Chinese market is favored
At the fair, led by the China Tourism Office in London, the cultural and tourism departments of Beijing, Shanghai, Shaanxi, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces and cities, as well as several tourism enterprises and airlines, jointly participated in the fair to display tourism products and routes to China by theme, and promote the latest inbound tourism policies.
Li Liyan, Minister Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in the United Kingdom, said at the opening ceremony of the China exhibition area that the world tourism market has rapidly revived, and China has also opened its arms to welcome world tourists. The theme of this year's China exhibition area, "Hello! China", is the first release of China's national tourism image in London, a sincere invitation to meet China, and also opens a new chapter of cultural and tourism cooperation between China and Britain.
The reporter saw that the Chinese exhibition area mainly promotes the image of the national treasure giant panda, and integrates Chinese red, auspicious cloud patterns, bamboo and other characteristic elements, demonstrating the unique charm of Chinese tourism. In the three-day event, the China exhibition area highlighted the "Hello! China" tourism routes to China, as well as the Beijing culture, "China's first inbound tourism destination" Shanghai, "the starting point of the ancient Silk Road" Shaanxi, "the province of thousands of lakes" Hubei and other tourism products.
Tourism products such as Yellow Crane Tower folding fan, Tengwang Pavilion preface bamboo slips, Western Qin embroidery and Shanghai International Cultural Metropolis video promo attracted a large number of industry insiders. Marcello, a participant from an Italian travel agency, made a special trip to China's exhibition area to look for cooperation opportunities with airlines and destination management companies
Alastair Blake, the representative of the "Silk Road Tourism Cities Alliance", which has traveled to and from China for more than 40 times, told reporters: "Travel enhances understanding and understanding promotes cooperation. I hope you will visit China more. It is a beautiful country with warm and hospitable people."
"We not only have the Terracotta Warriors, but also the folk songs of northern Shaanxi and the beautiful scenery of southern Shaanxi. In Xi'an, the Tang Culture Panorama Exhibition Area of 'The Great Tang Never Sleeps City+Chang'an Twelve Hours' combines historical and cultural resources with contemporary lighting technology to launch immersive experience. We also have rich tourism projects such as rural tourism, art and culture performances." Gao Yang, the director of Shaanxi Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, told reporters that "we hope to introduce Shaanxi internationally, attract more foreign tourists to visit Shaanxi, and feel the changes of Shaanxi with each passing day."
It is reported that in order to facilitate international tourists to visit Shaanxi, Xi'an took the lead in becoming the first 144 hour transit visa free city in northwest China in December 2019. Airlines and travel agencies organize overseas tourist groups to travel to Shaanxi by charter flights and special tourism trains, and can also enjoy different levels of subsidies and support.
Smart tourism attracts attention
At the fair, sustainable development and the application of new technologies received widespread attention from industry insiders. Several forums focused on green development, sustainable infrastructure construction, big data application and other topics.
Juliet Losado, director of the World Tourism Fair, said that the theme of this year's World Tourism Day is "tourism and green investment". "Sustainable development is the cornerstone of tourism development. At present, sustainable infrastructure and green policy investment for the entire industry are more important than ever before."
The German National Tourism Administration encourages tourists to stay longer at a destination to reduce their carbon footprint. The Spanish Tourism Agency said it has launched a slow travel program to encourage holidays by train. The Brazilian Tourism Administration focuses on promoting the eco-tourism destination Bonito to promote the concept of sustainable tourism.
At the forum of "Science and Technology Enabling Smart Tourism City Construction" hosted by the World Tourism Cities Federation, Douglas Holm, chief sales and marketing officer of Dubai World Expo City, shared the construction experience and emission reduction goals of Dubai World Expo City, emphasizing that science and technology play an important role in the sustainable construction of future cities.
Li Baochun, head of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, introduced the experience of Beijing in building a smart tourism city in the exchange activity. He said that Beijing grasped the development opportunity of "science and technology+tourism", actively promoted the transformation of artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, virtual reality and other technologies into practical applications, and provided efficient and intelligent urban services for tourists and citizens. At present, the coverage rate of 5G signals in Beijing urban area remains above 99%, "tourists can visit Beijing freely with only one mobile phone".
Industry insiders said that the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology is changing the traditional tourism industry, which puts forward higher requirements on how to provide better tourism services. Cai Wenxuan, the managing director and vice president (international market) of Ctrip Group, said that AI technology can provide tourists with intelligent query suggestions and personalized hotel recommendations, enhancing the user experience. Driven by technology, mobile phone software can not only recommend popular activities, price change prediction, experience sharing, etc. of tourist destinations, but also realize AI voice dialogue through query and customer service. During the fair, Shaanxi also signed cooperation agreements on tourism services and digital technology development with three companies in Britain and France.
The development prospect of the industry is promising
The fair released a global tourism report written by the "Tourism Economy" of the Oxford Institute of Economics. According to the report, "although the tourism industry is facing the challenge of rising costs of aviation fuel, finance and labor, there is still no obvious sign that rising costs will hinder the actual travel volume". From the perspective of tourism mode, leisure tourism has the strongest recovery trend, which has now recovered to 90% of the peak level in 2019. The report predicts that by the end of 2023, the number of global outbound tourists will exceed 1.26 billion, about 86% of the peak level in 2019 before the COVID-19 epidemic.
Industry insiders pointed out that economic growth and demographic and social changes in emerging market countries have brought greater development opportunities to the global tourism market. By the end of 2023, the number of inbound leisure tourists in the Middle East is expected to increase by 13% over 2019. The tourism market of emerging market countries such as Indonesia also has great growth opportunities. The report points out that Indonesia's Yavan high-speed railway, which was opened in October this year, has brought opportunities for local tourism growth. "The opening of Ya'an Wanzhou High speed Railway has brought great convenience to tourists." Daisy Ruhati, a department official of the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy of Indonesia, said that in the first half of this year, the number of tourists in Indonesia has reached 433 million. With the opening of Ya'an Wanzhou High speed Railway, it is estimated that the number of tourists in Indonesia will reach 1.2 billion to 1.4 billion in 2023.
Juliet Losado said that tourists from all over the world are now more willing to make full use of their precious travel time to create precious memories, deeply understand the destination, and explore culture, food and nature. With the recovery of many international cultural and sports events, consumers' demand for unique and unforgettable experiences is increasing, and personalized tourism has become the focus and opportunity of the industry.
