VENICE, Italy, Jan. 19 -- The EU-China Tourism Year 2018 (ECTY) was launched here on Friday, bringing together high level officials and private operators from both sides.
An official ceremony was held at the Doge's Palace to mark the opening of the initiative, which is aimed at strengthening cooperation between the European Union (EU) and China in terms of both tourism flows and investments in the sector.
Europe is now the third largest destination for Chinese citizens traveling abroad, according to Ambassador Zhang Ming, head of the Chinese Mission to the EU, who gave the figures in a recent interview with Xinhua in Brussels that nearly 3.5 million Chinese citizens visited the EU countries in 2016.
Overall, about 122 million Chinese travelled abroad (worldwide) in 2016, spending some 109.8 billion U.S. dollars, according to data by the Chinese Tourism Academy.
Meanwhile, over 3.1 million Europeans travelled to China, injecting an estimated 14.17 billion U.S. dollars into its economy, according to Ambassador Zhang.
"First of all, this will hopefully be a great opportunity to enhance people-to-people dialogue among Europeans and Chinese," Elzbieta Bienkowska, EU Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, said at the ceremony.
"Yet, it will also be a very concrete manifestation of our cultural and economic diplomacy, because tourism is really a very serious economic sector in Europe," she stressed.
Alongside the celebrations, the first EU-China Tourism business summit took place on Friday with an aim to boost contacts and exchanges among operators from both sides.
Also attached to the ceremony, Italy and China signed a separate protocol to strengthen alternative routes to the traditional tourism destinations in both countries, which included the twinning of their respective UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
2016春人教PEP版英语六下Unit 4《Then and now》word单元测试3
人教新目标版英语七下Unit 12《What did you do last weekend》word单元测试题
2016秋苏教译林版英语六年级上册Unit 2《What a day》word课堂练习题
2016春牛津译林版英语七下Unit 8《Pets》(Integrated skills ^ Study skills)word随堂练习
2016春牛津译林版英语七下Unit 8《Pets》(ReadingⅠ)word随堂练习
牛津版英语七年级下册Unit 8《Pets》word综合检测卷
2016春人教PEP版英语六下Unit 4《Then and now》word单元测试
2016秋苏教译林版英语六年级上册Unit 1《The king’s new cloths》word单元知识点练习
2016春牛津译林版英语七下Unit 8《Pets》(Comic strip ^ Welcome to the unit)word随堂练习
2016春牛津译林版英语七年级下册期末试卷
江苏省苏州市姑苏区2015-2016学年七年级英语阅读训练1 牛津版
仁爱版英语七下Unit 8《 The seasons and the Weather》word单元综合测试
2016秋广东版开心学英语六上Unit 4《Keeping Clean》word练习题1
2016春牛津译林版英语七年级下册期中试题
2016春人教PEP版英语六下Unit 4《Then and now》word单元测试1
2016春人教PEP版英语六下Unit 3《Where did you go》word测试卷
2016春牛津译林版英语七年级下册期末试卷2(含听力)
2016秋广东版开心学英语六上Unit 6《Planting Trees》word练习题
江苏省苏州市姑苏区2015-2016学年七年级英语阅读训练2 牛津版
2016秋广东版开心学英语六上Unit 1《Feeling Sick》word练习题
2016春人教PEP版英语六下Unit 4《Then and now》word单元测试2
2016春牛津译林版英语七下Unit 8《Pets》(ReadingⅡ)word随堂练习
人教新目标版英语七下Unit 11《How was your school trip》word单元测试题
2016春牛津译林版英语七下Unit 8《Pets》word同步语法练习
2016春牛津译林版英语七年级下册期末试卷1
2016春冀教版(三起)六下Unit 2《Good health to you》word单元测试1
2016春冀教版(三起)六下Unit 2《Good health to you》word单元测试
2016春牛津译林版英语七年级下册期中试卷(含听力)3
仁爱版英语七下Unit 7《 The Birthday》word单元综合测试
2016秋广东版开心学英语六上Unit 4《Keeping Clean》word练习题