China's tourism industry reaped an revenue of 1.26 trillion yuan ($185 billion) in 2009, up 9 percent year on year, on the back of booming domestic travel.

Domestic tourists made 1.9 billion trips last year, a rise of 11 percent, which generated 1 trillion yuan of revenue for the industry, up 15 percent from a year ago, the National Tourism Administration said on Wednesday.

The number of inbound trips shrank 3 percent to 126 million, as the global financial crisis and the widespread flu epidemic dampened consumer's passion to travel abroad.

As a result, foreign exchanges revenues fell 4.5 percent to $39 billion.

Outbound trips rose 3.6 percent to 47.5 million.

(Xinhua News Agency January 7, 2010)