A view of the venue that will host the 16th China International Fair for Investment and Trade during Sept 8-11 period. Zou Zhongpin / China Daily

The 8th Straits Travel Fair will highlight the potential for mutually beneficial tourism cooperation across the Taiwan Straits, officials said.

The fair, which is being held in Xiamen, Fujian province, from Sept 6 to 11, is one of the major sideline activities of the 16th China International Fair for Investment and Trade.

"Tourism is a sunrise industry, and the fair has been an important platform for boosting tourism ties between the mainland and Taiwan," Su Shulin, governor of Fujian province, said at the fair's opening ceremony on Thursday.

He said that a total of 275 tourism investment projects have been inked in the past years through the platform, which has been held seven times.

The projects have attracted a total investment of 111 billion yuan ($17.5 billion), a great contribution to Fujian's economic development that warmed up the tourism market across the Straits, Su said.

Du Jiang, deputy director of the National Tourism Administration, said on Thursday that this year's event will focus on exhibiting new trends in the travel business, as well as innovative marketing methods.

Du urged the tourism industries on the mainland and in Taiwan to make joint efforts to boost the travel security and improve the quality of tourism services, in order to make the market bigger.

This year's event involves tourism associations in more provinces on the western side of the Taiwan Straits than ever before.

Four provincial-level tourism associations on the western side of the Taiwan Straits will participate in the event, said Zheng Weirong, deputy director of the Fujian Tourism Bureau.

The four associations - from Fujian, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces - will highlight the region's most impressive tourism resources as a whole, Zheng said.

Nearly 1,000 guests and exhibitors are expected to attend the expo, including tourism administration officials from the mainland and Taiwan, travel agencies and tourism experts, according to the organizers.

The six-day event will launch more than 200 investment projects on tourism with the goal of attracting investment of 100 billion yuan.

On Friday, a forum was held to discuss new opportunities and challenges in the cross-Straits tourism business.

Experts from both the mainland and Taiwan suggested that the two sides should make joint efforts to upgrade the tourism industry.

"Tourism exchanges across the Straits have now been driven by two wheels - the increasing number of tourists and more cooperation of the travel industry," Sui Jun, director of the Fujian Tourism Bureau, said in a speech at the forum.

Last year, 1.85 million tourists from Taiwan visited Fujian province, the closest place on the mainland to Taiwan, Sui said.

She also said the province has cooperated with Taiwan in developing rural tourism, as many experts have been invited from Taiwan for advice to design tours in the countryside, a popular leisure activity in Taiwan.

Joanna Lei, an expert in tourism economics from Taiwan, said at the forum that tourism is an important modern industry that has close ties with many other industries and can help increase the level of social services.

Cheng Jen-son, an expert from Taiwan's National Chi Nan University, said the island can offer its mature experiences in developing travel business, which can be learnt by the mainland.

"For example, Taiwan has developed various farms in rural places to offer leisure trips for urban people, and the market also has huge demand for similar businesses on the mainland," he said.

Wei Xiaoan, an expert in tourism economics with the China Tourism Academy, said that the tourism market on the mainland and in Taiwan are complementary, but both sides need to change the status quo for sustainable development.

He said that as more individual tourists from the mainland are allowed to visit Taiwan, the island should provide more entertainment to tourists other than sightseeing activities.

Data showed that the total number of visits made by people from both sides of the Straits surged from 4.7 million in 2008 to 7.05 million last year, with an annual growth rate of 14 percent.

The mainland is now the largest source of tourists for Taiwan, while Taiwan is the third-largest source of tourists for the mainland.

So far, residents from 13 mainland cities are allowed to visit Taiwan as individual tourists under a pilot tourism program agreed by the two sides.

tanzongyang@chinadaily.com.cn

(HK Edition 09/08/2012 page5)