Representatives from Zhejiang's Ningbo Municipal Tourism Administration and Hungarian Tourism Agency sign a cooperation deal at the 2017 China (Ningbo)-CEEC Tourism Cooperation and Exchange Conference on June 8. [Photo/Jiang Yingyi chinadaily.com.cn]

A total of 26 tourism investment deals worth nearly 80 billion yuan ($11.8 billion) were signed at the 2017 China (Ningbo)-CEEC Tourism Cooperation and Exchange Conference held in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, on June 8.

The tourism projects include amusement parks such as the Cixi Andersen Fairy Tale Theme Park, resorts such as Shanglianggang Tourism Resort, characteristic towns such as CTS (Hong Kong) Cultural Town, and health tourism projects such as Jiuhua-Tantou Rose Industrial Parks.

Additionally, Ningbo Municipal Tourism Administration also signed a memorandum of understanding with Hungarian Tourism Agency. CITS (Ningbo) International Tourism Co., signed an agreement on an exchange of tourists with Czech Wings Travel Ltd.

The signing of such a large number of deals has been attributed to Zhejiang's proactive efforts to advance the tourism industry and to enhance tourism cooperation with Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.

Liang Liming, deputy governor of Zhejiang province, said at the conference that a series of policies have been rolled out to strengthen tourism ties with CEE countries. The province is also working on launching fast-track travel visas to CEE countries. Airlines have also been encouraged to open direct flights to cities such as Prague and Budapest.

Liang also hoped that more tourists from CEE countries will visit Zhejiang province, which has numerous tourism attractions and resources.

In turn, tourism leaders from eight CEE countries including Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Latvia introduced the characteristic tourism resources of their respective countries, in the hope of increasing popularity in both Zhejiang province and China more generally.

The 2017 China (Ningbo)-CEEC Tourism Cooperation and Exchange Conference forms an important part of the 3rd China-CEEC Investment and Trade Expo held in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, on June 8-12. The expo is expected to bring China and the CEE countries closer together in both business and cultural ties.