China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) is organizing a joint promotion tour of Beautiful China for tourism authorities and businesses from the member regions of the Ice and Snow Tourism Promotion Alliance and Shanghai to the UAE, Malaysia and Singapore from May 15-23. The delegates will discuss cooperation with their counterparts from the local tourism industries. The Chinese tourism promotion delegation is being led by Zhang Lizhong of Department of Tourism Promotion and International Cooperation, CNTA.
The tour aims at strengthening China’s tourism exchange and cooperation with the Middle East and Southeast Asia and promoting China’s ice and snow tourism resources and products to the Belt and Road countries.
China’s tourism industry is experiencing rapid and sustained growth, marking a transition from scenic-spot-based tourism to holistic destination development tourism.
China is not just the world’s largest source of outbound tourists and largest domestic tourism market, but also a popular destination for tourists from around the world. Last year, the inbound arrivals to China reached 138 million, including 28.15 million foreign arrivals, up by 8.3 percent over 2015.
This number is expected to reach 143 million this year. The Belt and Road regions such as the Middle East and Southeast Asia have occupied a key position in China’s tourism market, both inbound and outbound.
With the momentum generated by the Belt and Road initiative, China’s tourism industry is opening at a faster pace, and the quality of tourism services and products is constantly improving.
China has rich ice and snow tourism resources, which are mainly concentrated in the northern region, and with different focuses, from sight-seeing, sports and leisure to festive celebration and cultural performance. The number of participants and employees in the industry is rapidly expanding. In 2022, China will host the 24th Winter Olympics in Beijing and Zhangjiakou City of Hebei Province, which brings new opportunities for the development of ice and snow tourism in China.
At the end of 2015, the China Ice and Snow Tourism Promotion Alliance was established under the initiative of the Tourism Administration of Heilongjiang Province. The member regions of this alliance are using this mechanism to share resources, exchange information, explore market opportunities and encourage mutual tourist visits, and working together to grow China’s ice and snow tourism industry and promote China’s ice and now tourism culture to the world.
China is also working with the UAE, Malaysia, Singapore and the other Belt and Road countries to improve the convenience of policy arrangements in visa, customs clearance, logistics and shopping refund.

Source: Arab News