Expo provides an international insight

Cheng Hao, a commercial representative for the Sri Lankan embassy in China, took part in the Beijing expo to boost the numbers of Chinese travelers to the country.

"We displayed Sri Lankan black tea and cultural and creative products related to distinctive elements of Sri Lanka, such as refrigerator magnets and postcards of landscapes and tourist attractions," Cheng says.

"The sites on those items are all worth visiting, and prove popular with Chinese travelers to Sri Lanka," he says.

Several travel agencies have shown interest in working with Cheng to develop customized tours for the Chinese market.

Sri Lanka received more than 68,000 visits from Chinese travelers last year, making the country its fifth-biggest source of inbound tourists, according to Sri Lankan authorities. In the first quarter of this year, that figure topped 39,000, about seven times that of the same period last year.

Sri Lanka plans to step up efforts to promote what it has to offer and give Chinese visitors greater access to its tea, gems and handicrafts by working with Chinese business players, according to Cheng.

Like Sri Lanka, Algeria is also aiming for a bigger slice of the Chinese outbound tourism market.