Barbados and China have pledged "to do more to enhance and develop tourism between the two countries, and this should redound to [our] mutual interests".

Prime Minister David Thompson and the director of China's National Tourism Administration, Shao Qiwei, promised this during talks they had in Beijing yesterday.

Noting that it was essential that the countries explored the practicality of advancing bilateral cooperation in this area, both parties urged "sustained media promotion and much groundwork", since several objectives had to be accomplished to bring the plan to fruition.

Delegation coming

For its part, Qiwei said China was encouraging those of its citizens who travel to encompass destinations beyond the customary short haul ones, and there were plans afoot to send a tourism delegation to Barbados soon. He said more than 41 million Chinese travelled last year and that country was also interested in cruise tourism.

He encouraged prospective travellers to make greater use of the internet, "a cheap source of news" to source information on each other's country.

Prime Minister Thompson said he was looking forward to welcoming a new wave of visitors from China, noting that "we are also interested in developing new infrastructure to facilitate more cruise tourism, particularly the building of a new cruise facility".

(PG/BGIS)