Mr Anton Kliman the Croatian minister of tourism met with Li Jinzao the president of the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) on Monday to discuss cooperation between Croatia and the People's Republic of China, cooperation as a part of the China +16 initiative as well as the possibility of boosting tourism relations between these two countries. The meeting was held in the Croatian Ministry of Tourism and this is the first time that such a high level Chinese tourism delegation has visited Croatia.

Mr Jinzao as a president of the biggest and the most important government body that covers the tourist sector in China, travels to Europe every year and he chose Croatia, the Czech Republic and the Russian Federation for his annual tour this year which only confirms that the relationship with Croatia regarding tourism has become very important for the PR of China.

On this occasion Mr Jinzao saw the sights of Zagreb and will open an exhibition at the Lisinski concert hall on Tuesday, the 7th of June. One of the topics of the meeting to be discussed is the possibility of organising a meeting of several ministers of tourism this fall in Croatia as a part of the China +16 initiative.

Growth predictions of this emissive tourist market show that China will achieve 160 million travels a year by 2018. Chinese tourists mostly prefer organised tours and when they travel to Europe they like to visit more than one destination, i.e. six to eight.

However, the trend of lowering the number of destinations is visible and now they opt for tours that include one or two countries. The most important motive for travelling is sightseeing followed by gastronomy and shopping.

According to the data more than 203,000 arrivals and 269,000 overnights were realized by tourists from China, Chinese province of Taiwan and Chinese administrations, regions of Hong Kong and Macao in 2015 which is an increase of 36% in arrivals and 37% in overnight stays in comparison with 2014.