Study on the Contribution of China's Tourism Industry to National Economy

The development of tourism industry plays a significant role in the national economy structure adjustment and the optimization of the industrial structure.However,the status of tourism industry in the national economy is still a controversial topic.This paper aims at addressing this issue by examining the contribution and stimulation of tourism industry to the national economy. In order to have a more accurate measurement of the added value of tourism industry,the study presented in this paper divides the added-value of tourism into six sectors of transportation,post and telecommunication,commerce,catering,lodging industry and the social service by comparing the structure of inbound and domestic tourism income,as well as the industrial division of tourism in the input-output table of national economic statistics.Furthermore,due to the differences among the consumption of the inbound tourism,domestic urban tourism and domestic rural tourism,this study divides the added value of these three sectors into three parts. This added value of tourism industry,as well as its contribution and stimulation to the national economy of 31 provinces,autonomous regions,and municipalities in mainland China from 2000 to 2008 was estimated to analyze the position of tourism industry in the national economy. The study concludes that firstly,China's tourism industry grows faster than the national GDP,with obvious regional difference and fluctuation.Secondly,the development of tourism industry in China is closely related to the development of national economy and plays an important role in some regions where tourism is the pillar industry.Thirdly,the contribution of tourism industry to GDP ranges from 3% to 8%.The stimulation ranges from 0.5% to 1.5% in most provinces,autonomous regions,municipalities of mainland China. The present study improved the relevant statistical method to estimate the added value of tourism industry in China,as well as the contribution and stimulation of tourism industry to the national economy based on the existing statistics of China.The result of this study not only reflects the position of tourism industry in the national economy objectively,but also improves the shortcoming of the tourism statistics and the assessment of industrial contribution. There is especially need to do research on the influence of the leakage that impact by the import and export of tourism industry,which will help to analyze the impact of tourism industry to the local economy more comprehensively.In addition,it is necessary to continue to explore how to discuss the evolution of tourism industry in the long term,and to improve the calculation process's precision of industrial added value.