Greater Copenhagen was working toward making the Danish capital area more appealing and welcoming to Chinese travelers, and in 2012 it initiated the Chinavia project, and in 2013 and since then Copenhagen has seen double-digit growth rates in Chinese bed-nights over the past years.
China had become the world’s largest outbound travel market with 117 million trips abroad in 2015, in addition to being the world’s fourth largest tourist destination, attracting 134 million inbound travelers.
This year, the China-Denmark Tourism Year was jointly launched by Chairman of China National Tourism Administration Li Jinzao and Danish Minister of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs Brian Mikkelsen in Beijing on February 24, 2017.
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During the event, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on tourism year was signed between the two high-level representatives, marking the official start of the year-long program full of events engaging every segment of the travel industry in both countries.
The 2017 China-Denmark Tourism Year wrapped up with a gala closing ceremony in the Danish capital city of Copenhagen on 5 December at the Royal Theatre’s old stage in downtown Copenhagen. In addition to some 1,000 people, Denmark’s Crown Prince Frederik, Chairman of China National Tourism Administration Li Jinzao, and Chinese Ambassador to Denmark Deng Ying attended the event.
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A host of tourism exchange and cooperation events have been staged during the 2017 Tourism Year, among them “Lighten up Copenhagen”, “Panda’s Tour in Denmark” and the China-Denmark Forum on Tourism.
“The China-Denmark Tourism Year has created a great platform for meetings and exchanges at all levels of society,” said Crown Prince Frederik, speaking at the closing ceremony, adding that “the new partnership established during the year is a strong indication of the continuous positive development in the relationship between China and Denmark.”
In May this year, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen in China, where a plan was unveiled to deepen cooperation from 2017 to 2020 and agreed to expand two-way trade and investment.
Feature image (on top): From the 2017 China-Denmark Tourism Year gala closing ceremony in the Danish capital city of Copenhagen on 5 December at the Royal Theatre.
A Year of Danish Chinese Tourism, written by Tor Kjolberg