BEIJING, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Beijing received 1.93 million inbound foreign tourists in the first half of 2018, up 3.4 percent year on year, earning an income of 2.5 billion U.S. dollars, up 5.6 percent year on year, according to statistics released recently by Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development.
In a breakdown of the source of foreign tourists visiting Beijing, Asian tourists represented the majority, with a total of 830,600 person-times, increasing 0.9 percent year on year. European tourists came into the second place, with a total of 493,000 person-times, an increase of 2.8 percent year on year. The number of the tourists from Americas visiting Beijing was 482,200, up 8.7 percent year on year.
More specifically, in the first half of 2018, the number of tourists coming from the U.S. is the biggest compared to other countries, with 361,200 tourists, up 9.9 percent year on year. In the same period, the number of tourists from the Republic of Korea (ROK) was 117,700, a slight increase of 1.8 percent year on year, reversing the downtrend in 2017.
Since December 28 last year, Beijing has extended its visa-free period to 144 hours for travelers from 53 countries around the world with valid international travel documents, and the program has also included neighboring Tianjin City and Hebei Province.
After the implementation of this policy, Beijing has received over 23,000 inbound tourists, an increase of more than 20 percent year on year.
Beijing is planning to extend this policy to cover more countries in the future, according to Cao Pengcheng, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development. (Edited by Li Wenxin, liwenxin@xinhua.org)
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