"Almost every Chinese person is familiar with Norman Bethune, but few people have chance to visit his hometown," said Richard Liu, director of Canadian Tourism Commission in China during a Xinhua interview.

Some 70,000 Chinese citizens went to Canada last year, while over 230,000 Canadians traveled to China. Liu said that when the tourism cooperation begins to thrive, it is certain that the 7-23 ratio will be reversed, because the population in China is 45 times that of Canada.

As an expert in the international tourism industry for over 20 years, Liu said that China is quickly moving from being a large Asian tourism country to becoming a worldwide powerful tourism nation.

In the first half of the year, Chinese tourism revenue reaped 8.5 billion U.S dollars of foreign currency income. China's accession to the World Trade Organization and preparation for the 2008 Olympics will further power tourism growth.

The bilateral tourism cooperation has also pushed exchanges in related areas such as education, telecommunication, agriculture and the aviation industry.

Liu said that the tourism industry is to serve the people, thus the satisfaction of tourists is the best reward for tourism operators.

He said that a comprehensive plan will push China's tourism industry towards sustainable development. Canada and China can join hands to carry out training programs in order to improve Chinese tourist guides' ability.

Up to now, most of the Chinese travel agencies have not earned much profits. Liu suggested that China copy the special retail and wholesale management systems.

He also noted that tourism commodities should show regional characteristics to satisfy different needs.

"I do hope that the tourism cooperation between China and Canada will be a model for the whole world," he added.

(Xinhua 09/14/2001)