WTCF Releases World Tourism Cities Development Report (2020)

Du Yili, Expert of World Tourism Cities Federation, releases the World Tourism Cities Development Report (2020)

2021 WTCF Beijing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit & World Conference on Tourism Cooperation and Development held by the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) kicked off on 3 September. As one of the five summit forums of the 2021 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), the conference focused on the theme of "Revitalizing World Tourism and Energizing City Development", and pooled the wisdom of experts and representatives from tourism cities around the world. At the conference, WTCF expert Du Yili released the World Tourism Cities Development Report (2020), which is a significant research result of WTCF. The report will offer more successful experience of combating COVID-19 and promoting the full recovery of world tourism cities and tourism companies to boost the sustainable development of global tourism.

The report consists of three parts, i.e. "Comprehensive Assessment on the Development of World Tourism Cities in 2020", "Results of Assessment on the Recovery and Development of World Tourism Cities" and "Typical Cases of the Recovery and Development of World Tourism Cities".  Six comprehensive conclusions are presented systematically in "Comprehensive Assessment on the Development of World Tourism Cities in 2020". Firstly, "COVID-19 has hit badly the world tourism". Secondly, "globalization of world tourism is facing new adjustment". Thirdly, "tourism cities play a bigger role in promoting global tourism recovery". Fourthly, "COVID-19 accelerates the innovation of global tourism development patterns". Fifthly, "digital technology deeply changes the development patterns of the world tourism". Finally, "the safety of international tourism is strengthened remarkably".

In the report, most experts suggest that domestic tourism will recover first after the pandemic, followed by regional tourism and global tourism. In the post-pandemic era, more and more tourists will prefer low-carbon and green travel. Decentralized trips involving small groups and low-density areas will become a new trend. Tourism safety control measures in line with pandemic prevention and control will be welcomed by an increasing number of tourists.

"Results of Assessment on the Recovery and Development of World Tourism Cities" presents the significance, methods and results of "Comprehensive Assessment on the Development of World Tourism Cities in 2020". The report points out that the development level of world tourism cities in 2020 weakened dramatically, but the differences in regional tourism decline were not obvious and there was a functional gap in their individual development. Besides, this part uses detailed data to demonstrate results of 10 individual assessments. Positive indicators in 2020 include the rebound by more than 60% of domestic trips around the world, a small decline in the number of international conferences held in global node cities, increase of online tourism in node cities, and significantly strengthened pandemic prevention and control measures in global node cities of tourism. However, due to the pandemic, revenues of tourism catering in 2020 decreased by 30%, GDP of global tourism dropped by over 50%, and the number of flights to global node cities declined by 20% when compared with those in 2019. In 2020, the number of global inbound trips showed a cliff-like decline, the total revenue of the global hotel industry dropped significantly, and the enthusiasm for tourism investment in global node cities was suppressed.

Notably, Shanghai and Beijing ranked first and second in two individual assessment results of the report, namely "List of Top 20 Cities in the Number of Domestic Trips in 2020" and "List of Top 20 Cities in Tourism GDP in 2020". They obviously outperformed cities in other countries.

In order to better summarize the experience of how global tourism cities fought COVID-19 and promoted tourism recovery in 2020, "Typical Cases of the Recovery and Development of World Tourism Cities" selects Rome, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Barcelona, Beijing, Seoul and Dubai as examples which greatly influence global tourism. Hopefully, the experience sharing of these eight tourism cities will better help the recovery of global tourism cities in the post-pandemic era.

Du Yili said, "At the next stage of tourism recovery, tourism cities should work harder to improve pandemic prevention, stimulate consumption and create more job opportunities". The World Tourism Cities Development Report (2020) will offer great inspiration and guidance for the recovery and development of world tourism cities.

Click here for World Tourism Cities Development Report (2020).pdf