From July 1, six more Chinese regions will be allowed to organize group tours to Australia and New Zealand, according to a source from the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA).

The six are Tianjin and Chongqing municipalities and Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. This is a new measure after the two governments recently agreed to expand the regions inChina organizing group tours to cover the whole nation.

Group tours to the two Ocean nations started in 1999, but were restricted to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong. During the past five years, tourism links not only satisfied the travel desire of those inhabitants, but also strengthened friendship between China and the two nations.

In 2003, over 170,000 Chinese people traveled to Australia, and nearly 80,000 people to New Zealand.

(Xinhua News Agency May 11, 2004)