(Yicai Global) Sept. 26 -- The annual production value of China's forest tourism will soon exceed USD150 billion (CNY1 trillion), making it the third largest forestry industry, said Zhang Yongli, the vice director of China's State Forestry Administration.

The Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center hosted the 2017 China Forest Tourism Festival yesterday. China has more than 9,000 forest tourism sites of all kinds, Zhang said at the opening ceremony.

The number of forest tourists across the nation has maintained an annual growth rate of 15 percent since the 12th Five-Year Plan. The number of forest tourism trips taken in the country reached 1.2 billion last year, accounting for more than 27 percent of tourism in China and generating comprehensive social production value of over CNY950 billion, China News Service reported.

Forest tourism refers to tourism and cultural education activities, such as sightseeing, leisure vacationing and staying fit and healthy, that rely on forests, wetlands, deserts, wild animals and plants as well as other external physical environments.

As the demand for public forest tourism is growing fast and diversifying, the country has worked to enhance the effective supply of relevant products, deepen forestry reform, cease the felling of natural trees for commercial purposes, and broaden the focus of forest tourism.