A fair to promote tourism along the Silk Road will be held from Sept 19 to Sept 21 in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province.

Chen Qingliang, deputy director of the Shaanxi Tourism Bureau, said at a news conference in Xi'an on Wednesday that the 2014 China Xi'an Silk Road International Tourism Fair is a major effort to build a Silk Road tourism corridor with Xi'an as the starting point. The goal is also to build an important platform for the booming tourism industry along the Silk Road and promote regional tourism cooperation, Chen said.

The Silk Road, which was the route for trade and cultural exchanges beginning more than 2,000 years ago, started from Xi'an and linked ancient China with Central Asian countries and Europe from east to west.

The fair, sponsored by the provincial tourism bureau, is the first such international tourism promotion with the theme of Silk Road and is expected to attract as participants more than 500 tourism companies from 30 countries and regions.

"The fair will be held every year from 2014, and we plan to make it a well-known travel brand within three to five years," Chen said.