The Beijing Tourism Administration held a gala event Tuesday here to promote cultural exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and German travel industry professionals.

The event aimed to introduce Chinese luxury shopping, hotels and food geared towards European travelers.

In 2010, Beijing saw a 19.6 percent increase of overnight stays from Germans, according to the Beijing Tourism Administration.

"Tourism is not one-way, it is a two-way street always," said Horst Lommatzsch, director of destination management Asia in the German Tourist Board.

He said he hoped Tuesday's event would help build better cooperation between the two very important cities -- Beijing and Berlin.

Lommatzsch told Xinhua that China is "a very important market" for the German travel industry.

In 2010, Germany attracted 60 million overnight stays of travelers all over the world. Among them, 1 million were from China, which was the largest travel group from Asia, he said.

Meanwhile, CEO of China International Travel Service Limited Chen Rong suggested that Germany do more to promote its shopping strengths as many Chinese people do not know Germany is a "paradise of shopping."

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