Beijing: In a major step to enhance people-to-people contacts and boost tourism, China has accorded the authorised destination status (ADS) to India, removing restrictions on its citizens travelling in groups to the country.

The ADS is part of an agreement reached between India's Department of Tourism and China's National Tourism Administration, which was signed during the recently concluded India visit of the chairman of the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), He Guanwei, official sources said.

Under the agreement, India and China have also decided to open tourism offices in Beijing and New Delhi within a year, which will exclusively deal with tourism exchange matters.

However, more details will be discussed by the two sides before organised Chinese tourist groups can finally visit India, Xinhua news agency reported. So far, China has approved ADS for 29 countries and regions. A bilateral deal with Pakistan is also in the offing.

Sources said some 5,000 Indians toured China in the last two years while around 15,000 Chinese visited India during the same period in their individual capacities.

Chinese travel agencies will charge around 10,000 Yuan ($ 1,250) from each tourist going to India, an official with China Travel Service said, adding those with a high income are expected to show interest.

Industry sources said India, which has a wide variety of tourist attractions can woo Chinese tourists, who are now concentrating on South East Asian destinations.

However, India has to invest heavily on its tourist infrastructure like budget hotels in order to attract Chinese tourists, who have become a main source of income for countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Due to similar food habits and commonality of religion - Buddhism, Southeast Asian countries have an advantage over other destinations for Chinese, the sources said.

India, which also boasts of such similarities, could easily attract Chinese tourists on the Buddhism circuit, they said.

In the past one year, Indian tourism administration and travel agencies have actively taken part in Chinese tourism expositions like China International Travel Mart 2002 held in Shanghai last month, in a bid to promote India as a tourist destination among Chinese.

PTI