Despite a mild decline in the number of domestic tourists to Shenzhen during the recently-concluded National Day holiday week, the number of overseas tourists rose by nearly a quarter to reach 485,400.

The overseas visitors, including foreign tourists and those from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, spent US$34 million in Shenzhen, the city¡¯s tourism bureau said Saturday.

In total, more than 3.3 million tourists visited Shenzhen during the holiday week and brought in 2.55 billion yuan (US$318 million) in revenue, a 10 percent growth over the same period last year, the bureau said.

Major scenic spots in the city, most of them theme parks, earned a total of 85.5 million yuan as the number of visitors hit a record high at 3.4 million, thanks to the many locals who chose to stay and tour around their city.

More than 2.21 million people visited seven free parks in the city, including the Lotus Hill and Mangrove Reserve, nearly 30 percent more than the figure of the National Day Golden Week last year.

As Shenzhen is famous as a seaside resort, nearly half of the tourists said they were interested in touring the city¡¯s east coast. As proof, more than 690,000 people visited the Dameisha and Xiaomeisha beaches, Minsk World, and Sea World on the east coast during the holiday week, a 20 percent rise over the same period last year.

Meanwhile, five big shopping malls, namely Vanguard, MOI, Rainbow, Carrefour and Shirble, brought in a total of 91.1 million yuan during the holiday, 35 percent more than the same period last year. The windfall brought by the traditional Moon Festival that fell on Friday was shared by restaurants. While all tables were booked by Friday noon at the expensive Laurel restaurants in Chegongmiao and Overseas Chinese Town, five other chain restaurants including Noodle King, West Lake Spring and Harbor City earned an average 1.75 million yuan daily during the holiday, 20 percent more than the figure last year.

The tourism authorities received 24 complaints during the week, most of which involved poor services by some tour agents, heavy traffic in the east coast, fraud at stores on Zhongying Street in Shatoujiao, and thieves at the crowded Dameisha and Xiaomeisha beaches and the Fairy Lake park.

Editor: Donald