[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Spain is promoting its tourism resources in the Chinese market for the first time, using a targeted B2B model. A forum (FOTEC) which aims to connect specialized resources from the tourism industries of China and Spain kicked off in Beijing on September 22, 2016.

25 agencies and enterprises from Spain are participating in the forum, including airline companies, government representatives of local tourist attractions and companies specializing in lifestyle, cuisine and healthcare. Some Chinese outbound travel agencies also attended the opening ceremony.

Over 320,000 Chinese tourists visited Spain last year, and that number is predicted to rise to 1 million in the next 5 years. This seemingly alarming speed is in fact not very surprising. Last year, Spain received over 68,000,000 visitors from around the world, ranking as the second most popular tourist destination worldwide, second only to France. At the same time, as the biggest outbound tourism market in the world, the number of international travelers from China reached over 110 million last year.