Chang Hong Tomita, the Consul General of the Japanese Consulate in Chongqing said: "Many Japanese know about tourist attractions such as Dujiangyan and the panda base, they also understand that Sichuan is still beautiful. The tourism revenue of Changshu exceeded 1 billion yuan in 2008, and Sichuan is still very attractive."
On the 26th, the fifth International Tourism Culture Promotion Conference was held at the Chengdu International Exhibition Center. Representatives from more than ten countries including the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Japan, and South Korea attended the meeting. All representatives expressed that although a major earthquake occurred, the tourism industry in Sichuan did not suffer from great damage and remained beautiful after the quake.
Vice Governor of Sichuan Province, Huang Yanrong, stated that 2007 was a bountiful year for Sichuan's tourism. The number of foreign tourists exceeded 100 million for the first time, and the tourism revenue reached hundreds of billions of yuan. In the same year, Chengdu was selected as China's best tourist city. After the May 12 mega-earthquake, Sichuan's tourism suffered some damage concentrated in 11 counties along the Longmenshan fault zone. The overall situation of Sichuan's tourism has not been destroyed. Now, by combining tourism with history and culture, Chengdu is advancing towards becoming an internationally renowned, top-tier domestic tourist destination.
The Director of Sichuan Provincial Tourism Bureau, Zhang Gu, introduced: "During the first National Day Golden Week after the earthquake, approximately 16.36 million tourists visited Sichuan, which only decreased by 6% compared to the same period in previous years, fully demonstrating that domestic and international tourists have full confidence in Sichuan's tourism."