Mumbai: China is expected to replace France as the world`s top tourism destination by the year 2014 on the back of the 2008 Olympics the country is hosting, the World Tourism Organisation said in a report.

China received 22 million foreign tourists in 2006, excluding arrivals from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan , compared to a mere 300,000 in 1978, the report cited industry experts and analysts as saying.

With China enjoying double-digit expansion of tourist arrivals for years and tourism growth in France rater slow to pick up, industry watchers say China, originally expected to overtake France as the number one tourism destination in 2020, is now tipped to do so six years earlier, the report said.

China was on course to overtake the United States, the world`s number three tourist destination, this year in terms of foreign visitor arrivals, Xu Jing, the organisation`s Asia-Pacific representative, said. The Asian giant would then pass Spain, number two, by the end of the decade.

The Chinese capital is preparing to receive 500,000 overseas visitors during the 2008 Summer Games from August 8-24, 2008 , up from 350,000 visitors in August 2006. Other factors that are helping China to overtake France by 2014 include the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.

Those Olympic visitors are expected to spend about $5 billion, according to China`s tourist board. Foreign tour operators and airlines are expanding services to meet growing demand in Beijing and across the country. This year alone, China`s tourism industry is expected to generate $78 billion, 2.5 per cent of GDP, a figure that could rise to $277 billion by 2017, according to the World Tourism Organisation.

Revenues from the sector will be around $440 billion this year and up to $1.6 trillion by 2017, the World Tourism Organisation said.