Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday that the Director of the National Tourism Bureau had announced that for the first time in history, total national tourism receipts had exceeded RMB1000 billion to reach RMB1090 billion or about US$150 billion in 2007.  This represents a healthy 22.6% YoY growth.  The latest report is not yet up on CNTO's official web site, but here are some highlights from the Xinhua story:

• Visitor arrivals totaled 132 million in 2007, including 55 million overnight visitors, or about 41% of the total.  Visitor arrivals and overnight visitors grew 5.5% and 9.6% respectively over 2006.
• Total domestic visitors for 2007 reached 1.6 billion, achieving a 15.5% YoY growth rate.
• International tourism receipts totaled US$41.9 billion, which is 23.5% heigher over 2006.
• Total Domestic tourism receipts amounted to RMB777 billion or about US$107 billion, up 24.7% from 2006.
• Outbound tourist numbers reached 40.95 million, up 18.6%.

The latest numbers confirm once again that the tourism market in China is very healthy and is one of the brightest spots of the fast growing Chinese economy.  And I'm especially happy to see that the two segments we target (domestic travel and outbound travel) achieved the most impressive growth rates (24.7% and 18.6%)!