Chinese President Xi Jinping and Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei Friday sent congratulatory letters to the launch of a joint tourism year initiated between the two countries.

"The China-Brunei Year of Tourism 2020" was officially launched on Friday with an opening ceremony held in Bandar Seri Begawan, capital of Brunei.

The one-year event aims to provide a platform to strengthen tourism cooperation through people-to-people and cultural exchanges. It will also offer opportunities to build wider business and trade connections.

According to Brunei's Tourism Development Department, China is one of the top source markets for tourist arrivals for Brunei with a recorded number of 43,000 arrivals from January to July 2019.

In 2018, Brunei saw an increase of 21.1 percent with 65,563 tourist arrivals from China in comparison to 2017's figure of 54,125.

(With input from Xinhua News Agency)