"Journey along Beautiful China” highlights the China-Australia Year of Tourism

Mr Li Shihong, Vice Chairman of China National Tourism Administration, addresses the event (People's Daily Online Ji He)

SYDNEY, Nov. 15 (People’s Daily Online) -- "Journey along Beautiful China”, organized by China National Tourism Administration, was held in Sydney on November 14th, promoting and publicizing China's tourism and enhancing the visibility and influence of China's tourism in Australia.

About 300 people from the two countries’ industries attended the event, including travel wholesalers, agents, airlines from Sydney, as well as representatives of the tourism bureaus from 11 Chinese provinces and municipalities.

Mr Cheng Jingye, China's Ambassador to Australia addresses the event (People's Daily Online Ji He)

Mr Li Shihong, Vice Chairman of China National Tourism Administration, addressed the event that both China and Australia have become important markets and destinations to each other. For instance, there was a total of close to 2 million mutual visits in 2016. The 2017 China-Australia Year of Tourism helps bring two countries closer together and provides more opportunities for engagement in various fields.

Mr Cheng Jingye, China's Ambassador to Australia, said he believed that more and more Chinese would visit Australia and he would like to welcome more Australians coming to China.

“Tourism plays an important role in promoting better bilateral relations between countries, ”Cheng said, “Tourism also can act as a bridge which brings our two peoples much closer, and further promotes mutual understanding and friendship. It also creates more opportunities for both countries and also for industry.”

Mr John O’Sullivan, Manager Director of Tourism Australia addresses the event (People's Daily Online Ji He)

Mr John O’Sullivan, Manager Director of Tourism Australia said “China is an incredibly important market for the Australian visitor economy”, for example, one in eight visitors to Australia comes from mainland China; one in four Australian dollars spent by international visitors in Australia is contributed by Chinese visitors. He believed Tourism Australia and the industry would continue to focus on this market and try to understand better the needs of Chinese visitors.

Mr Gu Xiaojie, Consul General of China in Sydney, and Mr Robert Kok, councilor of City of Sydney also attended the event.

The event also intends to strengthen the understanding of China's tourism among local traveling salesmen, and stimulate their interest and willingness to sell Chinese tourism products, thereby attract more Australians to visit China. (People’s Daily Online/ Jiani Qu)