BUCHAREST — Romania values the Chinese tourism outbound source market and will participate in the ITB Shanghai International Tourism Fair, the Romanian Tourism Ministry said Friday in a statement.

Romania will be present at the 3-day event in Shanghai with an 18-square-meter stand, within the European Union pavilion, according to the ministry.

Four local tour operators - GDS Travel, Rolandia, Exact Tours and Phoenix Travels - will attend ITB Shanghai on behalf of Romania and promote the country as tourist's destination.

One of the four exhibitors, Phoenix Travels, is a company run by a Chinese businessman living in Bucharest.

The fair is exclusively B2B oriented, targeting only the actors in the tourism industry and the participating Romanian companies will have meetings in order to promote tourist attractions in capital city of Bucharest, the Danube Delta and various other regions of the eastern European country, and to have tourist packages contracted for these places, the ministry said.

"The Ministry of Tourism attaches great importance to the development of this market, especially that 2018 will be declared as the EU-China Travel Year," the ministry said.

ITB Shanghai fair is to take place between May 10 and 12. It is expected to gather international destinations, service and travel technology provider in Shanghai connecting them with over 600 handpicked Chinese buyers.