This is the first such funding approved to promote European destinations, including Croatia and Slovenia, on the Chinese market.

The "Experience Croatia, Feel Slovenia" campaign by the two countries' tourist boards on the Far East markets has been going on for the past five years, and its goal is to increase the two countries' visibility on the Chinese tourist market.

The campaign will run from October 2018 to March 2019, and will include workshops set up in Beijing and Shanghai, online training programmes for Chinese tour operators and travel agencies, as well as media advertising.

"This confirms the long-standing and high-quality cooperation that we have with our Slovenian colleagues in promoting our two countries on foreign markets," HTZ's director-general, Kristjan Stanicic, said.

"The Chinese tourist market is growing rapidly, and projections indicate that there will be more than 100 million Chinese tourists going on holidays in 2020," Stanicic said, and added that so far this year around 136,000 Chinese tourists have visited Croatia, generating some 203,000 overnight stays, a 36 percent increase compared to the same period last year.