An official of Turismo de Portugal has said the Portuguese tourism authority hopes 400,000 Chinese will visit Portugal this year or next, making their country one of the 10 biggest sources of visitors to Portugal, Xinhua reports.

The Chinese government-run news agency quotes the official, Nuno Madeira, as telling a gathering in Lisbon that the numbers of Chinese visiting Portugal have grown considerably in recent years, rising 18 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2019.

The report says the gathering held on Monday was meant to promote the southern Chinese province of Hainan as a place for Portuguese to visit.

It quotes Hainan Vice-governor Wang Lu as saying the provincial government is amenable to cooperating with the Portuguese authorities in exchanging tourists and on maritime tourism

Agreements on cooperation between Portugal and Hainan in the fields of tourism and healthcare were signed during the gathering, Xinhua says.