Chinese and Japanese tourism officials have called for more
tourism cooperation and a bigger number of visits between the
peoples in the two countries.
"China will come up with new tour packages to attract more
Japanese tourists," Sun Gang, deputy director of China's National
Tourism Administration, said at the China-Japan Culture and Tourism
Forum held Saturday in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan
Province.
The forum was held to check declining tourism cooperation
between the two countries.
At the forum, officials and professionals from the Chinese and
Japanese tourism sectors discussed how to expand the scale of
visits between the two peoples and exchanged views on specific
tourism cooperation.
Among the tourists to China, the number of Japanese tourists to
China was 3.39 million, an increase of only 1.7 percent over the
figure in 2004.
As China-Japan political ties were soured by Japanese Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to the Yasukuni
Shrine, which commemorates Second World War criminals, personnel
exchanges between the two countries were also affected.
As this years is set to be a year of China-Japan tourism
exchanges, Chinese tourism departments at various levels will hold
more than sixty events ranging from cultural activities to photo
shows, Sun said.
Tourism heads from China, Japan and the Republic of Korea will
also meet in July in Japan to further discuss tourism cooperation,
Sun said.
(Xinhua News Agency May 15, 2006)
