China has been known as one of the most visited place on earth. However, the rising problems of air pollution have gone to a high level so tourists now fear of experiencing smog instead of pleasure.

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Frano Llic, a travel agency in Munich Germany said that the tourists have been turned-off by the smog and problems in China. This decreased the tour rates to 16 percent as compared to previous years.

Llic said, "You are reading about smog. You are reading about political things. All the news which is coming from China concerning the non-touristic things are bad, frankly speaking,"

China is one of the top countries that ranks high in the number of tourists, including the United States and France. The decreased number of visitors may reduce the government's initiative to promote cleaner service industries like tourism. It was reported that Chinese tourists still outnumber the foreigners but the latter spend more.

In the months of January until June, the number of visitors declined by 5 percent with about 13 million yuan opportunity wasted. The tourists include business travelers, local residents and foreign tourists. The famous structures, Great Wall and Imperial Palace, also had declined rates. It went down by 15 percent.

The air pollution of the country has always been an issue, but it had a high impact on tourism when China experienced a record-setting smog. This is said to have a long-term effects especially when people do not see any progress in fighting off the problems of pollution.

The China National Tourism Administration has seen the effects of it and acknowledges the decline of the number of tourists. This includes the cities of Beijing, Xiamen and Shanghai.

The former director of the Center of Sustainable Tourism at the Arizona State University, Tim Tyrell said, "Thus the air pollution trends in China will be difficult to reverse and their impacts will be significantly negative on the tourism industry."

He added, "the government can make significant improvements in air quality and enthusiastically convey these improvements to international travelers."