KATHMANDU, July 19 (Xinhua) -- As China emerged as one of the two largest source markets for Nepal's tourism along with India, Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) is preparing to conduct a coordinated marketing campaign in China starting from October to promote Nepal's tourism, a senior NTB official said on Thursday.

Nepal welcomed a total of 75,745 Chinese tourists from January to June 2018, up 35.35 percent compared to the same period in 2017, according to NTB, the main tourism promotion body of Nepal. During the period, China sent second largest number of tourists after India.

"We are promoting Nepal's tourism on Chinese social networking sites like wechat and weibo, television channels and hoarding boards in public places to boost Chinese tourist arrivals in Nepal," NTB Chief Executive Officer Deepak Raj Joshi told Xinhua on Wednesday.

"It is for the first time that we are going to launch coordinated marketing campaign in China through several media."

Joshi said that they planned to start marketing campaigns by the end of October after the NTB board passes promotional budget in next few weeks.

According to him, massive marketing campaign is also aimed at creating ground for making planned Visit Nepal Year-2020 a success when Nepal aims to attract two million tourists.

Nepal has been launching sales missions in various Chinese cities to promote tourism in the recent years. As China emerged as one of the most important source markets for Nepal, the NTB, on May 21, had launched an interactive Chinese language website.

Nepal waived visa fees for Chinese tourists since January 2016, giving them the same treatment accorded to visitors from member countries of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).