Hong Kong travel industry Wednesday signed an agreement with its Guangdong and French counterparts in a bid to push for further tourism exchanges and cooperation between the three places.

The agreement was signed by three parties - Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong, the French Government Tourist Office and Guangdong Provincial Tourism Association at the opening of the 18th International Travel Expo 2004 (ITE) yesterday.

Under the agreement, Travel Industry Council's Chairman Ronnie Ho said the three parties would regularly engage in three-way trips - delegations visiting each other. And they will develop joint tourism products to meet demand.

'The agreement is built on a mutual beneficial basis and the three parties will enhance cooperation to increase tourist numbers and improve service standard,' Ho said.

He hoped the agreement would help Hong Kong travel industry to tap the huge and potential tourism market in Guangdong.

He said, 'By signing the agreement, we hope that we can build up a good and close relationship with the Guangdong provincial tourism authorities so that the local travel industry is allowed to organize outbound tours there.

'We hope (the central and provincial government) can open up the domestic market to Hong Kong's industry, which has the competitive edge in organizing outbound tours with our international network and exposure.'

Currently, local travel agencies are limited in their ability to organize inbound tours for visitors on the mainland, he noted.

More than 500 exhibitors from all over the world are participating in ITE, which will wrap up on Sunday. They include 70 tourism offices and first-time participators from Peru, Zimbabwe and Bhutan.

(CNTA June 16, 2004)