Sima Hong, Vice Mayor of Beijing Municipality: Gathering Urban Development Strength for Common Prosperity of World Tourism Cities

On 10 May, the World Tourism Cities Federation Changsha Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit 2023 (hereinafter referred to as the "Summit") jointly organized by the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) and Changsha Municipal People's Government was launched in Changsha, China, under the theme of "Gathering the Strength of Cities to Revitalize World Tourism". Sima Hong, Vice Mayor of Beijing Municipality, addressed the opening ceremony that the Summit is held right after the World Health Organization announced COVID is no longer a public health emergency of international concern, and that the world will usher in a new era when tourism witnesses prosperity. Sima further remarked that the Summit is of great practical significance for exploring the paths to the post-pandemic recovery of the world tourism industry.

Sima Hong, Vice Mayor of Beijing Municipality, delivers a speech.

Sima noted that the world tourism industry will witness a strong recovery this year, as evidenced by China's domestic tourism in the past Labor Day holiday. During the holiday, a total of 274 million trips were reported, with the domestic tourism revenue reaching CNY 148 billion, up 1.2 times year on year, representing a 24.4% YoY growth of the sales revenue of the related consumption businesses. "The explosive growth of China's domestic tourism in the Labor Day holiday reflects the surging demand for travel and the improving quality of goods, and highlights the vitality of the Chinese economy," said Sima.

As an integral part of the modern service industries, tourism plays an instrumental role in driving the world's economic growth. Cities are the most economically dynamic spaces in every country or region, and the core elements of sustainable development of the world tourism industry. The recovery and prosperity of urban tourism will dramatically boost the recovery and growth of the urban economy. In this regard, Sima put forward four proposals to world tourism cities and industrial insiders.

The first one is "Improving the quality of tourism and meeting people's expectations for a better life". The COVID-19 pandemic has changed tourists' demands and travel patterns, giving rise to new patterns, needs, and business forms. Sima hoped that tourism cities could take this opportunity to carry forward the innovative transformation of tourism resources through supply-side reform, develop customized and demassified tourism products, launch high-quality tourism projects, advance the construction of tourism infrastructure and public service facilities at a faster pace, improve tourism awareness and quality, and satisfy people's tourism demands and aspiration for a better life in all respects including catering, accommodation, transportation, sightseeing, shopping, and entertainment.

The second is "Promoting the integration of business forms and the comprehensive development of the urban economy". Sima proposed that the tourism cities should actively integrate tourism with other elements to innovatively develop new business forms like cultural tourism, study tourism, sports tourism, medical tourism, education tourism, and conference and exhibition tourism, build diversified popular tourism and consumption destinations through business integration, invigorate tourism development, and expand the development space and industry chain of the urban tourism, to inject new vitality into urban economy and drive economic recovery and prosperity in a comprehensive manner.

The third is "Strengthening communication between cities to realize coordinated development through cooperation for win-win outcomes". Sima noted that the prosperity of the urban tourism depends more on bilateral and multilateral cooperation between cities as well as the interdisciplinary matchmaking of various core capabilities. The overall recovery of tourism is critical to global economic growth. Therefore, tourism cities should enhance sharing of tourist sources, launch marketing and promotion campaigns through mutual assistance, and intensify opening-up and interconnection, to revitalize world tourism and tackle global crises in a more united manner.

The fourth is "Keeping up with development trends and promoting the intelligent development of tourism". Sima stressed that all stakeholders and practitioners should give full play to the application of science and technologies in tourism-related scenarios, accelerate the smart tourism development characterized by digitalization, networking and intelligence, promote the combination of tourism and new technologies like artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing, strengthen the big data collection and analysis of tourism information and the building of smart platforms, and improve the promotion and experiences of urban tourism management services, to provide tourists and urban residents with efficient, intelligent, and humanized urban services.

"As the host city of WTCF headquarters, Beijing will work with its member cities to gather the strength of city development and jointly contribute to the prosperity of tourism cities around the world. WTCF will stick to its original aspiration to serve as a platform for exchange and cooperation among the world tourism cities to work together and boost the sustainable development of tourism cities," said Sima Hong.