On March 20, Shao Qiwei, Director of China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) met in Beijing the Governor of the State of Salzburg, Austria, Gabi Burgstaller, visiting China at the invitation of Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs. The two sides have held an exchange of views on deepening the tourism communication and cooperation between China and Austria.

Shao Qiwei firstly expressed a warm welcome for the visit of Gabi Burgstaller and made a brief introduction of the development of China’s tourism. He noted that Salzburg is a famous tourism destination in Europe, with a long history and many experiences for us to learn in terms of development of tourism resources, planning of scenic spots and personnel training etc. In recent years, Chinese government puts much emphasis on the development of the tourism industry. CNTA also places much emphasis on tourism cooperation with major tourism countries and regions across the world. The tourism exchange and cooperation between China and Austria is just in an ascending channel. China wishes to enhance cooperation with Austria in aspects of skiing equipment manufacturing, tourism education and talent cultivation etc. Shao Qiwei also extended an invitation to Salzburg to send delegation to the China International Travel Mart to be organized in Shanghai this year, enhance the publicity in China’s market, make more Chinese citizens to know about Austria, and about Salzburg.

Gabi Burgstaller noted that Salzburg is the birthplace of the genius musician Mozart, and is also the shooting place of “The Sound of Music”, Salzburg has plenty of cultural and historical scenic spots; it is a famous skiing spot in Europe and has rich tourism resources. The State of Salzburg has established sister-provinces/states with Shanghai Municipality and Heilongjiang Province. Gabi Burgstaller expressed the wish of enhancing the cooperation with China in the fields of cultural tourism, tourism education and training, skiing equipment manufacturing and aerospace, and hopes that more Chinese citizens to travel to Salzburg.