Wholesale market in east China eyes tourism commodities

China's wholesale commodity market Yiwu in Zhejiang Province has made a name for itself as a shopping destination for business people on their work tours.

At the ongoing eighth China International Tourism Commodities Fair, the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) granted the city the title of "China destination for international business tours."

Known as the world's largest wholesale market for small consumer goods, Yiwu, with more than 1.8 million kinds of commodities, is a favored stopoff of business people who travel the world for work.

Overseas customers can buy souvenirs and other tourism commodities at tourism shopping malls in the city and domestic buyers can also have direct access to foreign goods as the city this month launched cargo rail services to Europe.

Zhang Jilin, with the CNTA department of policy and laws, said China is the world's largest tourism market, but the development of tourism commodities still lags behind.

Zhang said shopping accounts for 60 to 70 percent of tourism revenue in developed countries, but the percentage in China is only 40 percent.

"The tourism fair is significant to tourism commodities and can stimulate consumption of tourists," he said.

Organized by the CNTA and Zhejiang provincial government, the tourism fair runs from Tuesday to Friday. More than 1,300 businesses from 20 countries, such as the United States, Germany, the Philippines, South Africa, Argentina and Japan, are present.

The annual event has received over 780,000 visitors over the past seven years, generating total contract volume of 21.9 billion yuan (3.3 billion U.S. dollars). Endi