More Chinese tourists heading to Central and Eastern Europe

A European Union initiative to attract more Chinese visitors is making "solid progress" with research showing more tourists are heading to Central and Eastern regions of Europe.

The study by flights data specialist Forward Keys and the European Travel Commission, or ETC, found visitors from China heading to Central or Eastern EU destinations up by 10.3 percent between May and August this year.

Compared with the same period of 2017, the last four months of 2018 bookings are 9.4 percent ahead.