The China National Tourist Office (CNTO), New Delhi, which recently completed five years of its operation in India, is quite bullish about the steady increase in Indian arrivals to China. “Trends show that the traffic flow between India and China is growing. Mainland China received over six lakh Indian visitors in 2011, an increase of 10.4 per cent over 2010, and we expect around 15- 20 per cent growth in 2012,” Liu Shijun, Director, CNTO, told T3. “We are also witnessing increase in leisure travel from India. Currently, business travel plays a major role in Indian arrivals to China. However, there still is a lack of awareness about Chinese tourism products in India. We are accelerating our efforts to create awareness by organizing roadshows and participating in travel marts in different cities of India,” he stated. Moreover, CNTO is planning to organise a familiarisation trip for Indian media to Chengdu, he revealed. Recently, Air China launched four weekly flights between the Chengdu and Mumbai, marking the first direct air route between the Chinese mainland and the Indian economic center. On the flip side, only 150,000 Chinese visited India in 2011, an increase of 30 per cent over 2010. Shijun attributed this to the difficulty of getting a visa, high hotel rates, food and language problems. However, he opined that the number of Chinese visiting India will increase in near future. Chinese, he added, love to visit Buddhist sites in Indiaa and Indian songs and movies are quite popular in China.
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