2021 WTCF Euro-Africa Regional Conference Witnesses Great Success and Highlights the Global Tourism Recovery in the Post-Pandemic Era

On 8 June, Beijing witnessed a milestone with the "2021 WTCF Euro-Africa Regional Conference—Dialogue between Cities and Chinese Enterprises". The conference was held online by WTCF and intended to address the recovery and development of world travel in the post-pandemic era as well as boost the recovery of global cities after the epidemic.

Online Participants 

Present at the online conference were industry insiders, representative enterprises, member cities and institutions from various countries, including China, UK, Spain, Morocco and Tunisia. They expressed their views on the "cloud" and discussed the recovery measures and current development of global tourism in the post-pandemic era.The meeting included introduction to macro trends of the tourism Market, Chinese cities sharing, sharing among WTCF member cities and institutions, media representative sharing and interactive dialogue.

Li Baochun, Executive Deputy Secretary-General of WTCF, attends and moderates the conference.

The WTCF is the world's first international tourism organization centered on cities. This March, WTCF attended 2021 ITB Berlin and held a special forum online themed on New Normal, New Practice, discussing with other participants the recovery and development of urban tourism in the new normal of pandemic prevention and control. The conference segment, Interactive Dialogue, set the tone of the event. In this section, industry experts, tourism enterprise representatives and board delegates from China, Spain, Tunisia, Britain and other countries held a heated discussion on the status quo of tourism in many areas with regards to West Africa, Europe, online marketing, destination marketing of global cities after the pandemic and reaching a consensus on challenges encountered in these endeavors.

Ouyang Bin, Deputy Mayor of Zhangjiajie, delivered a keynote speech themed on Jointly Fighting the Pandemic, Promoting a Comprehensive Recovery and Building Zhangjiajie into the World's First-Class Tourist Destination. He stated: "Zhangjiajie, an open city striving to become a first-class tourist destination worldwide, needs and embraces the world as it vigorously integrates itself into it." 

Zou Tongqian, Vice Chairman of WTCF Expert Committee and President Assistant of Beijing International Studies University, analyzed the recovery and development of China's tourism market in the post-epidemic era from the four perspectives.  These would include the overall development of China's tourism in the pre-pandemic era, the blow dealt to sector amidst the pandemic, the nation's recovery measures and achievements in the post-pandemic era and developmental trends of the tourism market in the new normal of pandemic prevention and control. 

Yu Xuezhong, Vice General Manager of Beijing Capital Tourism Co., Ltd. noted that in recent years, China's tourism market has been growing rapidly and tourism has become the important agent of the country's economic growth. As the COVID-19 pandemic is gradually brought under control, China's tourism will continue to witness rapid development. Sun Bowen, Executive Secretary-General of Ctrip Research Institute, analyzed the marketing, planning and cooperative models of Ctrip's online tourism enterprises. He believed that the upgrade and optimization of marketing strategies of the tourism market will help with innovation. Targeted marketing, traffic management and content creation will optimize the marketing and cooperation models of tourism companies. Ignus de Dras, Director of International Affairs at Turisme de Barcelona, noted that in the post-epidemic era, Turisme de Barcelona will focus on sustainable development of cities in the future, digital empowerment and marketing as well as deepen cooperation with China's tourism market. Rob Lang, Chair of Edinburgh Tourism Action Group's China Ready Initiative, stated that the organization took a series of relevant measures amidst the pandemic to promote the recovery of the local tourism market, interacting with global tourists via new media platforms, enhancing cooperation and supporting the development of local businesses. Fiona Plumpton, Head of Convention Bureau Services at London and Partners Limited, believed that it's necessary to further promote economic growth and social development of cities after the pandemic, continuously improve their resilience and sustainable development, rebuild their brand images, and boost the post-pandemic recovery of urban tourism. Mr. Bentbib, Director of Marrakech Tourism Board, remarked that Marrakech will adopt a series of measures to ensure tourist safety, provide more job opportunities in cities, empower urban development with technology, as well as make innovation and sustainability become the new normal of urban development after the pandemic. Wu Wenzhao, PR Manager of the Tunisian National Tourism Office in Beijing, stated the Tunisian Ministry of Tourism and Handicrafts has already implemented the tourism standards of "Ready and Safe" and that vaccination already started in March. In addition, the Tunisian government has adopted various social and economic policies to create job opportunities and maintain tourism development. 

The representative member institutions and cities of WTCF shared their views in six parts of the conference. Domestic and international participants conducted exchanges on recovery measures of travel after the pandemic, tourism marketing and cooperation models, providing helpful suggestions for the post-pandemic sector recovery.

At the end of the conference, Li Baochun, Executive Deputy Secretary-General of WTCF, noted that the WTCF is the world's first international tourism organization centered on cities and that its mission aligns with the concept of Better City Life through Tourism. It strives to continuously conduct in-depth exchanges with member cities and institutions, promote practical cooperation, enhance the image of global cities and boost international confidence for tourism in the post-epidemic era.

Click the link below to watch the video: 

http://media.wtcf.org.cn/M00/01/BE/rBFBuGDn6DkAAAABEVAZTrzKnk0900.mp4