The Los Angeles City Council Wednesday approved a five-year budget of 4 million US dollars for the city's newly opened tourism office in Beijing.

Los Angeles World Airports and L.A. Inc. -- the city's convention and visitor's bureau -- will split the cost of operating the office, which Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa opened during his recent 14-day trade mission to Asia.

Los Angeles is the first city in the world to have such an office in China, city officials said.

Villaraigosa said last month in Beijing while opening the office that the office would be a permanent welcome mat for the tens of millions of Chinese tourists who will visit Los Angeles in the coming years.

China currently ranks seventh worldwide in total travel expenditures, and is expected to rank second by 2015. The country is also Los Angeles' fastest-growing overseas visitor market.

According to the Los Angeles mayor's office, the number of visitors from China increased by 41 percent in 2003-04, and by an additional 26 percent in 2004-05, while of the 12.9 billion dollars in direct visitor spending in the city last year, some 78 million dollars was generated by visitors from China.

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