Tourists from European countries and the United States grew 33.5 percent to 155,720 in the first half year-on-year, the commission said in the statement.
The number of Russian tourists visiting the island continued to grow 44.83 percent in the January-June period to 105,174, especially thanks to the opening of new airline routes this year to five Russian cities.
Hainan has long been a favorite destination for holiday makers from the Russian Far East region.
However, the number of tourists from Asian countries only rose a moderate 3.16 percent to 85,321, the commission said.
Tourists from Japan shrank 18 percent from a year ago to 10,597, mainly due to the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster, it said.
From January to June, Hainan received 14.04 million domestic tourists, up 8.86 percent from the same period of last year.
Hainan’s total tourism revenue in the first half of the year totaled 15.33 billion yuan (2.36 billion U.S. dollars), up 10.36 percent year-on-year, according to the tourism commission.

City.Mobi

Also in Asia today, City.Mobi is celebrating the success of its new guide to Guangzhou.

City.Mobi offers the most comprehensive mobile travel guides available, with over 800 cities in 200 countries listed. Each is developed by the City.Mobi team to combine into a single global travel directory.

However, each city retains its own mobile identity via a dedicated domain. Already on offer are Brussels.Mobi, Paris.Mobi, Sanfrancisco.Mobi and Sydney.Mobi.

Guangzhou.city.mobi is the latest in this illustrious line up, offering click to call functionality – which means no scribbling down telephone numbers.

Most entries are also linked to websites where users can quickly access more detailed information if needed.

Other key features include information on accommodation, restaurants, attractions, entertainment, nightlife, shopping, and transport.

City.Mobi guides include user reviews and traveller utilities such as a translation guide, currency converter, news and local weather guide.