Sichuan’s tourism revenues reached 458.18 billion yuan, or 53.2 percent of the annual target, in the first half of this year, up 19.3 percent year on year, according to a videophone conference held by the Sichuan Provincial Tourism Development Commission on August 1.

The 19.3 percent increase represented a growth rate 6.9 percentage point higher than that for retail sales of consumer goods.?

Hu Bin, Secretary of the committee’s Leading Party Members’Group, communicated the spirit of the provincial government-organized?conference to discuss environmental protection in ethnic minority-concentrated areas and the integration of tourism with other industries.

Fu Yonglin, director of the committee, made a report on the overall performance of the tourism industry in the first half of this year and laid out plans for the future.

The major indictors of?Sichuan's tourism industry performed better than they did in the corresponding period last year; they also outperformed the national average and beat the forecast at the start of the year.

Inbound tourist arrivals increased 11.5 percent year on year, 9 percentage point higher than the national average, to 1.33 million; forex earnings rose 11.5 percent to 541 million US dollars; contracts for 52 tourism investment projects were signed with a total contract value of 62.3 billion yuan, of which 51.8 billion yuan has been invested.

As the high travel season will last until the end of autumn, Sichuan’s tourism industry is expected to post stable performance and move in a positive direction in the second half of the year. Inbound tourist arrivals are expected to grow stably, domestic tourism arrivals rapidly, and outbound tourism gradually recover. Tourism investment will continue to grow robustly, and emerging forms of business will be more active.

In the second half of the year, Sichuan will deepen the supply-side structural reform of its tourism sector, comprehensively pursue green development, beef up poverty relief through tourism development, implement the Travel Plus strategy, introduce key tourism projects, improve infrastructure, host major conferences and festivals, heighten measures to ensure tourists’safety, and strengthen tourism market regulation.