BARCELONA, Spain, July 13 (Xinhua) -- More holidaymakers from China will help Spain and other European countries grow their tourist industries, a Spanish expert has saidpocketpoker.

Albert Vancells, coordinator of the Bachelor's degrees in tourism at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, made the remarks in an interview with Xinhua on Fridaypocketpoker.

"It's a market with great potential, so Spain and other countries in Europe ... see it as a way to grow their tourist activity," Vancells said, adding that the recovery of Chinese tourism is expected to continue.

"We're still far from the pre-pandemic figures, but we hope that it will recover a little more than in the past few years and we expect to return to the 2019 figures in the coming years," the expert said.

According to Spain's tourism agency Turespana, over 60 percent of direct flights linking China and Spain before the pandemic have been restored.

Data from the Spanish Statistical Office showed that over 380,000 people visited Spain from China last year. However, the figure is well below the level before the pandemic, when more than 700,000 Chinese tourists visited Spain in 2019.

"The Chinese are opening up new air connections and recovering old connections that were not operating in the past few years, and so this will obviously lead to more Chinese tourism to the West and the whole world in general," Vancells told Xinhua.

For Vancells, "the advantage of Chinese tourism is that it doesn't prioritize the typical tourist product in Spain, which is the beach, but is more interested in cultural and gastronomic activities, as well as trade fairs, congresses and conventions, which could all help Spain to de-seasonalize its tourist activity."■