As part of China's efforts to promote tourism and recover last year's decline, a China Tourism Exhibition is now underway in Australia and New Zealand, and has attracted widespread interest.

The exhibition is being held by an 80-member visiting group organized by the China National Tourism Administration. The group comprises 46 tourism institutions and companies from all over China. From May 16th to 26th, they are conducting a series of promotional activities in Auckland, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Their exhibition, featuring 19 popular tourist destinations, has drawn great interest from both local tour organizers and the general public.

"For an Australian traveler, it's a great emerging destination. And I think we are coming to be more aware of China's accessibility and the high standard of hotel availability. For me, Shanghai, Beijing, Wuxi, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Guilin, Xi'an… I'd like to see all those places."

George Xiong, head of the China National Tourist Office in Sydney, says according to the World Tourism Organization, China ranked fifth in terms of tourist arrivals in 2002, after the traditionally popular destinations of France, Italy, Spain and the United States. Xiong says Australia is playing an increasingly important part in the country's inbound tourism market.

"In the year 2002, more than 291-thousand Australians visited China, making Australia the 12th largest market for China. Actually the tourist arrival figure is bigger than some tourist generating source markets in Europe such as Germany and France. But if we think about Australia's population base, which is less than half of those in Germany and France, the performance of this market is just excellent."

Xiong says even in 2003, China received nearly 300-thousand tourists from both Australia and New Zealand, in spite of the SARS outbreak. He adds that the first quarter of this year witnessed an 8 per cent increase in tourist arrivals from Australia.

Xiong admits that despite the fact that tourism has been one of China's most dynamic and potentially strong economic sectors, it experienced an inevitable downturn in 2003 due to a number of reasons including SARS, global worries over terrorism and the sluggish world economy. The overall tourism revenue decreased 12 per cent compared with the previous year; while the number of inbound tourists came to 90-million, a drop of more than 6 per cent.

He says a series of measures have been taken by the China National Tourism Administration since late 2003 to regain the confidence of both domestic and overseas markets. As part of the recovery program, tourism promotion delegations have also been sent to Hong Kong, Japan, France, Britain and Germany, in addition to Australia and New Zealand.

One stand that is attracting great interest in the China Tourism Exhibition in Australia is the Tibet Autonomous Region. Zhao Shujuan, from the local tourism bureau, says it's their first time to promote tourism in Australia and New Zealand.

"Every year we have about 120-thousand overseas tourists. Europe and the United States have been our traditional markets. But only a few hundred tourists from Australia and New Zealand visit Tibet each year. We hope the exhibition will allow people to discover more about Tibet. Actually, people are showing a growing interest as we tell them that accessibility to Tibet is now easier, because the necessary traveling documents have been simplified and the local infrastructure has been improved."

Thomas King, a visitor to the exhibition, says China is at top of the list of his favorite counties. He says he traveled extensively in the country, and has been writing about China for almost 20 years.

"I've seen all the development, all the things that have changed in China, from 20 years ago to up until now. I was there a few years ago. There are so many different things to see and to do there. It seems it's just never ending. Shanghai fascinates me. I like Beijing, Guangzhou, Gashga… I'm so interested in the diversities of China and also the friendliness of the people."

(CNTA.com May 27, 2004)