Several state and private Chinese tourism organizations will meet with their Greek counterparts on Friday to discuss the cooperation on boosting tourism between the two countries, a capital.gr report says.
The aim of the forum is to increase the bidirectional tourist flow between Athens and Beijing. Greek tourist agencies expect to benefit from the rising interest of the Chinese to visit the country. Likewise, state and private Chinese agencies expect to profit from the cooperation.
The two-day forum will take place at a hotel in Athens and the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development will be accompanied by Chinese state tourism officials and journalists. Among the Chinese organizations and agencies that will participate are China Commercial International Travel Service, Hualiu Culture, Beijing Top View Holiday, China Youth Travel Association, and China Harmony Travel Service.
On the other side of the table there will be 60 Greek travel agencies and hotels. The Greek side aim at luring more Chinese visitors and expanding the tourist season. In the past 18 months, arrivals of Chinese visitors increased by almost 50 percent. Also, January and February are holiday season in China, so there is the potential of many Chinese visitors for Greece during these months. Other major Chinese holidays are May Day and the national holiday in the first ten days of October.
Statistics on the Chinese side are very promising for Greece. In 2014, more than 100 million Chinese are expected to travel abroad. Chinese authorities estimate that the number will double by 2020 as the standard of living in China is steadily improving.
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