China's outbound tours in 2010 were expected to top 51 million, up seven percent year on year, said Shao Qiwei, director of China's National Tourism Administration (NTA) Monday.

The 2010 World Expo to be held in Shanghai would attract 3.5 million overseas visitors to the city, Shao said at a national meeting at Nanning, capital of the southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

For the whole year, 132 million inbound trips would be made, up five percent year on year and among them, 54.5 million would stay overnight, up seven percent year on year, Shao said.

China's total tourism revenue in 2010 was expected to top 1.44 trillion yuan (US$210.83 billion), up 12 percent year on year and about 500,000 new jobs would be created in this sector, Shao said.

Domestic tourism was expected to pocket 1.15 trillion yuan in 2010, up 13 percent year on year as domestic tours to top 2.15 billion, also up 13 percent, Shao said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 26, 2010)