China Travel Forum

[Joseph Kong]

After a six-day visit here, a group of Japanese tourism developers showed readiness Tuesday to bring more Japanese to southwest China’s Guizhou Province, a new tourism hot spot in China.

“I was amazed at the unique scenery and special traditions and customs of the ethnic groups in Guizhou, and I will try my best to make this mystical land known to more Japanese,” said Yamamoto Yoshitaka, acting director of the Japan Association of Travel Agents, and head of the 71-member tourism developer delegation, at a news conference in Guiyang on Tuesday.

At the invitation of the China National Tourism Administration, the Japanese delegation, consisting of representatives of large Japanese travel agencies and journalists, began their visit to Guizhou on March 17.

“The National Tourism Administration will help make Guizhou a world-famous tourist attraction,” said Zhang Xilong, director of the Tokyo Office of the China National Tourism Administration.

Guizhou has becoming increasingly popular among tourists from home and abroad in recent years for its unique topography, which covers more than 70 percent of the province.

The province also boasts thousands of waterfalls, including the biggest cataract in Asia, the Huangguoshu Falls.

Japan is a major source of overseas tourists to Guizhou, which received 16,000 Japanese visitors in 2005, a year-on-year increase of 21.34 percent, according to the provincial tourism bureau.