Western national tourism boards have been setup with one important function - to promote incoming tourism to their destination. Their energies are spent on finding creative ways to bring more tourists and more tourism revenue. Western tourism companies are split between those selling an inbound destination (suppliers) and those that sell travel products abroad. Multinational corporations have specific departments to deal with these two very separate sectors.

This focus on specialisation has enabled companies to flourish in their selected field and induced innovation and service improvements. The open markets for goods and services in Europe places no restrictions on financial transactions in any direction.

When it comes to China, however, things are not so simple. If we want to increase the benefits of tourism for Europe's travel service providers we must understand how China officially and culturally views business in general, and tourism in particular.

The capitalist market mechanism is clear to Western players in travel and tourism: suppliers must meet consumers’ demands, with a premium on value added. But the overwhelming role of Chinese governmental institutions is not often understood by Western businesses. In the Chinese travel industry, the national, provincial, and city governments greatly influence the development of the market. We expect this influence to gradually decrease over the coming years, in light of WTO regulations and increased openness to the West. As it stands, only a very limited number of licenses are issued for Chinese travel agents allowed to operate international travel. There is no distinction between retail and wholesale business. Foreign tour operators are not allowed to conduct outbound travel in China in any legal form.
CNTA is comparable to a ministry of tourism and is financed by the government. It does not, however, have the full status of a ministry, and it lacks enforcement power. It is responsible to regulate and control both the inbound and outbound tourism sectors. This is a very different approach to that of Western tourism promotion boards.

While the emphasis of the Chinese government is clearly on promoting inbound tourism, their control over the outbound travel sector means that they have to be engaged by any country or territory that is interested in China's outbound travel market. In recent years this has been done through the 'Approved Destination Status' policy (ADS)

On a governmental level bilateral cooperation has political and general economic implications. It has been shown that China rewards its close political or business partners with access to the China outbound travel market. The favourable business climate that is formed out of these relationships leads to higher business and leisure travel in both directions.

When Chinese media report on high level political meetings between their leaders and a foreign nation, this raises interest in this nation as a potential tourist destination. When Chinese hear of important China related events that take place in a destination, it stimulates their curiosity.

In a cultural context, Chinese appreciate those in the West that reach out to China, and normally respond in kind. Countries such as Germany and Australia have been quick to recognise this and benefited from higher tourism arrivals as a result. The United States, thanks to its many business dealings with China, has enjoyed high Chinese visitor numbers for several years.

European visitors to China often act as unofficial tourism promoters for their destination by talking to the people they meet and 'selling' their country. Chinese, in their current travel patterns, have less opportunity to engage with local people in Europe. The Chinese government is nonetheless working hard to instil the same concept with Chinese who travel abroad.

In business, the current restrictions on trade in services in China requires Western companies to either work with a local partner or focus only on incoming tourism before being allowed to offer outbound travel products in China. Chinese travel companies almost always operate travel business in both directions, and prefer to seek out partners in the West that can reciprocate. This is deemed as a Win-Win scenario and in addition makes international financial transactions easier.

• Read an article by our media partner about the importance of bilateral tourism development for the US.

The observation in Europe is that the concept of bilateral tourism development with China is not widely recognised and implemented. However other destinations that compete for the Chinese outbound market utilise this concept successfully in what is becoming a fierce global competition. Only by understanding fully this idea and working in cooperation within Europe can all European countries benefit. increasing tourism flows in both directions is not only good for business but contributes to better communication and cultural awareness.

The conference 'China - the future of Travel' is  focusing on the need for more bilateral cooperation, and stronger pan-European cooperation. It is a rare opportunity in Europe that should not be missed.