The US city of Chicago will set up a tourism office in Chengdu in southwest China's Sichuan Province next year to encourage more Chinese tourists to visit the largest city in the American Midwest, a visiting tourism official said on Monday.

The Chengdu office will be the fourth of its kind in China, with offices already in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, according to Don Welsh, head of the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau. It also will be the 11th overseas office for the bureau, said Welsh, who was visiting Beijing on Monday.

The number of Chinese tourists to Chicago reached 120,000 in 2012. China was among the top three sources of overseas tourists to Chicago, he said.