China Blames Service for Drop in Tourism

The flood of foreign visitors to China began subsiding last year because of bad service and “monotonous” treatment of tourists, the official China Daily newspaper reported today.

The English-language newspaper said 1.48 million foreigners visited China in 1986, 8.2% more than the previous year--a “mild increase” compared with the average annual growth of 21% in the last four years. Han Kehua, head of the China National Tourism Administration, said the growth rate slackened mainly because “China’s reception of international tourists did not meet international standards.”