[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Over a thousand people from the tourism industry such as experts and company representatives recently attended a forum in Beijing to discuss the development and trend of the industry.

The forum was held by Chinese travel website Mafengwo, with keynote speakers sharing views with each other.

Official data show that in the first half year of 2018, more than 71.3 million Chinese tourists traveled overseas, a 16 percent increase compared with the same period of 2016.