Tourism industry

Beijing's tourism industry is developing at a rapid pace and becoming an important pillar for the capital's development. Focusing on the all-round development of the tourism industry, Beijing is becoming a world-class tourism city.

In 2016, Beijing received more than 285 million tourists, a year-on-year increase of about 4.6 percent. Beijing's total tourism revenue exceeded 502.1 billion yuan ($ 75.96 billion), a year-on-year increase of about 9 percent. It received 281 million domestic tourists, a year-on-year increase of 4.7 percent, generating a combined revenue of 468.3 billion yuan ($ 70.86 billion), with a year-on-year increase of 8.4 percent.

In 2016, Beijing received 3.55 million foreign tourists, a decrease of 0.8 percent over the previous year, and 353,000 tourists from Hong Kong, 16,000 from Macao and 249,000 from Taiwan, generating foreign currency revenues of 5.07 billion yuan ($ 0.77 billion), a year-on-year increase of 10.1 percent. 

Beijing saw vigorous growth in the investments for tourism projects. The fixed-asset investment in tourism industry reached 79.55 billion yuan ($ 12.04 billion) in 2016, with a year-on-year growth of 11.7 percent. For which, there were three reasons: first, Beijing bought trains for the two new railway lines under construction that lead to North China’s Shenyang city and Zhangjiakou city; second, the new airport of Beijing is being built and the airlines purchased planes; third, investments were poured into the Universal Studios project.

During the 13th Five-Year Program (2016-2020), Beijing will upgrade its tourism infrastructure, services and management. It seeks to build itself into a travel destination popular among foreign tourists and a capital tourism city.  

According to Beijing’s plan for the 13th Five-Year Program,  in 2020, it will receive 365 million  tourists, with an estimated annual increase of 5.5 percent and have a total tourist income of 750 billion yuan ($ 113.47 billion), with an estimated annual increase of 10 percent. By then, the added value of tourism industry will account for 8 percent of the city’s GDP.