Rao Quan, Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism of China, Addresses the Opening Ceremony of the World Conference on Tourism Cooperation and Development 2022

Rao Quan, Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism of China

The World Conference on Tourism Cooperation and Development 2022, hosted by the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF), opened at the China National Convention Center in Beijing on 1 September. Rao Quan, Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism of China, attended the conference and delivered a speech. He noted that with the theme of "Deepening Cooperation and Innovation for Development", the conference highlights the significance in countries joining hands and seeking common development.

Since 2020, the global spread of COVID-19 has dealt a serious blow to the development of the world tourism industry, but "the huge potential of the tourism market has not changed, and the general trend of industry development has not changed". Rao Quan said that tackling the epidemic and restoring development remained the common focus of the global tourism industry at present and in the coming period. The Chinese government attaches great importance to the high-quality development of tourism. It has launched a series of policy measures, formulated and implemented the 14th Five-Year Plan for Tourism Development, and defined the path of tourism development in the new era.

"We are committed to the principle that tourism serves the people and benefits the people. We have enriched the supply of high-quality tourism products and services, improved public tourism facilities and taken more measures to benefit people and better meet their consumption needs in the era of mass tourism. We have adapted to the general trend of informatization, accelerated the promotion of smart tourism characterized by digitalization, networking and intelligence, and promoted the concept of 'Migrating to Cloud, Using Digital Tools and Enabling Intelligence' in tourism development. We practice the vision of 'lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets', explore and develop green tourism that is resource-intensive, eco-friendly, energy-efficient and low-carbon, and shared by both residents and tourists, in a bid to achieve the integration of ecological protection, green development and tourism growth. We advocate civilized tourism, strive to improve the civility of tourism practitioners, raise citizens' awareness of civilized travel, and promote the new trend of civilized, healthy and green tourism." Rao Quan further pointed out that the Chinese government has coordinated pandemic prevention and control and enhanced the recovery and development of the tourism industry, with a targeted and comprehensive effort to strengthen market confidence and resolve for the recovery and development of the tourism industry.

Rao Quan said in his speech that the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China is willing to work with tourism authorities and industry practitioners of other countries in experience sharing, consensus building and deeper cooperation, in a bid to lead the tourism industry to overcome the difficulties brought by the epidemic at an early date and achieve high-quality development. To this end, he put forward three proposals. First, it is essential to deepen cooperation for development. This requires enhancing mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation and seeking common development. It is necessary to deepen cooperation in the field of tourism, innovate mechanisms and improve quality, create opportunities in opening up and solve problems in cooperation, and jointly explore the path to the recovery and development of world tourism. 

Second, policies should be refined to support development. High-quality development requires us to continuously upgrade modernization of the industry and supply chains of tourism, optimize the business environment, roll out effective policy measures, stimulate the vitality of tourism market entities with policies as the support and supply as the growth engine, and boost more efficient, equitable, sustainable and safety-based development of tourism. 

Third, promote development through innovation. Rao Quan proposed an initiative to take the improvement of innovation capacity as the strategic basis, lead the market by integrating resources through innovation, seek efficiency and impetus from innovation, accelerate the promotion of innovation in tourism development concepts, business forms, services, models and management modes, foster new growth drivers and open up new space for development.

At the end of his speech, Rao Quan called on international organizations in the field of tourism to continue to build high-level exchange and cooperation platforms, and tourism authorities and industry practitioners from various countries to carry out in-depth exchanges and cooperation, and strive for a common goal of high-quality development of global tourism.