjiang’s foreign exchange earnings from tourism was US$ 551 million, while it was only US$ 46,000 in 1978 and US$ 64.5 million between 1980 and 1989. In 2012, Xinjiang’s domestic tourist income was 54.2 billion yuan, the total tourist income was 57.6 billion yuan, and the proportion of tourist income to the GDP rose from 0.1% in 1985 to 768%. Tourism has become Xinjiang’s new strategic pillar industry.
