[Photo by Hao Fei/For China Daily]

According to Li Jinzao, director of the China National Tourism Administration, the country's tourism revenue grew 13.6 percent year-on-year in 2016, and now accounts for 11 percent of the national economy.

Rifai added that more than 1,000 participants, including 74 minister-level officials, from 130 countries and regions are attending the meeting.

The assembly is also expected to play a positive role in guiding and supporting the recovery of Jiuzhaigou, a well-known scenic spot in Sichuan, which was hit by a magnitude-7.0 earthquake in early August.

Maurice Loustau-Lalanne, minister of tourism in the Republic of Seychelles, an island archipelago in the Indian Ocean, said China has maintained good relations in terms of tourism cooperation. He said that five years ago Seychelles had only 500 visitors from China. Last year, 15,000 people visited.

With cooperation from the assembly, the country hoped the number could reach 30,000 by 2020, Loustau-Lalanne said, adding that he would like to expand cooperation to include tourism promotion and marketing, and the training of people in the tourism industry.