China's tourism has extended from mere sightseeing and recreation to big business, said Zhang Guangrui, director of the Tourism Research Center of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

"Chinese outbound tourism has been developed so rapidly that Austrian Airlines is faced with a whole new challenge. Having five flights per week from Beijing to Vienna already, we are selling out and many customers cannot get tickets," said Ren Jun, sales manager of the airline.

The booth of the Golden Holiday Time Share Hotel is full of visitors. "These kind of hotels can provide a dual purpose for those people in China who want a place to spend their holidays and a property investment," said property counselor Gao Peng.

Every apartment has been sold separately to owners who can spend time with their family and friends in the hotel at a certain time of the year. The apartments have rented the rest of the time, which profit the owners.

As Chinese people have paid more attention to tourism insurance products, the market is promising, said agents from New China Life Insurance Company.

The 100-yuan (US$12 US) "care card", promoted by the company can provide compensation of up to 50,000 yuan (US$6,250) a year.

The Economic Observer newspaper presented its new tourism editions at the exposition. Salesman hoped the editions would be increasingly popular with visitors and reap advertising profit.

A recent survey indicated that tourism has become the new source income in the advertising industry.

Experts note that besides having a direct impact on hotels and travel agencies, Chinese tourism has developed big spin-off industries in transportation, real estate, the media and finance.

(Xinhua News Agency September 2, 2002)