In the morning of July 10, Shao Qiwei, Chairman of CNTA, met with Juan Mesquida Fernando, Secretary of State for Tourism, Spain in Madrid, Spain and exchanged views on furthering Sino-Spain tourism cooperation and other issues of common concern.

According to Shao Qiwei, the stable development of bilateral relations and further consolidation of the comprehensive strategic partnership during the 35 years since the official establishment of diplomatic relations have laid a sound foundation for furthering tourism cooperation between the two sides. Spain is a country with developed tourism market while China is rapidly developing in tourism sector. He suggested the two nations carry out practical cooperation to expand the potential in tourism cooperation and promote the mutual communication of tourism staff.

According to Mesquida, Spain places great emphasis on tourism cooperation with China and adopts a series of measures to strengthen the publicity and promotion of Chinese tourism market mainly including holding seashore holiday travel, cultural travel and shopping travel. They plan to open a Spanish tourism agency in Guangzhou recently with the aim to attract more Chinese travelers to Spain.

Shao Qiwei was glad about the establishment of Spanish tourism agency in China. He also invited Mesquida to attend the International Tourism Trade Fair which will be held in Kunming in November this year and the Boao Forum on International Tourism in February the next year.

When mentioning the impact of the financial crisis on tourism industry, Shao Qiwei explained that tourism industry is the major sector of China’s national economy and its rapid growth, according to Premier Wen Jiabao, is of great importance to fuel economic growth, promote consuming and create more job opportunities in coping with the current financial crisis. China is willing to strengthen cooperation with all EU nations including Spain to be in active response to the financial crisis in a responsible manner.

Related Chinese News:邵琪伟会见西班牙旅游国务秘书胡安·麦斯基达·费南