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Scandinavia Tourism Board (STB) set up its representative office in Beijing on January 1, the organization's Regional Director for Asia Soren Leerskov announced on January 13 in Beijing.

Scandinavia Tourism Board was founded in 1993 by the tourism authorities of the three countries of Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

The STB plans to spend 2 million yuan (US$241,000) annually on promotion activities to lure China travelers. The fund used in China occupies 17 to 20 percent of the three countries' total marketing expense in Asia.

It's reported that some 55,000 Chinese travelers visited Sweden, Norway and Denmark in 2003. The STB official expects the number to increase 30 percent this year, since the EU member countries will open ADS (authorized destination status) to Chinese nationals in May. He hopes that the number of Chinese visitors to Scandinavia will reach 100,000 annually in three or four years.

Moreover, the office will also take efforts to design and develop special tour routes for travelers from China.

At present, tourism-related organizations and companies of these three countries are making various preparations for receiving their Chinese visitors, such as furnishing more Chinese restaurants and training Chinese-speaking tour guides.

According to Leerskov, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) will open a new air route from Copenhagen to Shanghai in March with three scheduled flights a week. The Airlines opened routine flights from Copenhagen to Beijing 15 years ago. A plan to open airline from Stockholm to GuangZhou is also in consideration through cooperation with the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

Since Switzerland, as the first European country, founded its tourism office in Beijing in 1998, tourism authorities of Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Finland, the Netherlands, Austria and Malta all followed suit with their offices established in the Chinese capital in the previous year.