China's service industry shakes off SARS impact ( 2003-07-10 08:30) (Xinhua)
When severe acute respiratory
syndrome (SARS) was controlled, its impact on China's retail, tourism and other
service industries also began to fall away.
Statistics show that since most Chinese restaurants reopened in May, their
turnover climbed more than 15 percent in the past month. Especially in Beijing,
the local catering industry surged 50 percent in June, and some restaurants
increased turnover several times over.
Sales were also running hot in most departments stores and supermarkets in
China. An investigation of 100 department stores showed that after a one month
sales promotion in May, most department stores increased their sales by about 10
percent in June, compared with the same period of last year.
In Beijing Zhongyou Department Store, sales in June were double the figure
for the same month last year.
Kaiyuan Department Store in Xi'an also reached a record turnover from June 13
to June 15 totaling nearly 40 million yuan ( about 4.8 million US dollars).
With the increasing number of college students on vacation and tourists, the
transportation sector also met with the first travel peak for the summer after
SARS.
National railways handled more than 15 million passenger journeys during the
first six days of July, nearly the same volume of last year, said China's
Ministry of Railways.
During the two-month summer peak season for passenger transport starting on
July 1, railways across the country are expected to handle at least 158.4
million passenger journeys.
As opposed to the rapid response of China's catering, retail and
transportation industries, tourism in China has seen a slow increase after the
epidemic was controlled.
Both Beijing and Shanghai have received their first overseas tourist groups,
a step marking the reopening of the overseas tourism market in China.
National tourism and suburban tours have became popular in China. So far,
daily tourists to Shanghai's Jinmao Tower, the tallest building in China, are
about 70-80 percent of the peak level, better than expected.
Sixteen cities in the Yangtze River delta in east China recently signed a
declaration of cooperation to promote tourism development in the region, calling
for the building of China's first tourism zone across several provinces.
Zhangjun, assistant chairman of the China Hotel Association, said a revival
plan for building "green hotels" is being implemented among the national hotels,
a move to improve the hotel 's service level to attract more business people and
tourists.
A tourism expert said that the whole tourism market was expecting a new peak
this summer and the National Day holiday.
The service industry has witnessed rapid growth in recent years and has
become a major channel to improve employment. China's economists held that the
recovery of China's service industry will help ease pressure on employment in
China.
