Chinese citizens can now add Germany, Egypt and Malta - in addition to 17 countries and regions in the Asia Pacific area - to their wish list of tourist destinations, thanks to approval by the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA). Zhang Xiqin, vice-chairman of the administration, made the announcement Thursday in Kunming in Kunming yesterday.
"We are considering the demand of several other countries who are trying to be selected as official outbound destinations for Chinese tourists," Zhang said.
He declined to reveal their names but confirmed they are European countries that regard China as a potential tourism market because of its rapid economic growth and the significant improvement in the living standards of its people.
By the end of 2000, China approved 17 countries and regions as outbound destinations for Chinese sightseers, after consultations with the target countries. They are Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Viet Nam, Laos, Cambodia, Brunei, Myanmar, Nepal, Hong Kong and Macao.
China has also cooperated with nearly every neighboring country to provide cross-border travel for Chinese citizens.
Official statistics indicate that more than 10 million Chinese citizens visited other countries and regions last year, including 5.6 million people who travelled at their own expense.
China's tourism industry, which attracts millions of overseas tourists every year, hopes to woo even more foreign travellers through a series of promotional campaigns targeting major overseas markets.
At the opening ceremony of 2001 China International Travel Mart, He Guangwei, chairman of the CNTA, said the administration will increase its efforts to provide better service and tourist products for overseas travellers so as to achieve China's goal to become the hottest tourist destination in the world in the near future.
"To motivate consumers to travel and promote the tourism industry, the CNTA has decided to launch the programme every year instead of every two years, and in Kunming and Shanghai alternatively," He said.
The tourism industry has become an important driving force in the economy in 24 out of 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.
From January to September, arrivals in China from other countries and regions grew 6 percent over those in the same period of last year and the number of overseas tourists reached 65.77 million.
(China Daily November 10, 2001)
