SYDNEY, Apr. 3 --Recently, the China-Australia World Heritage Tourism organised an event to promote the 52 world heritage sites in China, in order to attract more Australian tourists. Both officials from Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development and Members of the Parliament of New South Wales (NSW) were present.

Mr. Luo Weijian, Director of China National Tourist Office in Sydney, said even though the China-Australia Year of Tourism in 2017 was extremely successful, he hoped tourism between China and Australia can be further improved in the future.

As China has a population of 1.3 billion people including 56 ethnic groups, it makes it the ultimate cultural destination.

“1.34 million Chinese visitors travel to Australia in return so you can tell that they play a vital role in terms of contribution to the cooperation and tourism exchange between the two countries,” Mr. Luo added.

Mr Damien Tudehope, Member of Parliament of NSW emphasises that not only it is “important for all Australians to visit China but we think it’s also very important for people in China to come to visit Australia”.

With 2017 being the Year of Tourism, approximately 3 billion Australian dollars was injected into the NSW economy.

“The great thing about tourism is it allows people to interact with each other and to see that their cultures have enormous things to offer,” Mr Tudehope said.

Tudehope encourages tourists to visit not only the Sydney Opera House but also regional areas such as NSW’s Hunter Valley or the Snowy Mountains in order to “see all that NSW has to offer”.

Ms. Wang Fang, Deputy Consul-General of the Consulate-General Of The People's Republic Of China in Sydney believes that tourism will deeply propel the “Belt and Road” Construction and build international cooperation platform.

“Looking forward to the future, China and Australia are both major powers in the Asia-Pacific region with extensive common benefits. In addition, China and Australia are important trade investment partners,” Ms. Wang said.

Being trade partners will provide historical opportunities for all countries including Australia to carry out a win-win operation and mutual development. People to people and cultural exchange are the important pillars to support the Sino Australia relationship development. (People’s Daily Online/ Tingting Yan)