中国的入境游客或迎来爆发

"stay close to me…"

Coaches full of European travel agents drive though Beijing. It's the start of a trip to China designed to convince them of the country's tourist potential.

"On the corner there are two more important buildings. This is the Railway Station…"

Trips like this are known in the business as familiarization tours. The aim is to help travel agents better understand the places they send their clients. This one was organized by the Chinese branch of multinational travel agency TUI.

"passengers heading for Shanghai go to ticket gate 9…"

After Beijing, the group took a high speed train south to Hangzhou.

"We're now sitting in the restaurant car of a fast train from Beijing to Shanghai. Diana, from Bulgaria, is this how you imagined train travel would be in China?"

"Definitely not. I'm really, really impressed. China is much more developed than I expected. We're now sitting in a high speed train and it's now 304 km per hour and it's really amazing."

Around 100 people from 19 countries took part in the trip, by far the biggest ever organized by TUI China. Marcel Schneider is the CEO. He says good transport is essential for tourism.

"The easier it is to access places, the more people will come. So I think there's a lot of room for future growth. Not only for places such as Tibet or Sichuan or Yunnan – I mean, take the whole Silk Road, take all the places that in the western world are literally unknown, unheard of, and they are so beautiful and still to a large extent very authentic. So there's massive, massive potential."

Currently around 25 million foreign tourists per year enter China. TUI believes this figure could grow to 60 million by 2020.

Marcel Schneider believes much of this will be driven by tourists from Asia.

"Think of Indonesia, think of India, how fast these massively big countries develop. And those people are curious as well. They want to see new places and most of these people have not been to China yet. So there's massive potential."

But right now the company wants to develop the European travel market.

And that includes a tour of Shanghai.

And a lift to the viewing platform of one of the tallest buildings in the city.

"Sophie, your sandaled feet are standing on glass which is looking down on skyscrapers hundreds of metres high. How do you feel, you look a bit nervous."

"Yeah, I love it, but I don't like standing on the glass bits. I'm kind of skirting around them, I don't know why."

Back on the ground, members of the group sum up their experiences. But were they convinced of the potential of China's tourist market?

"I think the abundance of nature, culture, that has been overwhelming."

"As far as tourism is concerned it's got a good mix of all the products that are needed in a destination to promote not only tourism for leisure but tourism for business, ethnicity, culture, special groups, golf, beaches. You name it, it's got everything."

"For example, here, Shanghai doubled the population in 20 years. I'm sure they'll double the tourism clients in 20 years, they'll double, I'm sure."

"Mostly I'm surprised about the beauty of Hangzhou, I have to admit. My thoughts are still there. I'd go back."

But it's not just travel companies expecting a rapid increase of tourists. Government sources say over 1,500 new hotels are now being built in the country every year. Travel agents like the ones on this trip will be hoping they can help fill them.
 
For CRI, I'm Dominic Swire.