The Summit Forum Focused on the Theme of “Better City Life through Tourism, Wonderful City by Sharing” Further Analyzed the Development of Tourism

On September 20th, the summit proceeded to the forum sessions. The forum started the discussion on the issue of “Urban Development and Shared Economy” and the research results of World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) were announced at the forum.

The Main Forum was hosted by Cllr Edwin Andrews, the Deputy Chairman of WTCF and Mayoral Committee Member of Cape Town. Song Yu, the WTCF Secretary-General said in his speech that shared economy is one of the most dynamic and innovational factors of economic development at the moment, exploring a way to sustainable development will exert great influence on the patterns of human development. Cities are the concentrated expression of civilization and creation of mankind and shared economy is a vital force that promotes the human economy to the more intensive and efficient level. ”Better City Life through Tourism, Wonderful City by Sharing”, WTCF hopes that tourism cities around the world will join their hands to realize the sustainable development of tourism and launch a new voyage for the world tourism cities while embracing shared economy.

Major guests delivered speeches respectively at the forum regarding the issues of Shared Economy: the Challenges and Opportunities for the Development of Tourism Cities, including Esencan Terzibasoglu, Director of Destination Management & Quality Programme of UNWTO; Julian Persaud, Regional Director for Asia Pacific at Airbnb; Karl Wöber, the Full Professor and Founding President of MODUL University Vienna; Ernest Wooden, the President and CEO of Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board; and Ignasi de Delàs, the President of European Cities Marketing.

The research results of WTCF were also announced at this forum, Dai Bin, the president of China Tourism Academy, Mick Gordon, Director and General Manager of Ipsos and Wei Xiao’an, Chief Expert of WTCF respectively delivered their speeches.

Three sub-forums were held during the afternoon. Delegates and guests shared experiences and exchanged views through the issue of “Shared Economy: The Challenges and Opportunities for the Development of Tourism Cities, Allocation of Urban Resources, and Global Tourism and Innovation and Transformation of Tourism in Shared-economy Era.”

Every year, tourist experts, enterprise executives, industry elites, and government officials, gather together for the summit forums. This elevates the forum into a benchmark of the tourism industry and a platform for tourism experts to further discuss and explore the implications.