Harbin received 3.44 million tourists from January to June of this year, an increase of 10.1 percent year-on-year.Tourism revenue totaled 50.55 billion yuan ($7.59 billion), a year-on-year increase of 16.2 percent, according to statistics from Harbin Tourism Administration.

During the first half of 2016, Harbin received a total of 46,695 tourists from Russia, 1,311 tourists from Japan, 1,311 tourists from South Korea, and 1,056 tourists from the US.

Analysts said that celebrations and exhibitions promote the rejuvenation of Harbin’s inbound tourism market. In the first-half of this year, Harbin successfully held an ice and snow festival, international manufacturing expo, and the World Snowboarding Championships. After these festivals and activities, the inbound tourism market kept growing, according to experts. The number of Harbin’s inbound tourists grew year-on-year by 7 percent. The number of tourists from South Korea grew by an astonishing 91 percent.

The upgrading of the ice and snow tourist scenic areas, is one of the major reasons leading to the increasing of tourist numbers. Tourism facilities provided in the scenic areas have continuously improved, with sales models optimized and services standardized to improve businesses competitiveness.

Last year, Harbin was ranked one of the top 10 most popular cities for tourism, and one of the top 10 most popular tourist destinations during Spring Festival. Another reason that has led to the growing number of tourists is the growing number of luxury hotels, which have improved the city’s accommodation quality and capacity.

Domestically, Harbin’s tourist agencies received 366,484customers in the city, with major numbers of tourists from Helongjiang, Shanghai, Beijing and Guangdong. Meanwhile, a total of 371,921 tourists from Harbin booked a tour in the first-half of the year, with Heilongjiang, Yunnan, Shanghai and Liaoning being the most popular destinations.