One of the world's most senior tourism officials has warned that China's travel industry remains underdeveloped and strained by a shortage of qualified hospitality staff even as it prepares to host the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It is expected the Chinese tourism sector to grow to be worth more than $384bn (€296bn, £194bn) this year. But it is warned that "genuine problems" remained. “This country needs – and will go through – a tremendous training process."

China is now the world's fourth-largest tourist destination and the WTTC expects it to rise to second place behind the US in less than a decade. China's domestic tourism industry generated $353.7bn in turnover last year and accounted for 17.4m jobs.

The WTTC expects the Chinese market to grow on average by 8.7 per cent annually over the next decade. But even as investment pours in to building and refurbishing Chinese tourist attractions and hotels, many in the industry lament the difficulty of recruiting properly trained staff.

Even in urban centers such as Beijing the country's service-oriented businesses remain immature, with many workers under trained and lacking professionalism. In a report last year the WTTC suggested Beijing could offset weaknesses likely to be exposed as visitor volumes grow by encouraging the growth of budget hotels, relaxing controls on military-regulated airspace and taking measures to help retain staff, such as offering paid holidays.

The Beijing Olympics of 2008 presents a major opportunity for China to showcase itself as a nation and leading tourism destination. It called the games "an enormous catalytic opportunity" for China's tourism industry.

China needed to work on simple things such as increasing the number of shops and restaurants that accepted credit cards and ensuring tourist sites were not drowning in rubbish.

Source:未知