Chinese tour operators, local firms meet in Barcelona, Spain

The Catalan Tourism Agency held on Wednesday a meeting between Chinese tour operators and local businesses in Casa Asia, located in the northeastern Spanish city of Barcelona.

The meeting aimed to help Chinese and local companies build relationships in a very important sector for the Spanish economy, tourism.

Spain is one of the most important tourist destinations in the world and the region of Catalonia, in the northeast of Spain, is one of the favorite destinations for international tourists. The region was visited by about 15 million international tourists in the first 10 months of 2014.

"It is a good initiative, they should organize more," Sandra Oude Wansink, from the company Sol & Seda, told Xinhua.

"These meetings can allow us to collaborate with other companies and introduce products in the market that can reach more people with better prices, better quality," she said.

Carlos Romero, Sales Manager from Salles Hotels, told Xinhua that the Chinese customer is very attractive for the hotel industry, because "it is a very powerful market, with a high level of spending and given the long journey from China to here, they spend quite a long time here."

Cristina Barbero, from Sol & Seda, confirmed the importance of Chinese clients as at the moment, they are considered a priority by her company.

Spain received 60.66 million of foreign tourists in 2013 and expects to exceed this figure in 2014. However, only 0.25 percent of Chinese international tourists chose Spain as a destination in 2013.

Before this meeting held on Wednesday afternoon, Casa Asia held a course on Chinese tourism entitled "Chinese outbound Tourism: a new challenge for the European tourism sector".