Chinese travel agencies will be allowed to organize tourist groups
to 27 European nations as of September 1, sources with
China National
Tourism Administration said in Beijing Saturday.
The 27 nations are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech, Denmark,
Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania,
Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Ireland,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland,
Liechtenstein and Romania.
Experts said the new move will enhance friendship and
understanding between China and Europe as well as promote bilateral
exchanges in economy, trade, science and culture.
To date, travel agencies can only organize Chinese tourists to
visit 26 nations. The number will rise to 53 on September 1.
In 2003, China's average GDP per capita surpassed US$1,000 for
the first time, and the total foreign currency savings of Chinese
residents topped US$90 billion. These conditions stimulated
overseas travels by Chinese.
According to the World Tourism Organization, China is among the
top 10 nations in terms of outbound tourism consumption. From 1994
to 2003, the total number of outbound Chinese tourists reached
nearly 100 million, up 13.87 percent year-on-year. Last year,
outbound Chinese tourists numbered 20.2 million, surpassing
Japanese counterparts for the first time.
(Xinhua News Agency July 4, 2004)