Overseas tour operators were eager to attract tourists from Guangzhou at the 2002 Guangzhou International Travel Fair (GITF) because the city has become one of China's largest tourist-generating cities.

More than 300 foreign exhibitors from about 50 countries and regions including Hong Kong and Macao participated in the fair, held from March 29 to 31.

"Guangzhou is our prosperous target market, because more than 60 per cent of foreign tourists to South Africa last year came from Guangzhou," Sarel Opperman, general manager of the South African Tourism Head Office, said at the fair.

Guangzhou has become the starting point for promoting South Africa's tourism industry, Sarel said.

Germany also sent a large group of exhibitors to the travel fair, including 26 partners and Lufthansa German Airlines under the German National Tourist Board.

"This is the first time for us to lead such a big group to exhibit at the fair," said Petra Hedorfer, a member of the German National Tourist Board.

"From 1994 till 2001, overnight stays of Chinese travelers in German hotels had increased by 78 percent," said Petra.

Even in 2001, when the global tourism industry was not doing well because of the suicide attacks on the United States on September 11, the number of Chinese tourists to Germany still increased by 9.4 percent over 2000.

In the past few years, Guangzhou tourists account for more than one-third of the total tourists traveling from China to Germany.

American Express, one of the world leaders in travel services, participated in the GITF for the first time and announced that it would partner with GZL International Travel Service Ltd in Guangzhou to expand its travel service network in China.

Guangzhou is one of the largest tourist-generating cities in China, followed by Qingdao, Xi'an and Beijing, according to Li Ke, an official of the Marketing and Promotion Department of the Guangzhou Tourism Bureau.

"Nowadays, travelling to other countries or overseas regions by people from Guangzhou is getting more popular than traveling within the country," Li said.

Li pointed out that travelling out of the Chinese mainland shows that people in Guangzhou are enjoying a higher quality of life after more than 20 years of opening up and reform to the outside world.

( China Daily April 2, 2002 )