BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The number of Chinese tourists visiting countries along Belt and Road routes was on a dramatic rise in the past five years, according to a green book on China's tourism published by the Tourism Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) on Wednesday.
According to the book, number of trips made by Chinese tourists to those countries grew from 15.49 million in 2013 to 27.41 million in 2017, a 77 percent jump over the past five years; while China recorded 10.64 million trips made by tourists from the B&R countries in 2017, compared with 9.03 million in 2013.
85 million two-way trips between China and the countries along the routes are expected to be made by 2020, the book forecast.
In addition, Chinese tourists contributed about 31 percent of the international tourism revenue in those countries in 2017, the book said.
The book attributed the trip rise to the relaxation of visa policies for Chinese tourists. 13 countries, including Brunei and Azerbaijan, have signed visa exemption or visa-on-arrival agreements with China over the past five years.
Besides, the growth also benefited from the improvement of transportation. China has direct flights to 43 countries along the routes, with approximately 4,500 flights to B&R countries per week. (Edited by Wu Shuang, wushuang2018@xinhua.org)
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