2018 Lancang-Mekong Tourist Cities Co-op Forum Opens in Sanya

Themed “An open and innovative Lancang-Mekong River for mutually prosperous future cooperation,” the 2018 Sanya Forum for Lancang-Mekong Tourist Cities Cooperation kicked off in Sanya on November 23rd, 2018.

Under the guidance of the Hainan Provincial Department of Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television, and Sports, and the Hainan Provincial Foreign Affairs and Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, the forum was organized by the Sanya Municipal People’s Government.

More than 200 guests including 18 representative city delegations from China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, as well as foreign consular representatives and tourism industry specialists from the Lancang-Mekong countries participated in the forum.

Several local officials attended the opening ceremony including Tong Daochi, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Hainan Provincial Committee and Secretary of the CPC Sanya Municipal Committee; A Dong, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Sanya Municipal Committee and Mayor of the Sanya Municipal Government; Deng Zhong, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Sanya Provincial Committee and Secretary-General of the Sanya Municipal Government; and Chen Tiejun, Deputy Mayor of the Sanya Municipal People’s Government.

The forum represents a new step forward following the first Lancang-Mekong leaders’ meeting on cooperative initiatives and measures and the first Lancang-Mekong Tourist Cities Cooperation Forum, held in Sanya in 2016, which signified Sanya’s willingness to deepen mutual understanding and promote prosperity and development through cooperation with other Lancang-Mekong cities.

The event consisted of a Lancang-Mekong cities collaborative exhibition, a tourist cities roundtable conference, and a series of sub-forums on tourism industry development and tourism marketing.

During the round-table meeting, the Lancang-Mekong tourist cities drafted a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on strengthening tourism cooperation in seven key fields, as follows: establishing a mutual tourism communication mechanism; opening new air routes; opening new cruise routes; building regional sailing or yachting brands through international events; training much-needed talent and professionals; and promoting the sustainable development and cultivation of tourist products and marketing networks that can enable effective sharing of tourist resources among each of the six countries along the Lancang-Mekong River.

At the sub-forums on tourism cooperation, the participants also discussed topics such as “Regional tourism cooperation between China and the Mekong River region”; “How can the Lancang-Mekong countries improve performance in international marketing?”; “Construction of themed entertainment projects”; and “Exploring innovative ways to boost the development of regional tourism and education and training of much needed talent and professionals”.

During the four-day event, Sanya representatives will work to actively promote tourism cooperation with Lancang-Mekong tourist cities and boost cooperation in other fields.