After the Games hotel prospects seem sound

According to forecasts from the World Tourism Organization, China will be the world’s largest inbound tourism market, the fourth largest for outbound tourism and the largest for domestic tourism in the world by 2015.

This will probably translate into more than 100 million overseas tourists and more than 2.8 billion domestic tourists in China by 2015.

Last year, Beijing received 4.4 million overseas tourists and 140 million domestic tourists, a growth of 11.6% and 6.1% year on year.

However, the new supply of more than 12,000 internationally managed hotel rooms in Beijing in 2008 means the future is not, as yet, totally clear.

If the outlook for Beijing has yet to firm up, Shanghai, the financial center of China, seems to be enjoying a rosy picture extending in to the long term.

The number of overseas tourists arriving in the city had a compound annual growth rate of 13.8% between 2002 and 2007.

With the expansion of the Shanghai New International Expo Center and the coming of the World Expo 2010, the city has got it made with the MICE market both regionally and globally.
Source: China View