A Giant Panda in Sichuan Province Photo: IC

Southwest China's Sichuan Province, the hometown of the Giant Panda, on Tuesday held a tourism promotion event in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic.

At the famous Old City Square in the center of Prague, Panda cosplayers and recreation activities like panda doll painting attracted tourists from all over the world. In addition, pamphlets featuring Panda-themed touring routes in the province were handed out to visitors.

"It's a good start for Sichuan Province to come to the Czech Republic to promote tourism," said Michal Veber, executive director of the Association of Czech Travel Agencies. "We have good relationship with the travel agencies in Sichuan and we would like to deepen win-win cooperation."

He noted that both the Czech Republic and China have seen rapid development of two-way tourism in the past years, especially in the number of Chinese tourists to the Czech Republic.

Statistics from the Czech Republic show that a total of 620,000 Chinese tourists visited the country in 2018, a year-on-year growth of 26 percent.