ABSTRACT
In recent years the tourism industry has seen phenomenal growth in the movement of people to numerous destinations and regions, both in China and also elsewhere. According to the World Tourism Organization’s (WTO) preliminary results of year 2005 (WTO 2006), the number of worldwide international tourist arrivals grew by 5.5 per cent and exceeded 800 million for the first time ever. The China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) stated that in 2005 China received around 120 million international tourists who spent US$292 billion, while domestic Chinese tourists spent 5,286 billion RMB (equivalent to US$658 billion) in the same year (CNTA 2006).
