Participants pose at the 10th Advantage Austria Ski Race held in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province on Feb 23, 2019. (Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn)
China is by far Austria's greatest trading partner in Asia, said Friedrich Stift, Austria's ambassador to China.
Bilateral trade between China and Austria reached $6.4 billion in the first eight months of last year, up 20 percent year-on-year, according to the Foreign Ministry. As of August 2018, China has approved 1,288 investment projects from Austria, with an actual investment of $2.08 billion, signed 2,263 technology import contracts with Austria, with a cumulative contract value of $6.23 billion and directly invested $880 million in Austria.
"I'm pleased that a group number of Austrian companies got the chance to take part in the construction of winter sports facilities and to provide the expertise for organizing great sports events like the Olympics," Stift said.
"We are trying hard to get more Austrian ski instructors and trainers to China and the greater number of Chinese winter sports tourists to Austria".
Besides winter sports, Austria is one of the most favorite travel destinations for Chinese tourists for is beautiful landscape, food and shopping. "The growth rate, especially in winter tourism has been phenomenal the last few years," said Glatz.
"Winter is a season when Chinese tourists should go to Austria to experience a very different landscape from what they would see during the dry months in the summer months," added Glatz.
The number of Chinese tourists in Australia might reach one million this year, said Stift.
