US ready to welcome Chinese leisure group
BEIJING – The first United States-bound Chinese leisure tour group is set to depart China next month.
Shao Qiwei, head of China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), will escort the inaugural tour group to Washington DC on June 17.
Shao told a press conference that CNTA is pleased the bilateral tourism relationship is moving in a new, positive direction.
The nations signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) last December to open outbound tour group travel from China to the US.
After five months of talks, CNTA and the US Department of Commerce agreed on the details, saying they would move forward in steps.
The first phase will last six months, during which time only nine provinces and municipalities can organise US-bound tour groups, Shao said.
Group members must be residents within Beijing, Tianjin or Shanghai municipalities, or Hebei, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces, he said.
Domestic tour operators with licences in the nine municipalities and provinces to run outbound tourism operations can organise tour groups to the US, he said. There are no restrictions on tourists’ U. S. destinations.
CNTA marketing and communications department director Zhu Shanzhong said: “At the end of the six-month period, we will sit down and talk about what to do in the next phase.”
US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said the increased visitation from China would help reduce the US trade deficit with China.
Partly because the US now issues tourist visas only to individuals in China, and few Chinese are aware of such visas, the country’s trade deficit with China in the sector stands at US$685m, he said.
Americantours International told China Daily they expected dramatic increases in visits from China, starting from 2009.
Ian Jarrett
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