THE ATTRACTIONS of the South Lakeland area were showcased to leading Chinese tour operators at a prestigious global event last week.

Windermere Lake Cruises sales & marketing director Jennifer Cormack and English Lakes Hotels group marketing manager Colin Fox travelled to Far East to represent the 19 businesses of the English Lake District China Forum at the closing ceremonies of the 'EU-China Tourism Year.'

And the duo made full use of their visit, conducting a hectic series of meetings and being the only UK representatives to attend all three major events staged as part of the ceremonies arranged to bring the curtain down on the 12 month exercise.

“It was a fantastic opportunity to enhance the cultural understanding between China and the UK and we felt extremely privileged to be at the closing ceremony," said Jennifer.

“During our 12 day visit to the three different cities, Colin and I had more than 200 separate meetings with representatives from Chinese tourism companies during business-to-business ‘matchmaking’ events."

The international event has been designed to boost tourism from China to EU nations with particular focus on boosting tourism numbers during off peak times periods.

And the closing ceremony rounded off a hectic year which followed the event's official opening in Venice in January by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

The UK duo first attended a B2B matchmaking event in Shanghai attended by more than 75 Chinese Tour Operators, an event organised by European Tourism Commission.

That was followed by the closing ceremony itself and also a Destination Britain China networking event in Sanya organised by VisitBritain, which brought together more re than 90 UK suppliers and nearly 100 influential buyers and media from across China and North East Asia.

"We’re confident our efforts will help to continue our success and drive our appeal to overseas markets even further forward in the coming years,” said Jennifer.