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China will supercede the United States to become the world's top tourist destination before 2020, according to a United Nations World Tourism Organisation forecast.
China overtook Italy to be the world's fourth most popular tourist place last year, UNWTO secretary general, Francesco Frangialli said.
Buoyed by China's double-digit economic growth and reform policy opening up, the tourism industry is under massive expansion mode.
From 1978 to 2005, the number of inbound tourists and revenues from inbound tourism in China has increased 66-fold and 111-fold, respectively.
China's tourism sector is expected to notch up a new record with revenue hitting one trillion yuan this year, up 10 per cent from 2006, the China National Tourism Administration predicted.
Beijing earned $33.5 billion from tourism last year, making the country the sixth highest tourism revenue earner globally.