China Travel Notes & News

China Takes Fourth Spot on the World's Most Popular Tourist Destination List The number of foreign tourists who visited China in 2004 increased significantly by 26.7%, reaching 41.8 million. The new data released by the World Tourism Organization places China as the world’s fourth most popular tourist destination, coming after France (75.1 million), Spain (53.6 million) and the United States (46.1 million). Italy, which ranked fourth in the previous year’s survey, was over taken by China. Hong Kong, which was returned to China in 1997 as a special administrative district, appeared on the topic 10 list of the world’s most frequented destinations for the first time, taking up the 7th spot with 21.8 international arrivals in 2004. Together China proper and Hong Kong has seen an annual growth rate close to 9% over the ten-year period from 1995 through 2004. Back to China Notes and News