Pakistan that received the status in 2003 has been invited to attend these events to project its tourism potential among the Chinese community. These events include three separate exhibitions to be held in March, June and August this year.
The official sources told APP here on Wednesday that formal invitations were being sent to the relevant institutions in Pakistan including Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC).
They hoped there would be a major participation from the Pakistan's side on official and private levels to avail this opportunity, boosting the bilateral co-operation in the tourism sector.
The exhibitions are being organised by Pakistan Tourism Trade Association to persuade a joint strategy for strengthening the tourism industry. The organisers would provide special facilities to the participants for staging their stalls in the exhibitions. According to the officials of China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), the two countries have already exchanged lists of tour operators and travelling agencies.
This was aimed at helping the tour operators to arrange tour groups to each other country for strengthening tourism industry and promoting people-to-people contacts. The sources said Pakistan could be the most attractive place for the Chinese friends, if the departments concerned offer special group-tour packages for the Chinese citizens. There was also need to promote awareness about the country's tourism features, they added.
The travel agencies and tour operators of the two countries need to co-ordinate in preparing the tour packages facilitating the tourists of the both countries, said a senior official of the Travel Service Group of China.
The Chinese government laid special emphasis consolidating relations with the regional countries through tourism. The government had already allowed joint venture with foreign travel agencies with majority Chinese ownership to promote tourism industry.
In the recent years, there has been rapid growth of Chinese tourists, as record 13.3 million Chinese went abroad between January and October last year, spending over 20 billion dollars.