China Daily: Qingdao to host intl tourism summit in September

The 2018 WTCF Qingdao Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit will be held in the eastern coastal city of Qingdao, Shandong province from Sept 7 to 9, according to a press conference convened on July 12 in Beijing.

The event will be jointly organized by the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) and the Qingdao municipal government.

Li Baochun, deputy secretary general of the WTCF, introduced the federation and the schedule for the summit in Qingdao, which will include eight major parts such as the opening ceremony and keynote speeches, the council meeting of the WTCF, sub-forums, tourism promotions and exhibitions.

More than 400 distinguished guests will attend the meeting, including representatives from nearly 100 tourist cities, over 200 tourism enterprises and renowned international tourism organizations from around the world.

According to Li, more than 20 tourism ministers and mayors of tourist cities have already confirmed their attendance.

The summit will be another major international event to be held in Qingdao, a city that just hosted the 18th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in June.

Cui Dezhi, director of the Qingdao tourism development committee and also vice director of the summit organizing committee, detailed the preparation work for the summit.

Cui said that the Qingdao government attaches great importance to the event.

"The preliminary work of the summit is proceeding in an orderly and effective manner and we aim to make it a more exciting and distinctive summit in Qingdao."

As an internationally renowned tourist city, the modern metropolis of Qingdao, endowed with a pleasant climate, fantastic scenery and beautiful ocean, boasts abundant and unique tourism resources.

Qingdao is widely regarded as having one of the most beautiful natural bays in China, and the city has been awarded as one of China's excellent tourism cities, a top leisure city and one of the country's top 10 tourist destinations. It has also been named "China's sailing capital", "UNESCO City of Film", "Beer City" and a "world expo of architecture".

Founded in 2012, the WTCF is a non-profit, non-governmental international organization organized voluntarily by tourist cities of all countries and regions, non-governmental organizations, and associations and enterprises related to tourism.

Under the theme "Tourism Makes City Life Better", the organization seeks to establish an evaluation system to provide a valuable theoretical basis for policy-making for the tourism industry. It also intends to plan tourism marketing activities and accomplish information sharing.