A foreign tourist wears a mask in Beijing’s Tian An Men Square.
Foreign tourism to China continues to decline due to increasing air pollution, an ever-widening wealth gap, corruption, food safety problems, and poor public security, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
In a recent report by the Academy’s Public Opinion Research Office and China Travel Daily, lead expert Liu Zhiming argues, “Incidents such as off-the-chart PM 2.5 readings and food safety scandals are certainly not helping China’s national image.”
In the first nine months of 2014, the number of foreign tourists dropped 0.77 percent, to 19.21 million, compared with the same period in 2013, BBC Chinese wrote. The China Travel Daily and the Academy of Social Sciences collected about 23,000 responses from 23 countries, representing approximately 90 percent of the country’s inbound hospitality market.
Numbers from the China National Tourism Administration painted an even grimmer picture: In 2013, China attracted 26.29 million foreign tourists, which was a 3 percent decline over 2012.
While China’s inbound tourism is dropping, its outbound numbers are rapidly increasing. In 2013, 97 million Chinese citizens travelled abroad, which was the highest number of outbound tourists in the world, according to the China National Tourism Administration. This was 14 million more than in 2012. The number is expected to have surpassed 100 million in 2014, reported China Daily.
Photos: AP