The State of China Atlas. Robert Benewick

      The major focus of China’s tourism industry is on domestic mainland tourists and, to a lesser extent, on visitors from Hong Kong. The money they bring to the major tourist sites to a large extent fuels the industry. Although international tourism, which includes visiting overseas Chinese, is also important, much of it is confined to major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. And it is still secondary to the larger project of managing China’s brand in order to increase the country’s national status and authority in the region and across the world. China’s concern to communicate its own image to a global audience, rather than to individual and sometimes difficult tourists, is largely achieved through televized versions of major events, such as the Shanghai International Expo in 2010.The success of the 2008 Olympics was not measured in terms of the number of visitors to Beijing, which was actually lower than in August 2007 as a result of fierce visa controls, but in how effectively they conveyed to the world’s audiences a convincing and overwhelming message about China’s power, competence and cultural worth.

      see also page 113

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