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)