【Summit Senior Figures Interview】Interview with Wei Xiaoan, the Chief Expert of WTCF Expert Committee: Shared Economy and Future Cities

Wei Xiaoan, Chief Expert of WTCF Expert Committee was interviewed by Chinese and foreign media during the 2016 Chongqing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit, making an interpretation to this summit.

Tourism Industry is Most Adaptable to the Development of the Shared Economy

Wei Xiaoan said that he mainly focused on the theme of this summit which is Shared Economy and the Development of World Tourism Cities. The experts of WTCF Expert Committee thought it is a forward-looking theme that complied with the trend of the modern times and could play a big role in the process of leading the development of world tourism cities; that is why it was agreed by all experts. From the point of the guests, the theme has resonated with them.

"My understanding of the Shared Economy is to play down the property right and to strengthen the use right. It can integrate and allocate various idle resources in society and bring them into full usage, which requests the society to provide higher investment, to be more efficiency and has better benefit. There are two hot spots of Shared Economy, one is Airbnb, the utilization of idle houses and the other is automobile and special car. These two hot spots prove that tourism is most adaptable to the Shared Economy and they are undoubtedly the cutting points of Shared Economy."

"In any field, all idle resources could be shared, this is a natural process. Especially to tourism, because tourism means the flowing people and the flowing of idle resources exists in any field, which reflects the difference that Shared Economy will make in the process of the tourism development. "

The Aggressive Urbanization Should Be Stopped in the Development of Cities in the Future

Wei Xiaoan considered that future cities tourism should be established on cities' development and make cities themselves more attractive, thus the aggressive urbanization should be stopped. "A city is both the exporter for tourist resources and the gathering place for tourism. For many years, tourists rarely care about the city itself, but the sightseeing they could enjoy; that is why a city itself has less attraction from the point of tourism. Therefore, the attraction of city itself should be enhanced. Some Chinese cities have begun to do this, but still many cities ignore the urban scenic area. We should not only build scenic spots but also a city of scenic spots, making a city full of scenic spots and excite tourists' emotions."

"I think the development of Chongqing is a good example. Firstly, Chongqing is one of the most adaptable cities in the Western China to develop the Shared Economy and is also the largest city around the world with a total area of more than 30,000 square meters and a population of 30 million, which is unimaginable for many cities. Cities like Chongqing hope to attract more tourists to promote the city development. Chongqing is very rich in tourism resources; its transportation was once inconvenient in the past but it has been completely solved now, so it's quite possible to increase the number of tourists. The first thing Chongqing should do is to make better products. Secondly, Chongqing itself is a very attractive city. Thirdly, sceneries in areas around the main urban districts are very beautiful. Therefore, I think Chongqing's better development and tourism is just around the corner, but only if Chongqing forms and maintains its own characteristics and does not follow the crowd."