The World Tourism Organization and the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) will jointly select China's Best Tourist Cities next year.

The cooperation project is expected to further enhance the facilities of China's tourism cities, speed up their process of modernization and internationalization, and promote a positive image of them around the world, said Zhang Xiqin, vice-chairman of the CNTA, at a press conference here Monday.

The World Tourism Organization and the CNTA will work together to formulate standards for the evaluation, which is scheduled to be finished and published in February.

According to Zhang, during the past six years, China has selected 125 cities as outstanding tourist destinations, which has promoted China's modern city construction and economic development.