A senior Chinese tourism official on Sunday denied the relevance of China's national image to the declining inbound tourist numbers at a forum.

"China's international image is completely irrelevant to the declining numbers. Instead, it is closely related to China's economic development, social progress, the quality of service, tour operations and management," Wu Wenxue, deputy director of the China National Tourism Administration, said at the first International Cultural Tourism Forum jointly held by the Global Times and Beijing Tianyi Boguan City Planning and Design Institute.

A survey released on Tuesday showed the number of China's overseas tourists has declined over the years. Liu Zhiming, an expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, added that China is dealing with an image problem overseas.

Officials and experts from various countries recommended at the forum that China pay more attention to sharing its modern lifestyle with overseas tourists, an approach to overcome the bottleneck of cultural tourism development in China.

"Contemporary culture and the daily life of the Chinese people can likewise attract cultural tourism in addition to preserving traditional culture," Wei Pengju, a professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics.

Park Keun-tae, the president of the South Korea-based CJ Group's China office, cited kimchi as an example. "South Korea has introduced tour programs for foreigners to learn how to make kimchi on site."

Mohamed Faisal, the Maldives Ambassador to China, said his tourism-friendly country cannot only depend on its scenic beauty given concerns over climate change, and also offers unique cultural integration services.