Tourism summit kicks off in Beijing

Wang Anshun, chairman of the WTCF council and mayor of Beijing, made the welcome address at the opening ceremony.[Photo by Cong Fangjun/chinadaily.com.cn]

The World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF)'s two-day tourism summit kicks off on Thursday in Beijing, presenting an international platform to expand the tourism market and cooperate with other countries.

Wang Anshun, chairman of the WTCF council and mayor of Beijing, made the welcome address at the opening ceremony.Shao Qiwei, director of the China National Tourism Administration and Li Baodong, vice-minister of the China Ministry of Foreign Affairs, all delivered speeches.

Representatives from international organizations, including Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Tegegnework Gettu, Executive director of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Zhu Shanzhong and Chairman of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Scott Supernaw also attended the opening ceremony.

The WTCF 2014 Beijing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit will focus on the subject,"Market and Cooperation". It will aim to build a tourism industrial chain with travel agencies, hotels, airline companies, airports and other involved parties in the industry through a series of dialogues, promotions and demonstrations at the event.

Representatives and experts will exchange their views on the challenges and opportunities in tourism that the world is facing.

As the largest outbound tourism market and the third largest tourist reception country, China has played an increasingly important role in the international tourism industry. Thus there will be several forums targeting the Oriental market to encourage innovation in inbound travel services and products; how to make better use of tourism resources with the help of new media; and discussion of the current situation and trends of outbound tourism consumption.

Through the ongoing summit, participants will have the latest information on tourism in China and cooperation opportunities.

Beijing initiated the founding of the World Tourism Cities Federation in September 2012. Berlin, Barcelona and Los Angeles are among the federation's members.

To date, the nonprofit, non-governmental international mass organization has attracted 132 members, including 86 city members (23 are domestic cities) and 46 non-city members.

In 2013, the organization set up four subcommittees: the experts subcommittee, civil aviation subcommittee, subcommittee of tourism-related companies, and media subcommittee.

By now, 80 tourism cities from 36 countries and 125 members from 45 international tourism organizations have confirmed they will attend the meeting.