Chinese city taps British tourism market

LONDON - China's famous scenic city Hangzhou kicked off a large-scale tourism promotion campaign in London on Monday by taking advantage of the 2012 London Olympic Games and the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Sino-British diplomatic relations.

Hangzhou, capital city of east China's Zhejiang Province, presented a colorful tourism promotion evening in London, demonstrating the city's rich resources of scenery, travel facilities, economic activities, and cultural diversity through a photo exhibition, tea making show, calligraphy art and music performances.

To let more Britons known about the city, the promotion campaign slogan "Unseen Beauty-Hangzhou China" has been carried on taxi cabs and double-deck buses.

A 41-member delegation consisting of government officials, travel agency workers and hotel managers joined the promotion.

Three travel agencies from Hangzhou signed cooperation agreements with their British counterparts during the campaign trip.

Hangzhou city, which is listed by New York Times as top 41 places to go in 2011 and known in China as "paradise on earth", received overnight tourists of 3.06 million in 2011, an increase of 11.1 percent year on year, including 2.11 million foreign tourists, up 12.2 percent, of which 356,300 were from Europe, up 17.2 percent.

Hangzhou has held such tourism promotion in London for two successive years. The delegation will also tour other European countries including Germany and Italy for further promotion activities.

China's inbound tourists edged up 1 percent year-on-year to 135 million in 2011, although that still kept China as the world's third-largest inbound tourist destination, behind France and the United States.

The number of inbound tourists to China is expected to increase 2 percent in 2012, according to Chinese National Tourism Administration (NTA).