The "Visit China Year" for Indian tourists has been launched here by officials from the two countries.

China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) Chairman Li Jinzao read a letter of congratulations from Chinese President Xi Jinping to the opening ceremony of the event held Thursday night at the Sirifort sports and cultural complex.

He said while China and India had become two engines of world economic growth, their tourism industries have also become two shining stars in global tourism.

Li expressed his hope that tourism would become an important bond in the exchanges of people between the two countries.

Chinese Ambassador Le Yucheng said China was promoting tourism exchanges with India to build people-to-people ties.

As part of this effort, China opened a new route for Indian pilgrims to go to the Great Kailash Mountain in Tibet last year, he said.

Indian Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma said he believed in near future, the number of Chinese and Indian tourists visiting each other's country would be the highest in the world.

He said India had provided an e-visa procedure for Chinese tourists to encourage them to visit their neighboring country.

Vinod Zutshi, secretary general of Indian Tourism Ministry said that the interaction was very much necessary for two countries' tourism to prosper.

"Once the inflow starts on both sides, you can imagine, in terms of demography, how much both the countries will benefit," he said.

According to Li Yaying, deputy director-general of CNTA Marketing and International Tourism Cooperation Department, the number of tourists exchange between the two countries is about 900,000 in the first 11 months last year.

"But against the backdrop of China and India as the two most populous countries in the world as well as the countries with such a large outbound tourists market, this number is relatively small," said Li.

To increase tourism exchanges, the tourism department from both the countries decided to celebrate 2015 as the India Tourism Year in China.

After successful conclusion of 2015 celebrations in China, now all eyes have turned onto India where China is going to host an array of tourism promotions throughout 2016.

The leaders of the two countries have decided to promote the exchange of tourism activities to strengthen overall China-India relations.