Beijing Eyes 7 Percent Annual Growth in Tourism

Beijing is targeting a 7 percent increase in tourism revenue in 2018, with travel spending on food and shopping to account for 24 percent or more of the total retail sales of the city's consumer goods, according to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development.

In 2017, Beijing's tourism industry raked in 546.9 billion yuan (US$86.5 billion) in revenue, up 8.9 percent year on year. Moreover, there was a 4.3 percent rise in the number of tourists, totaling 297 million people in the last year. Their shopping and food expenses accounted for 24.7 percent of the year's total retail sales of consumer goods.

Beijing will launch a series of projects on Beijing's old town protection, and complete the planning and facility construction of three cultural belts along the Grand Canal, the Great Wall and the Xishan Yongding river. Additionally, the city will build a theme park and other tourism-related infrastructure in Tongzhou district, Beijing's subsidiary administration center. Eighty public toilets at Beijing's tourist spots will also be revamped.

There will be more incentive policies to expand tourism consumption, such as promoting tourism arrivals, offering 144-hour visa-free entries, and so on. Beijing will also step up efforts in developing tourism products with regard to culture, conferences and exhibitions, sports, healthcare and education, in a bid to push forward the industrial integration.

In addition, the city is advocating for the vital role of tourism in the revitalization of its rural areas. It will continue to build its rural tourism system, launch a project to cultivate rural tourism professionals, and improve the policies to financially support tourism operators.

Beijing also plans to strengthen the cooperation with other tourism destination cities around the world to promote the city's brand overseas, as well as hold international tourism forums and conferences to increase Beijing's presence in the global tourism industry.