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Tourism revenue for the Chinese mainland was 9.76 percent higher last year than in 2000, said the chairman of the China National Tourism Administration. Total revenue from domestic and overseas tourists is set to hit 496 billion yuan (US$60 billion), including US$17.5 billion contributed by international arrivals. Addressing a national working conference in Beijing on Tuesday, He Guangwei said that it was estimated that the mainland had received about 87 million overseas tourists in 2001, 4.2 percent more than in 2000. Among this figure, foreign visitors numbered about 11 million, up 7.9 percent over the previous year. The chairman said that, this year, the Chinese mainland will open the tourism industry even more widely than it has promised before it entered the World Trade Organization. He said between one and three international travel agencies with a good past performance will be given the go-ahead to enter the Chinese market via control of shares in Chinese travel agencies or through the establishment of solely foreign-funded travel agencies. Domestic travel agencies, big and small, will all be subject to the same market rules, so that efficient agencies will prosper and inefficient ones will be eliminated. He attributed the tourism achievements to the country's thriving economy. It is estimated that gross domestic product will grow by 7 percent this year. ``Our country's rapid economic development and the success of a series of events last year -- such as winning the bid for the 2008 Olympic Games and the entry into the World Trade Organization -- have boosted overseas and domestic tourists' confidence in China,'' He said. The tourism chairman said that social stability was another way to attract more overseas visitors to China. ``To attract more overseas tourists, China should market itself as the safest tourist destination in the world as it did in the past year,'' He said. The chairman said some 20 out of 31 provincial governments had developed plans to promote and back up local tourism development. For example, East China's Shandong Province invested 126 million yuan (US$15.2 million) in developing its tourism industry. Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province decided to increase its tourism development fund from 30 million yuan (US$3.6 million) to 50 million yuan (US$6.04 million). In a separate development, a source at the State Development Planning Commission said the State has decided to raise money for building tourism infrastructure by issuing 1.2 billion yuan (US$144 million) worth of debt bonds this year. The Commission urged private Chinese and foreign investors to pour more money into such endeavours, especially in the country's vast western regions. Recent statistic from the commission indicate that the central government last year spent 1.68 billion yuan (US$202 million) on the construction of 155 priority tourism-infrastructure projects across the nation this year. But the commission did not give a list of the projects. The commission source said the government's investment has sparked enormous enthusiasm at home and abroad and considerably stimulated tourism by Chinese and foreign visitors. China started to issue debt bonds to raise money for tourism infrastructure in 2000, when it focused on 77 priority projects.