About one-third of China's top 100 real estate developers have stepped into the tourism real estate sector, amid the government's stringent curbs on property investment and funding difficulties for small developers.

The first quarter of the year saw about 70 projects with investments above 100 million yuan in tourism real estate projects, with a total investment of 260 billion yuan ($40.83 billion). And the investments are expected to surpass 1 trillion yuan this year, according to 5u588.com, a domestic tourism website.

Data from ChinaVenture Group, a leading research and consulting institute, showed that some of China's major real estate developers, including Vanke Co Ltd, Poly Real Estate Group Co and Wanda Group, have decided to invest in the business.

China's housing market remains in the doldrums. Investment in real estate grew 16.6 percent year-on-year in the first half of the year, while the growth was 33.6 percent in the first seven months of 2011, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.