Air pollution and Xi Jinping's anti-graft campaign hit China's tourism trades

Air pollution and President Xi Jinping's campaign to curb official corruption and extravagance took a bite out of the mainland's hospitality industry last year, according to a government think tank report.

The "Green Book of China's Tourism" - issued yesterday by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences - said revenue at hotels with a three-star rating or above dropped by nearly 12 per cent in the first half of last year, compared with that period in 2012.

Revenue at restaurants with an annual turnover of more than two million yuan (HK$2.5 million) fell by 2 per cent, the first decline in three decades. This was due largely to the anti-graft campaign, the report said.

The central leadership's efforts to curb extravagance has "affected official banquets, high-end tourism, high-end catering and meetings and exhibitions involving industries such as hotels, restaurants and exhibition venues", the report said.

The study did not include statistics for the second half of last year, but figures from the National Tourism Administration showed that hotels with three stars or more saw year-on-year drops in revenue of about 4 per cent in the third quarter.

The tourism report also said the numbers of foreign visitors to the country fell 2 per cent in 2012, dropping to 132 million. That trend was expected to have continued last year.

Foreigners' reluctance to come to China was attributed by researchers to poor travel services and damage to tourist cities' reputations because of air pollution, food safety scandals and traffic congestion.