BEIJING, July 3 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese travel agencies will be allowed to organize tourist groups to 27 European nations as of September 1, sources with China National Tourism Administration said here Saturday.

    The 27 nations are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Ireland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Romania.

    Experts said the new move will enhance friendship and understanding between China and Europe as well as promote bilateral exchanges in economy, trade, science and culture.

    To date, travel agencies can only organize Chinese tourists to visit 26 nations. The number will rise to 53 on September 1.

    In 2003, China's average GDP per capita surpassed one thousand US dollars for the first time, and the total foreign currency savings of Chinese residents topped 90 billion US dollars. These conditions stimulated overseas travels by Chinese.

    According to the World Tourism Organization, China is among the top 10 nations in terms of outbound tourism consumption. From 1994to 2003, the total number of outbound Chinese tourists reached nearly 100 million, up 13.87 percent year-on-year. Last year, outbound Chinese tourists numbered 20.2 million, surpassing Japanese counterparts for the first time. Enditem