P.M. BRIEFING : China Claims Rise in Tourism

Tourism earnings in badly needed foreign currency rebounded last year to $2.22 billion, nearly matching the level before the 1989 Beijing massacre led to a plunge in China travel, the government reported today.

The official New China News Agency quoted Liu Yi, director of the National Tourism Administration, as praising the “rapid recovery” of China’s tourism industry.

Western industry analysts, however, have reported much less optimistic assessments.

Tourism earned China nearly $2.3 billion in 1988. But arrivals and revenues plummeted after Chinese troops fired on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing in June, 1989, crushing six weeks of nationwide demonstrations.

Tourist arrivals totaled 27.46 million, up 12.1% over 1989 and 86.6% of the 1988 total. China includes many repeat business travelers in its tourism figures.