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China tourism

industry growing

BEIJING: China's tourism industry, a crucial magnet for foreign exchange, saw overseas tourist arrivals rise an average 12.3 percent in each of the five years ending in 1995, officials said on Sunday.

The five-year total is expected to top 200 million by the end of the year, closing out the Eighth Five-Year Plan, Xinhua news agency quoted National Tourism Administration officials as saying.

Expenditures by those visitors are rising even faster, an average of 34.8 percent a year during the period, for a total of $26.8 billion, they said.

Officials attributed the growth to improvement in basic services.

The number of hotels authorised to house overseas tourists has risen to about 3,000, Xinhua said, and there are nearly 4,400 travel services in operation, an increase of almost 2,800 from 1990.-Reuter