Senior diplomats from China, Japan and South Korea have voiced optimism about the expanding number of visits made among the three nations at a time when the three governments are resuming a number of ministerial-level trilateral dialogues.

Despite Japan's strained relationships with its two neighbors over historical and territorial issues in the past three years, more than 20 million tourism visits were made among the three Northeast Asia economies last year, including 10 million between China and South Korea.

Shigeo Iwatani, secretary-general of the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat, told China Daily in an interview that the April trilateral ministerial meeting on tourism set the goal of 30 million annual visits among the three countries by 2020.