Since September 1, Chinese travelers have been able to take off for Europe without applying for special permission from the state.

The countries included in the arrangement are Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Romania, Liechtenstein and all the European Union members except Britain, Denmark and Ireland.

However, Chinese travel agents are implementing tighter controls to prevent illegal emigrants from taking advantage of outbound tours, said a spokesperson with the National Tourism Administration (NTA). Travelers must turn over a large cash deposit to travel agencies as a pledge against illegal emigration.

The first Chinese tour group to travel to Europe departed from Beijing on September 1 via Air China. The 50-plus-member group is taking a 12-day tour through France, Switzerland and Italy.

The tour group, made up mostly of government representatives, VIPs and journalists, arrived in Switzerland on September 4. Swissinfo reports that the arrival of the group was cause for celebration: as proof that Beijing's decision to grant the country approved destination status (ADS) was bearing fruit.

Swiss tourism has been in the doldrums for some years.

Switzerland Tourism, the national tourism office, is predicting that the number of nights Chinese spend in Swiss hotels will treble to 300,000 by 2007, putting Chinese second behind only the Japanese among Asian travelers.

Last year, there were 20 million outbound Chinese, an increase of 21.8 percent over the previous year, according the NTS. By the end of the year, the number of Chinese travel agencies qualified to offer outbound tourism packages reached 528. There were fewer than 70 in 1999.

(China Daily September 6, 2004)