The city of Datong, Shanxi province, has come in at 36th place out of 60 tourist cities, in the China Tourism Academy’s national Report on Tourist Satisfaction for 2012.

The past year was the first time for Datong to be included in the report, which shows that, all over the country, travelers are feeling better about the city’s tourism service. In the first quarter of 2012, Taiyuan was only in the 40th spot, while in the fourth it had risen to 32nd. Since then, it has taken every advantage it could of better policies, an improved environment, convenient transportation, tourist product improvements, and tactical marketing for steady growth in the domestic, inbound and outbound tourism. It has also led to an improved image for Datong as a tourist city with more tourists.

In 2012, Datong had 277,500 foreign tourists, a year-on-year increase of 18.13 percent and 18.9 million domestic tourists, an year-on-year increase of 18.69 percent. Overall revenues from tourism were 16.28 billion yuan ($2.93 billion), a year-on-year increase of 19.19 percent.

Edited by Roger Bradshaw