China has become Switzerland's second largest source of tourists in Asia after Japan, as tourists from the Chinese mainland alone surged 15 percent in 2001 to hit nearly 100,000, a senior Swiss tourism official said.

Michel Ferla, deputy head of the Swiss federal bureau of tourism, said his country was doing every thing to explore the Chinese market, including expanding his bureau's Beijing office set up in 1998 and enhancing exchanges with the Chinese tourism industry and tourists.

The Swiss Alps, its unique and colorful small cities and its clock and watch-making reputation were expected to draw more and more Chinese business travelers and tourists to Switzerland in the years ahead, the official said at the 2002 Swiss tourism exchange fair attended by Swiss travel agents, airline and railway operators.

Chinese tourists who find themselves in any European country could very conveniently and easily have access to Switzerland, he said.

( People's Daily March 27, 2002)