Russians top list of foreign tourists in China's Hainan
MOSCOW. Sept 20 (Interfax) - About 120,000 Russian tourists visited China's Hainan from January through July 2012, which was slightly less than the year before, Hainan Provincial Tourism Commission Director Lu Zhiyuan told a Thursday press conference at the Interfax central office.
"The rate of Russian tourism arrivals declined this year, but Russians still top the list of foreign tourists," he said.
He said Hainan had 220,000 visitors from Russia last year.
The island operates over 200 hotels and another 40 hotels are under construction.
Russia is one of the countries, whose citizens can come to Hainan without visas if they arrive in the Haikou and Sanya airports.
In all, Hainan had 30 million domestic and foreign tourist overnight accommodations last year. The tourism sector revenues reached 20.45 million yuan.
Lu said they would start a broad advertisement campaign in Russia in 2013 to promote the Hainan tourism destination. Advertisements will be placed on TV, online and in public transport.
There are direct flights to Sanya, Hainan, from 13 Russian cities now.