'Programme for Visit India Year 2015 in China soon'

The Indian government is expected to announce a programme to attract Chinese tourists to India in 'Visit India Year 2015' in China, said a senior official.

"The ministry of tourism will soon make a detailed announcement in this regard. In China the promotion would be called 'Visit India Year 2015'. In India it will be called 'Visit China Year 2016'," Shoeb Samad, regional director (south) India Tourism told IANS on the sidelines of a travel fair organised by Fairfest Media Ltd here.

As part of the tourism promotion programme between the two countries, a team of Chinese television crews would soon visit Chennai, Pondicherry and Kerala to shoot interesting travel spots, he said.

During his Indian visit last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced 2015 as the "Visit India year" in China and 2016 as "Visit China Year" in India.

According to Samad, Chinese are upmarket tourists and high spenders.

He said India is an interesting destination for Chinese as there are several Buddhist pilgrimage centres as well as other places of tourist interest.

Samad said plans were there to train travel and tour agents in Chinese language so that business can be done with ease.

The programme will give a big push to the tourist flow between the two countries.

"Around 750,000 Indians travel to China every year while around 250,000 Chinese travel to India," Samad said.