Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for more efforts to bolster tourism and cultural exchanges with South Korea, expressing his eagerness to further strengthen the already-robust economic ties between the two countries, an official Chinese government website said Saturday.

Xi made the remarks in his congratulatory message marking the launch of the "Year of Visit to China" in South Korea on Friday, according to the message posted on the website of China's foreign ministry on Saturday.

During their summit last yea, South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Xi agreed to designate this year as the "Year of Visit to China" in South Korea and next year as the "Year of Visit to South Korea" in China, as part of their programs to boost bilateral tourism and cultural ties.

"Korean people can understand the profundity of Chinese culture, and Chinese people really appreciate the unique charm of Korean culture," Xi said in the message.

With the launch of the "Year of Visit to China," Xi hoped that the two nations would "expand cooperation in tourism and culture and mutual learning, promote the development of bilateral relations and promote people-to-people friendship," the message said.

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang visited South Korea and hosted the ceremony marking the tourism project on Friday.

Fueled by a growing popularity of Korean pop music and TV dramas and a gradual appreciation of the Chinese currency, the number of Chinese visitors to South Korea soared 46 percent from a year ago to 6.33 million people last year, official figures showed.

Last year, the number of South Korean visitors to China, excluding Hong Kong and Macau, grew 3.6 percent from a year earlier to 4.1 million, according to the figures. (Yonhap)