China's tourism industry has recovered from the snow chaos that hit the country's southern and central areas over last month's Spring Festival, Shao Qiwei, China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) director, told Xinhua on Thursday.

"Since February, CNTA's local agencies have carried out a recovery development plan and endeavored to rebuild the damaged scenic spots from the snow havoc."

Official statistics showed China received 20.7 million overseas tourists in January and February, up 5.8 percent from the same period a year earlier. In Guizhou, a province severely hit by snow, the number of tourists visiting in February rose 0.7 percent over a year previous.

"The CNTA will organize the snow-plagued provinces to go to countries like Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia to conduct tourism promotion activities soon," Shao added.

The snow crisis that hit China over the Spring Festival period had a devastating effect on tourism in provinces worst hit by the snow.

The seven worst-hit provinces, including Guizhou, Hunan, Anhui, and Hubei, completely or partly ceased tourism. Tourism earnings during the holiday were down 29.75 percent, compared with the period last year.

Some 15,800 tour groups were cancelled nationwide by mid-February, totaling 300,000 tourists. About 60,000 tourists were on in-bound tours while 240,000 planned for domestic travel, according to CNTA figures.

(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2008)