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Not long ago, the secretary general of the World Tourism Organization said. "The Asian financial crisis has slowed down the development of world tourism, but the Chinese tourism industry has maintained a high growth speed.” He predicted that by 2020, China will become the largest tourism country in the world.// The secretary general was attending the '98 China International Tourism Fair, held in Shanghai. At the fair, he quoted a survey report as saying: Due to the financial crisis is Asia, the number of tourists coming and going between the Asian countries has dropped by a large margin since summer 1997. The growth speed of world tourism decrease from 5.5 percent in 1996 to 3.8 percent in 1997. // From January to August 1998, the number of tourists entering China totaled 41.3284 million people times, or an increase of 12.22 percent over the figure for the corresponding period of last year. Foreign exchange earnings generated by tourism reached 8.198 billion US dollars or an increase of 5.55 percent over those of the corresponding period of last year. The number of overseas tourists coming to China has kept growing, except from the other Asian countries, the number of whose tourists has shown a slight reduction.//
The secretary general pointed out that China's tourism industry has shown a rising trend during the Asian financial crisis, and the Chinese people should be proud of this, he said. In 1990, the number of foreign tourists entering China ranked 12th in the world and in 1997, the sixth; and its foreign exchange earnings generated from tourism ranked 25th in the world to 1990, and the eighth in 1997. The constant deepening of China's reform and opening to the outside world has greatly promoted the development of China’s tourism. It is predicted that by 2020, the number of tourists worldwide will be about 1.6 billion, of whom 137 million will come to China.//
The secretary general said that he likes China very much, because China is a "very lovely country”. It has beaches, plains and mountains, as well as one of the most ancient civilizations in the world, he pointed out. He is right: China’s 5,000-year history of civilization is an invaluable tourism resource which is attracting more and more tourists from all over the world.
世界旅游组织秘书长弗朗加利日前认定，亚洲金融危机使世界旅游业放慢了增长速度，而中国旅游业却继续保持着强劲增长势头。

他预测，到2020年，中国将有望成为世界第一旅游大国。

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弗朗加利去年出席了上海’98中国国际旅游交易会，他援引世界旅游组织一份分析报告说，由于金融危机的影响，亚洲各国之间出入境旅游人数从1997年夏季开始大幅度减少，
世界旅游业的增长速度因此由1996年的5.5%下降到去年的3.8%。

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1998年1至8月份，我国旅游入境人数达4132.84万人次，比1997年同期增长12.22%，旅游外汇收入达81.98亿美元，比1997年同期增长5.55%。

国际客源市场中，除亚洲市场有所下降外，其他各大洲市场均有增长。

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佛朗加利指出，中国旅游业在亚洲金融危机中扔出现上升势头，是值得自豪的。

1997年中国的旅游入境人数在世界上的排名由1990年的第12位上升到第6位，旅游外汇收入则从第25位升至第8位。

他认为，中国改革开放的不断深入使旅游业随之得到了强劲发展。

预计到2020年，全世界旅游人数将接近16亿，其中1.37亿人将到中国旅游。

// 佛朗加利说，他非常喜欢中国，因为中国是个“十分可爱的国家”，它不仅拥有沙滩，平原和山脉，而且是世界文明古国之一。

中国五千年文明史就是最大的旅游资源，正在越来越多地吸引着世界各地的旅游者。

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