Terra-cotta army home province hosts more than 115 mln tourists in 2009

• Source: Xinhua
• [17:42 February 08 2010]
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Shaanxi, home to the well-known terra-cotta warriors in northwest China, hosted a record high of 115.6 million tourists last year, the provincial tourism bureau said Sunday.

The statistics showed an increase of 25.8 percent year on year, said a spokesman for the bureau, adding it was the first time in Shanxi that the number of tourists from home and overseas exceeded 100 million.

In breakdown, domestic tourists amounted to 114.1 million, up 26 percent, while overseas tourists totalled 1.45 million, up 15.4 percent.

Tourism revenues reached 76.8 billion yuan (11.2 billion U.S. dollars) last year, up 26.5 percent year on year, accounting for 9.4 percent of Shaanxi's gross domestic product.

Tourism revenue in foreign currencies was equivalent to 771 million U.S. dollars, an increase of 16.7 percent year on year, according to the spokesman.

The province has set a goal of hosting 134 million tourists and securing a year-on-year rise of 21.5 percent in tourism revenue which is expected to hit 93.3 billion yuan this year. In spite of a heavy rain