Lucrative overseas travel gets boost

New measures will allow foreign tour operators to organize trips

BEIJING - China will open its tourism market wider and allow foreign tour operators to organize Chinese tour groups to travel overseas in the near future, a top tourism official said.

A new set of measures is being drafted to prepare for the further opening, with hopes of finishing them by the end of this year, said Shao Qiwei, head of the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), at the 2010 Global Travel and Tourism Summit on Wednesday.