Earlier this month on December 2, the Beijing Tourism Industry Development Conference opened in Beijing. The conference, organized by the Beijing Municipal Government and attended by officials from China's National Tourism Administration and international tourism experts, announced the decision to make tourism a pillar industry in the capital's post-Olympic development.

Beijing receive a big tourism boom ever since the Beijing summer Olympics and has become a driving force of the city's economic growth, Beijing Vice Mayor Ding Xiangyang said.

Statistics show that the yearly tourism revenues currently account for about 7 percent of Beijing's annual GDP. Vice Mayor Ding says the city hopes that number will soon reach ten percent. To realize this goal, the government will take a series of steps, investing 78 billion RMB in 83 travel programs.

International tourism professionals are also invited to serve these travel programs as senior advisors, including Manny Fontenla-Novoa, Chief Executive Officer of Thomas Cook Group, Paul Kennedy, Chairman of Reed Travel Exhibition, and the President of Japan's JTB Corp, Tagawa Hiromi.