The Year of China Integrated Tourism 2018 promotion kicked off in Atlanta, Georgia and St. Louis, Missouri last week.

Hosted by the China National Tourist Office New York (CNTO New York), the event aimed to attract more US travelers.

"We hope the promotion event can boost the travel exchange between China and the US and improve the understanding of the people of the two nations," the CNTO New York said in a press release sent to China Daily. "Especially taking the recent China and US trade disputes into consideration, we hope to use tourism as a special medium to encourage people-to-people exchange at the local level."

The event took the form of a road show with exhibition booths in the Perimeter Mall in Atlanta and the St Louis Galleria.

China is promoting enriched tourism products and routes, better local infrastructure and services and more local events.

"The city of Atlanta has top-level international airline capacity and flights; it will also open a direct flight to Shanghai in July," the CNTO New York stated in the press release."And the city of St. Louis is the traffic hub of Midwest America, with a growing potential (number) of tourists."

A middle school pupil named Alice said she's going to China at the end of May to study Chinese at Nanjing University for a month, and the event helped familiarize her with the Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu province.

Wayne Voigt, who lives in St. Louis, said, "Both my wife and I all love Chinese culture. Although we've never been to China, we always wanted to visit China."

The promotions will continue in different US cities through the year, according to the press release.

The 2018 national tourism program looks to promote "Beautiful China" – more balanced and sustainable tourism development and better service for domestic and international travelers.

All regions in China have launched tourism publicity events under the general theme of "Beautiful China", with different annual themes regularly since 2013.