Official calls on CEE countries to attract more Chinese tourists

Countries from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) should join hands to attract more Chinese tourists, an official said here on Friday.

Zsuzsa Vincze, Executive Secretary of China-CEE Tourism Coordination Center, said in a presentation that CEE countries are too small to promote themselves individually to China, therefore they have to cooperate and advertise the region as a single destination for Chinese tourists.

According to Vincze, 8.8 million Chinese tourists visited Europe in 2014, and about three quarters of them visited places that are more well-konwn such as Paris and London. 2.2 million Chinese tourists visited CEE countries last year.

Vincze believed more visitors will come to CEE countries in the future.

According to her, the number of Chinese tourists travelling to CEE countries annually would reach 3.7 million for the next five years, and the CEE countries' outbound trips to China would increase more than fivefold in the next ten years.

Vincze's presentation was a part of the official event of the three-day Holiday and SPA Expo that opened here on Thursday, which gathered more than 270 exhibitors from more than 10 countries including Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Turkey, and India. Endit