China – Central And Eastern Europe Regional Tourism Centre Opened In Budapest

China – Central and Eastern Europe Regional Tourism Centre has been opened in Budapest on Thursday; the opening ceremony coincided with the first tourism summit between China and the Central and Eastern European countries., mno.hu reports.

The Prime Minister’s Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations Minister Peter Szijjártó in his opening speech stressed that Hungary plays a leading role in China and Central and Eastern European (CEE) regional cooperation.

Szijjarto said, the most important task is to make the region an attractive destination for Chinese tourists. To do that it is necessary to remove bureaucratic obstacles still lingers in visa processing. In order to increase the number of Chinese tourists traveling to the region regulations of issuing visas need to be overhauled. Negotiations have started about the restoration of direct flights between China and Central and Eastern Europe as well, he said.

China’s outbound traffic dynamically growing; in 2013, 7.5 million Chinese visitors arrived in Europe of which 2.5 million tourists visited our region. The goal is to increase the number of visitors 3.8 million in the coming years said Szijjártó.

MTI said, Shao Qiwei, the chairman of China National Tourism Administration, noted that tourism was identified as a main area of long-term cooperation in a joint statement China and the leaders of 16 CEE countries issued on long-term cooperation at their meeting in November last year in Bucharest.

translated by mti.hu and hungarianambiance.com

Photo: MTI – Lajos Soos

Source: http://mno.hu/