Sanya tops the tourism stakes

The number of inbound travelers is expected to see an annual growth of about 10 percent between 2011 and 2015, Wu Wenxue, a senior official with China National Tourism Administration told Xinhua News Agency. He said that by 2015 inbound travelers to China would touch 3.3 billion, with travel spending accounting for 10 percent of the total residential consumption, and creating strong demand for theme, resort and economy hotels.

However, the growing number of visitors to domestic destinations does not necessarily mean that there has been a similar increase in the tourist satisfaction levels.

Earlier this month, the China Tourism Academy published a report on Chinese tourist satisfaction index for the first quarter of the year, which showed a sharp drop in satisfaction levels among inbound travelers.

The report found that most of the complaints are largely due to the deteriorating air quality such as continuous haze and sandstorm and the water quality in many destinations.

Among the respondents, foreign travelers have lower satisfaction than Chinese tourists on the air quality. In addition, prices at restaurants, tourism products and public services have also contributed to discontent among travelers, the report said.