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Tourism boosts Hainan's service industry

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-03-20 11:16

HAIKOU: The booming tourism industry of South China's Hainan province have made major contribution to the island' s economy and will further bolster its service sector, a senior official has said.

"As Hainan's top pillar industry, tourism has boosted the development of the whole service sector, accounting for 42 percent of the province's GDP. But we aim to increase the proportion to 60 percent," said Tan Li, Hainan's vice governor.

Hainan received more than 22.5 million visitors last year, increasing by 9.2 percent from the previous year. The island's tourism industry generated 21.17 billion yuan ($3 billion) in revenue, up 10.1 percent, according to statistics from the provincial government.

Driven by booming tourism, the sales of Hainan's real estate industry grew by 25.4 percent, and sales of hotel and restaurant industry reached 52.5 percent.

The central government in January announced a plan to build the island into a top international tourist destination by 2020, which Tan said was the biggest opportunity of development for the island since it became a separate province and the largest special economic zone of China in 1988.