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Worries quake might shake Sichuan tourism

By Song Hongmei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-05-15 17:39

The earthquake in Sichuan province on Monday is expected to heavily impact the province's tourism industry, the Economic Observer reported.

Some 3,000 domestic and foreign tourists stranded in Jiuzhaigou, a tourist attraction in Aba prefecture of Sichuan province, returned safely, according to the National Tourism Administration early Thursday morning.

More than 16,000 tourists were stranded in Aba prefecture, 5,167 of which were tourists in groups, the Sichuan tourism bureau said at a press conference Wednesday.

The National Tourism Administration issued a notice requiring tourism agencies all across the country to stop arranging trips going to quake-hit regions immediately after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake.

Boasting rich tourism resources, Sichuan received 186 million domestic tourists and 1.71 million foreign tourists in 2007. Tourism revenue reached 121.7 billion yuan ($17.39 billion), accounting for about eight percent of the region's gross domestic product.

Emeishan Tourism Co, Sichuan's only listed tourism firm, will suffer in the short term, but the negative impact will only be evident in the future, said a research report of Guotai Junan Securities. The tourism firm lost 4.73 percent to close at 11.47 yuan Thursday.

However, the report said, the quake's impact on overall tourism to China will be limited, given the frequency of travel and relatively limited size of directly quake-hit regions.