China and the United States kicked off the 2016 China-U.S. Tourism Year at a ceremony in Beijing on Monday.

In a message to the ceremony launching the "China-U.S. Tourism Year", President Xi Jinping said he is looking forward to increased people-to-people exchanges between China and the U.S. as the two sides kick off a major tourism promotion.

Li Jinzao, director of National Tourism Bureau said that more than 4.75 million people traveled between the China and the U.S. in 2015 and the number will increase to 5 million in 2016. China is willing to work with the U.S. to further increase the investment cooperation and degree of openness of travels. Hundreds of activities and events will be organized during the China-U.S. Tourism Year.

Analysts say more facilitation on infrastructure construction, entry and exit policies will bring more benefits to the cooperation on tourism between the two countries.

Over 25 million trips have been made between the two nations with an average annual growth of 7.6 percent since the China-U.S. Tourism Leadership Summit was established in 2007.

Among that, the number of Chinese tourists travelling to the U.S. has grown at an annual rate of 18.4 percent.

China-U.S. Tourism Year will provide a platform for the countries to continue to improve and upgrade systems to accommodate anticipated travel flows.