China approves tour groups to United States

BEIJING—Chinese travel agencies will be allowed from next year to organize tour groups to the United States, which gained the Chinese government’s approved destination status on Tuesday.
China National Tourism Administration director Shao Qiwei and U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez signed a memorandum marking the new status, which could see about 579,000 Chinese visitors to the U.S. annually by 2011. The agreement was announced at the 18th Sino-U.S. Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) and is expected to be implemented in the spring of 2008.
“Today’s agreement will open a large and growing market for the U.S. travel and tourism industry,” said Gutierrez. “This creates positive economic benefits for the United States and strengthens the relationship between our nations.” Tourism cooperation between two nations is developing rapidly. The number of U.S. visitors to China reached 1.71 million last year, up 10 percent from 2005.—Xinhua