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LIMA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The four-nation bloc of Latin America's Pacific Alliance (AP) wrapped up its 3rd Tourism Conference on Wednesday with a decision to attract Chinese tourists.
The tourism event offered the member countries -- Peru, Chile, Colombia and Mexico -- an opportunity to transcend their borders and to strengthen the commercialization of combined tourism packages in China, Peru's Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism Magali Silva Velarde-Alvarz on Tuesday told participants at the opening of the conference.
According to China Tourism Research Institute, an estimated 120 million Chinese traveled abroad in 2015, around 80,000 of whom traveled to the Pacific Alliance countries.
"Chinese tourists travel a long distance and stay in our country as long as approximately 15 days, longer than that of the average tourists who stay around 10 days and 11 nights," said Maria Acosta, director of Peru's tourism promotion agency Promperu.
"Also, they tend to be between 50 and 70 years of age, but we are seeing that there's also a great opportunity among a much younger segment." she added.
"Chinese visitors like to visit Cusco, site of Machu Picchu and also the Amazonian region, which is one of the areas of great interest to them and part of what they seek in our country," Acosta told Xinhua.
As the quartet of this Pacific Alliance is home to famed pre-Hispanic ruins, such as Chichen-Itza in Mexico and Machu Picchu in Peru, as well as tropical wildlife, Caribbean beaches and unique desertscapes, it can offer a fascinating itinerary for nature lovers as well as culture and history buffs.
"We are committed to following the path to the integration of Pacific Alliance countries by promoting initiatives that spur the economies of member countries. The Tourism Conference aligns itself with that goal and responds to the need to build deeper ties with China, a market with an enormous potential for the region," Silva said.
Event host Peru, which has obtained the "Authorized Destination Status" from the Chinese government, attracted 43 percent more visitors from China in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the same period of 2015.
The conference gathered some 500 government representatives from the four countries, as well as tour operators and other travel industry figures, including 20 Chinese companies.
