China Blames Service for Drop in Tourism

PEKING — 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.”