The quality of China's air is hurting the country's tourism, according to a newly released report, as each1 percent drop in good air days translates to nearly half a million fewer tourists.

In the 2014 China Tourism Development Report, researchers scrutinized the proportion of days each year with air quality that meets the official standard. They found that for each one-percent drop in good air days, the number of inbound tourists fell by about 443,550 people.

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The report was released by the Wuhan Chapter of the China Tourism Academy.

Hu Jing, who heads the Wuhan Chapter, said that air quality has become an important deciding factor in tourists' travel decisions.

To underline his point, the report found that more than 80 percent of survey respondents said they would avoid certain tourist destinations that were prone to smog. At the same time, more than 70 percent of respondents said they would schedule their travel based on air quality index.

The report also indicated that air quality has a significant effect on how much tourists enjoy their travels as more than 90 percent said smog ruins the sights and their mood.

But there is one spot of good news in all of this as the smog condition may be improving slightly. According to the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the proportion of days with up-to-standard air quality in 74 cities during the first half of the year was 60.3 percent, slightly up compared to 58.7 percent during the same period last year.

TagsChina’s Notorious Smog is Hurting Tourism, 2014 China Tourism Development Report, Wuhan Chapter of the China Tourism Academy, air quality, smog, good air days, Ministry of Environmental Protection