To Launch a New Voyage for the World Tourism Cities: 2016 World Tourism Cities Federation Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit Grandly Opens in Chongqing

On the morning of 19th September, the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) Chongqing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit 2016 kicked off in Chongqing, China. About 400 guests from 89 cities and 47 institutions and representatives from 6 international organizations attended this year’s summit. Member attendance exceeded 78%.

(The World Tourism Cities Federation Chongqing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit 2016 opens.)

(Weng Jieming, Deputy Mayor of Chongqing Municipal Government hosts the Opening Ceremony.)

Huang Qifan, Mayor of Chongqing Municipal Government, delivered a speech at the opening ceremony. Wang Anshun, Chairman of the WTCF Council & Mayor of Beijing Municipal Government, Du Jiang, Deputy Director of China National Tourism Administration, Tegegnework Gettu, Deputy Secretary of the United Nations, Dr. Mario Hardy, Chief Executive Officer of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA); Pansy Ho, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the World Tourism Economic Forum, gave speeches at the ceremony respectively. Xu Jing, Director-Executive Secretary of the General Assembly and the Executive Council read a congratulatory message from Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General of the UNWTO. The new members’ Initiation Ceremony was held during the opening ceremony. New members including Madrid and St. Petersburg has joined the WTCF family. The inauguration ceremony of the Committee of Investment—WTCF’s sixth sub-committee—was also held during the ceremony.

(Huang Qifan, Mayor of Chongqing Municipal Government, gives a speech.)

(Wang Anshun, Chairman of the WTCF Council & Mayor of Beijing Municipal Government delivers a speech.)

Chairman Wang Anshun said in his speech, “WTCF was founded in 2012. With great support and joint efforts of all parties, the Federation has completed all tasks for start-up, and achieved conspicuous results. I believe that this year’s summit will become a grand event for tourism industries with a distinctive Chongqing feature and further promote innovative development of the world tourism industry.”

(Du Jiang, Deputy Director of China National Tourism Administration delivers a speech.)

(Tegegnework Gettu, Deputy Secretary of the United Nations delivers a speech.)

At the member meeting, Cheng Hong, Deputy Chairman of the WTCF Council, reviewed the progress of the first session of Council in the past years. Members of the second session of the Council were selected at the meeting and Mr. Song Yu was selected as WTCF Secretary-General. Chongqing Declaration of World Tourism Cities Federation was also declared at the meeting to better promote the concept of shared economy and a better development of world tourism cities.

(Xu Jing, Director-Executive Secretary of the General Assembly and the Executive Council reads a congratulatory message from Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General of the UNWTO.)

(Dr. Mario Hardy, Chief Executive Officer of the Pacific Asia Travel Association delivers a speech.)

The First Session of the Second Council Meeting was held during the afternoon. Wang Anshun was selected as Chairman of the WTCF Council, and Cheng Hong was selected as Executive Deputy Chairperson. WTCF Secretary-General, Song Yu, presented the 2016-2017 Annual Work Plan to the council, followed by the 2017 and 2018 WTCF Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit bid cities’ presentations. Los Angeles and Qingdao were voted as host cities of 2017 and 2018 summit respectively.

(Pansy Ho, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the World Tourism Economic Forum delivers a speech.)

(Tan Jialing, Vice Mayor of Chongqing Municipal Government hosts the member meeting.)

Signing Ceremonies were also held at the press conference. WTCF signed strategic partnership agreements with Tencent Technology, Travel Channel and iQIYI. Additionally, Chongqing Municipal Tourism Administration signed a MOU with Washington DC Tourism Bureau, Airbnb and other institutions. WTCF created a platform to promote collaboration and offer cities a wider range of cooperation opportunities between two cities, organizations and cities, and two organizations.

(Cheng Hong, Deputy Chairman of the WTCF Council, reviews the progress of the first session of Council.)

(Deputy Chairman Cheng Hong hands over the WTCF flag to Committee of Investment.)

As the first meeting of the second Council was being held, the Expert Committee, the Committee of Tourism-Related Business, and the Investment Committee Council respectively convened their own annual work meeting. The committees summarized the work of the current year and made plans for the following year.The agenda for Sep 20th includes three theme forums and an investment fair.

(New member initiation ceremony)

Meaningful discussions on hot topics related to “Shared Economy,” including “Shared Economy and Chongqing’s Building an International Tourism Destination, Shared Economy: City Resource Allocation and Region-based Tourism, Innovation and Transformation of Tourism Industry in Shared Economy Era,” will be expected. Meanwhile, the meeting of the Committee of Cruise Industry, Tourism Promotion Meeting and Tourism Investment Fair will be held. During the forum, academic research reports will be released, including Market Research Report on Chinese Outbound Tourist (City) Consumption.

More than 20 famous tourism enterprises and related institutions from China and abroad will attend the Tourism Investment Fair during the summit. According to data, 80 cooperation projects have been gathered for this fair and the intended investment capital is expected to be 107.13 billion RMB, about 16 billion USD. As the Tourism Trade Fair is scheduled be held at the same time, WTCF has invited 30 buyers and 75 sellers. It is predicted that there will be three rounds of matching negotiation and one round of free negotiations. The trade fair will organize Chinese buyers and sellers engaging in outbound tourism and inbound tourism to conduct one-to-one, face-to-face business negotiation, and maximize cooperation opportunities.

(The Opening Ceremony)

WTCF is an international tourism organization voluntarily formed by well-known tourism cities and tourism-related institutions around the world under the initiative of Beijing. Established on 15 September 2012 in Beijing, guided by its core vision of “Better City Life through Tourism,” it is committed to facilitating exchanges and cooperation between members and promoting sustainable growth in the tourism sector. WTCF aims to increase the appeal of tourism cities as international destinations, enhance the quality and efficiency of their services, boost the brand image of tourism cities and promote balanced economic and social progress in tourism cities and regions.

This year’s Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit will be a grand event for the world tourism industry. It will profoundly influence the development of WTCF’s members and global tourism while launching a new voyage for the development of world tourism cities.