Tourism official vows big 2016 investment, return

China will invest 20 percent more in its tourism industry this year than in 2015 in hope that the industry's annual revenue will rise by 10 percent, according to a senior tourism official.

Investment will rise to 1.2 trillion yuan (180 billion U.S. dollars) and revenue to 4.55 trillion yuan, said Li Jinzao, head of the National Tourism Administration, at an industry conference on Friday.

Chinese are expected to make 4.38 billion trips for tourism within China this year, up 9.5 percent on 2015, and revenue from their travels will rise by 11 percent year on year to 3.8 trillion yuan, said Li.

A total of 263 million tourist trips are expected to be made by Chinese going abroad and foreigners coming into China in 2016, up 5 percent year on last year.

Tourism is playing an increasingly important role in China's economic growth as the country is steering the economy from one led by investment to one more driven by consumption. The sector accounted for about 10.8 percent of total GDP growth and 10.2 percent of national employment last year.