The Summit Hosted Four Forum Sessions

On September 8, around the summit theme of "Orient Industry Trends, Brand Tourism Cities", WTCF organized four forum sessions, with the themes of “Building of Tourism City Brand”, “Rapid Rise of Mass Tourism and Its Global Impact”, “City Image and City Brand: How Can Tourism Cities Improve Their Image Through Branding?”, and “Creating and Managing Partnerships for City Branding and Promotion”. The second session was a special forum organized by British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

The forum session “Building of Tourism City Brand” was moderated by Dr. Theuns Vivian, Head of Tourism of Cape Town, Vice Chairman City of the WTCF Council. Also, Mr. Gonzalo Robredo, President of the Tourism Entity of the City of Buenos Aires, and Vice Chairman City of the WTCF Council; Mr. Christophe Decloux, Director General Paris Region; Mr. Seven Shu, General Manager of Tencent Culture and Tourism Industry; Mr. Jan Vapaavuori, Mayor of Helsinki; Mr. Gerhard Hrebicek, President of European Brand Institute; and Mr. Liu Lifeng, Chairman & CEO, Ipsos China Region, gave keynote speeches. The brand of a city is very critical all over, from Latin America, the emerging power of tourism, to Paris Ile de France with a mature city brand alike. The guests shared their thoughts and experiences, and expressed that a city could make visitors’ experience more sustainable through efforts, provide better service to tourists and locals, and by being a very responsible city.

The BBC Special Forum’s theme was “Rapid Rise of Mass Tourism and Its Global Impact”. Ms. Rachael Hamilton, Member of Scottish Parliament in Charge of Culture and Tourism; Mr. Marc Crothal, Chief Executive of Scottish Tourism Alliance; Mr. Philippe Noubel, International Culture and Tourism Expert from Czech Republic; Mr. Alberto Sacco, Deputy Mayor of the City of Torino; Prof. Peiyi Ding of Griffith University, Member of WTCF Expert Committee; Mr. Guo Lei, Vice Mayor of Datong Municipality, Shanxi Province, attended the forum. They discussed and delivered their constructive suggestions on topics such as new changes for tourists’ behavior, if destinations are influenced by the overdevelopment of the tourism; whether tourist should also pay the tax; and tourism resource planning for the government.

The third forum session with the theme of “City Image and City Brand: How Can Tourism Cities Improve Their Image Through Branding?” was held in the afternoon. The session explored the ways and tools to improve the image, consumer confidence and positioning of a city destination by creating a strong brand identity and differentiating it from its competitors. Jean-François Martins, Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of Tourism & Sports, and Prof. Wei Xiaoan, WTCF Chief Expert, delivered keynote speeches at the session. According to professor Wei, many people though that improving the city brand means improving the city's popularity, but what actually define a city’s brand is its reputation and tourist satisfaction.

The fourth forum had the theme of “Creating and Managing Partnerships for City Branding and Promotion”. Attendees that delivered speeches included Ms. An Li, Vice President of Airbnb China, and Mr. Dong Fang, Curator of Tsingtao Beer Museum. Those who attended the Panel Discussion are Dieter Hardt-Stremayr, President of European City Marketing; Ms. Julie Chappel, Managing Director, International Markets, London& Partners; Mr. Liu Dong, Deputy GM of Public Affairs Department of Tuniu.com; Ms. Yang Yi, Editor in Chief of Sina Travel; and Mr. Hans Doets, Director Tourism, the Hague, the Netherlands. Ms. An Li, Vice President of Airbnb China, said that in the co-existing development process of tourism and cities, no industry or city can tackle all kinds of changes and challenges independently, and hoped to call on the industry and cities to jointly lead tourism cities to the healthy, panoramic, and sustainable development. The development of the tourism industry cannot work without the development of tourism destinations; tourism enterprises and industrial professionals are the driving force of destinations; and tourism enterprises and destinations share the same objective and can join hands to create bigger values.

The themes of the four forums targeted the current tourism development trend, and focused on the current hot spots of the tourism industry, and gathered the outstanding views of tourism cities, institutions, scholars, and industrial elites. With data and facts, they have shown the new impetus and new changes of the global tourism development. The forum theme will further guide the society and tourism industry to systematically and deeply pay attention to the core concept and development goals that the global tourism industry faces, and advocate the efficiency conversion of the sustainable and market formats of the urban tourism industry.