Membership Expanded to 269! WTCF Continues to Expand Its Global Cooperation Network

The 2026 WTCF Beijing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit was successfully held recently. During the summit, the WTCF admitted 13 new members, bringing the total membership to 269. The members cover cities and cultural tourism institutions in numerous countries and regions worldwide, marking new expansion of the international cultural tourism exchange and cooperation circle and further improving the framework for global cultural tourism linkage.

As a world-renowned international tourism organization, the WTCF has always adhered to its core philosophy of "Better City Life through Tourism". Relying on the Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit as a key platform, it promotes the exchange and sharing of global cultural tourism resources. The new members fall into two categories: city members and institutional members, covering the Middle East, Central Asia, Europe, Africa and cities within China, which further enriches WTCF’s diversified and international cooperation system.

A total of 9 new city members were admitted, namely Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Aqaba, Bishkek, Anibare Kru, Brezno, Latacunga, Ziguinchor and Yichang of Hubei Province. Multiple tourist cities along the Belt and Road joined WTCF, deepening cultural tourism linkages along the routes and facilitating the exchange of cultural tourism resources and development experience between Asian and European cities. As a newly admitted Chinese city, Yichang will leverage WTCF’s international platform to showcase distinctive cultural tourism resources including gorge river scenery and Yangtze River culture, and continuously elevate the international influence of cultural tourism brands of Chinese cities.

Four institutional members were recruited, namely Shah Tourism Company of Tajikistan, Nordic Fantasy Travel, Tame Travel of Spain and VISA Company. The addition of these professional cultural tourism service providers further strengthens industrial chain links such as cross-border route development, international tourist source delivery and supporting cross-border cultural tourism services, providing industrial support for member cities to launch transnational cultural tourism projects and carry out regular two-way tourist exchanges as well as cultural tourism business cooperation.

The Beijing Initiative was also released at this summit. All new members co-signed the document and reached a consensus that all parties will focus on digital cultural tourism innovation, joint development of cultural tourism brands and industrial experience sharing, working together to advance high-quality development of global tourism. Moving forward, WTCF will give full play to its role as a pivotal platform. Drawing on its extensive member resources, WTCF will keep advancing practical cooperation including cross-border cultural tourism promotion, sharing of digital and smart tourism technologies, and joint city brand marketing. It will build a bridge for people-to-people communication among global cities through tourism, drive coordinated and sustainable development of world tourism cities, and inject lasting momentum into the growth of the global cultural tourism industry.