India and China have expressed their willingness to strengthen bilateral tourism cooperation. This was decided at a meeting between Mr. Zhu Shanzhong, Vice Chairman of China National Tourism Administration and Shri Girish Shankar, Addl. Secretary, Ministry of Tourism in New Delhi.
 

The two sides have decided that "tour operators and travel agents of both the countries may interact with each other in order to promote two way tourism between India and China." In addition, China has accorded "Approved Destination Status" to India to enable Chinese travel agencies to organise the outbound travel groups of Chinese citizens to India.

"The possibilities for promoting more package tours in either of the countries could also be explored by the travel trade of the two countries. Both the countries would like to exchange relevant information/statistics with regard to tourist arrivals, targets and projection, infrastructure facilities, etc," the Tourism Ministry release said.

According to the latest statistics from the National Tourism Administration of China, the China to India tourism flow reached 118,300 in 2011, an increase of 19.1 percent over the previous year. During January and July 2012, Chinese visitors raised 18.6% than the same period of last year and reached 95,900 to India. It is very positive both Chinese visitors and investment to India will bring very prosperous and profitable business in the near future for India.

Related News in Chinese:
祝善忠拜访印度旅游部 两国互为重要旅游客源国