ROME, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Rome's Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci Airport marked the China-Italy Year of Culture and Tourism with a public conference and a Tai-chi performance at its Terminal 3 departure area on Thursday.
Organized by Aeroporti di Roma (ADR), the company that runs the airport, the conference focused on Italy-China tourism's prospects and opportunities in 2020 and was attended by entrepreneurs and officials from both countries.
"We are celebrating the Italy-China Year of Culture and Tourism working both for the incoming flow as well as the outgoing flow. As for Rome, we have a package of initiatives created for the visitors from China," said Carlo Cafarotti, an official from City of Rome during the conference.
Among the new initiatives, Cafarotti cited the launch of a channel completely devoted to Chinese tourists who want to visit the Italian capital on China's popular social platform WeChat, training courses for hoteliers and a digital manual in Chinese language providing all the information on Rome's safety, hospitals, transports and tourism offers.
The consular official from Chinese Embassy in Italy Zhang Aishan said that tourist flow between the two countries is expected to further increase in 2020 as China and Italy strengthen relations in institutions, culture, art and tourism sectors.
According to ADR, the sound development of ties between the two countries is also testified by the increased Italy-China air traffic handled by the airport.
"This event opens ADR's celebrations for the Italy-China Year of Culture and Tourism, in addition to celebrating the Spring Festival with all the Chinese passengers that pass through Rome's airport everyday," said Fausto Palombelli, ADR's Chief Commercial Officer.
Boasting connections to 12 Chinese cities, the airport handled around 900,000 trips from and to China in 2019, posting a 17-percent growth from the previous year and expecting to surpass the threshold of one million passengers in 2020, according to Palombelli.
Aside the lion share kept by Rome's airport, other Italian airports are also doing very well in terms of incoming tourism from China, posting an average 16-percent growth year-on-year, according to Maria Elena Rossi, marketing director of ENIT, Italy's national authority for tourism.
