Chinese travel agencies will be allowed from next year to
organize tour groups to the United States, which gained the Chinese
government's approved destination status on Tuesday.
China National Tourism Administration director Shao Qiwei and
U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez signed a memorandum
marking the new status, which could see about 579,000 Chinese
visitors to the U.S. annually by 2011.
The agreement was announced at the 18th Sino-U.S. Joint
Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) and is expected to be
implemented in the spring of 2008.
"Today's agreement will open a large and growing market for the
U.S. travel and tourism industry," said Gutierrez. "This creates
positive economic benefits for the United States and strengthens
the relationship between our nations."
Tourism cooperation between two nations is developing rapidly.
The number of U.S. visitors to China reached 1.71 million last
year, up 10 percent from 2005.
The memorandum followed the declaration signed by China and the
United States to launch formal negotiations to facilitate Chinese
group leisure travel to the United States during the second
Strategic Economic Dialogue meeting held in Washington in May.
The Chinese government has given the status to 132 nations and
regions and more than 34 million Chinese traveled abroad last
year.
(Xinhua News Agency December 12, 2007)
