To Launch a New Journey for the Development of World Tourism Cities: World Tourism Cities Federation Chongqing Fragrant Hills TourismSummit 2016 Grandly Opens in Chongqing

From September 19th to 20th, the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) Chongqing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit 2016 was held in Chongqing, China. About 400 guests from 89 cities, 57 tourism-related institutions and 6 international organizations attended this year’s summit. Member attendance exceeded 80%. Representatives and officers from embassies and consulates attended the summit, including: the United Nations (UN), the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), the Global Tourism Economy Forum (GTEF) and the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA); the Colombian Ambassador to China, the Austrian Ambassador to China, the British Consul General in Chongqing, the Consul General of Italy in Chongqing, the Consul General of Japan in Chongqing, the Consul General of the Netherlands in Chongqing, the Consul General of Cambodia in Chongqing, the Consul General of Hungary in Chongqing, the Consul General of the United States in Chengdu, the Consul General of Australia in Chengdu, Deputy Consul General of Israel in Chengdu, Commercial Officer of the Consulate General of France in Chengdu. Mayors and vice mayors from 20 cities around the world also joined the event. More than 120 news agencies from all over the world reported on the summit including Xinhua News Agency, China Central Television (CCTV), People's Daily, CNN、BBC and China Daily, which covers a number of countries and regions from around the world.

Brilliant Opening Ceremony and Closing Ceremony

On September 18th, the Chongqing Municipal Government hosted a Welcome Banquet with Chongqing features. The evening variety show with the theme of “Beautiful Chongqing with Mountain and River” was held after the Welcome Banquet. On September 19th, the Opening Ceremony of the summit was grandly held in Chongqing Yuelai International Convention Center. Honored guests were invited to deliver speeches at the event, including Chairman of WTCF and Mayor of Beijing, Wang Anshun, Mayor of Chongqing Huang Qifan, Vice Chairman of China National Tourism Administration Du Jiang, Under Secretary-General of the UN Tegegnework Gettu, CEO of PATA Mario Hardy, and Vice Chairperson and Secretary-General of Global Tourism Economy Forum Pansy Ho. Furthermore, Executive Secretary of the General Assembly and the Executive Council and Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific of UNWTO Xu Jing read out the congratulatory letter from Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General of the UNWTO.

On September 20th, the Closing Ceremony was held with special Chongqing features. Director General of Chongqing Tourism Administration Liu Qi, WTCF Secretary-General Song Yu and Ernest Wooden Jr., President and CEO of Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board attended and participated in the Flag Giving Ceremony. Chongqing National Orchestra delivered wonderful Bayu charateristics performances and the Chongqing cuisine also satisfied the guests.

New Council and Host Cities of 2017/2018 Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit were Elected at the Council Meeting

The General Assembly was held and members of the Second Council were selected during the summit. Song Yu was appointed as the Secretary-General of WTCF. Beijing was designated as the Council Chairman Unit for the second time; Wang Anshun, Mayor of Beijing, was reelected as Chairman of the Council; Cheng Hong, Vice Mayor of Beijing, was designated as Executive Vice Chairperson of the Council. Seoul, Berlin, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires and Cape Town were elected as the Vice Chairman Units of the Council. During the summit, the Council voted for the selection of 2017 and 2018 Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit host cities. Los Angeles and Qingdao won the hosting rights.

Summit Forums Received Much Attention

There were 4 forums during the summit. The theme of the main forum was “Opportunities and Challenges Brought by Sharing Economy to Tourism City Development”. Topics of the other sessions were “Sharing Economy and Chongqing Construction of International Tourism Destination”, “Sharing Economy: Allocation of Urban Resources and Region-wide Tourism” and “Innovation and Transition of Tourism in the age of Sharing Economy”. Song Yu, Secretary-General of WTCF, made a keynote speech. 38 experts and honored guests participated in the discussion and delivered speeches, including: Project Director of Destination and Quality Management of UNWTO Esencan Terzibasoglu, President and CEO of Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board Ernest Wooden Jr., Chief Expert of WTCF Expert Committee Wei Xiaoan, President of China Tourism Academy Dai Bin, President of CITS Yu Ningning, APAC Regional Director of Airbnb Julian Persaud. Furthermore, about 300 representatives and guests from major academic institutions, government departments, tourism cities and tourismrelated businesses attended the forums.

Fruitful Tourism Promotion, Trade and Negotiations

During the summit, WTCF established its sixth sub-committee: the Committee of Investment. Committee of Tourism-Related Businesses, Committee of Civil Aviation, Committee of Cruise Industry, Expert Committee, and Committee of Investment held their respective meetings. Development of WTCF’s organization was further strengthened.

During the summit, WTCF arranged Tourism Presentation, Tourism Marketplace, Tourism Investment Fair and World Tourism Cities Expo to promote communication & cooperation among members and development of tourism industry. More than 200 delegates from cities, enterprises and institutions attended the fairs. During the Tourism Investment Fair, 105 cooperation projects were collected and intended investment amount reached RMB 107.31 billion (USD 16 billion). Contract amount was RMB 80 billion.

At the Tourism Presentation, 7 city members from China and abroad, including Nanjing, Los Angeles, Zhangjiajie, Zurich, Guilin, Penang and Bogota, were invited to promote their tourism resources and travel related products to famous travel agencies and media outlets of China. About 50 famous media and travel agencies from China and abroad were invited to attend the meeting as professional audience.

To Launch a New Journey Led by Sharing Economy for the World Tourism Cities

The summit was themed on “Sharing Economy and Development of World Tourism Cities”. It was first time that the concept of sharing economy was introduced to the development of world tourism cities by WTCF and was fully approved by delegates and guests at this summit. They all agreed that it helps to deepen tourism cities’ understanding of sharing economy and launch a new journey for the world tourism cities. Chongqing Declaration of World Tourism Cities Federation was issued at the Summit. The Declaration explained sharing economy in detail, including definition, characteristics, trend, and its influence on the world tourism industry. WTCF presented a six-point proposal to bring a new driving force to the development of world tourism cities by using the benefits of shared economy.

During the summit, WTCF released various research reports that focused on sharing economy and development of tourism cities, including Annual Report on Development of World Tourism Cities (Abridged edition), Market Research Report on Chinese Outbound Tourist (City) Consumption, and Best Example of Landlocked Tourism Destination: Chongqing to Build into a World-Class Travel Destination.

The theme of this summit was proactive. Many guests paid special attention, participated positively and gave good feedback. After the summit, hundreds of delegates wanted to further communicate with the guests of the forums or save the materials. They said they would pay special attention to the profound influence sharing economy has brought to tourism development, and they would introduce the developmental idea of sharing economy actively in construction and management of their cities.

All the Guests Reacted Enthusiastically

A platform for communication and cooperation among members was established during the summit, which improves future summits and the development of the tourism industry. “This year’s summit is important, because we discussed relationship between sharing economy and tourism industry. Sharing economy is not only important to China or Chongqing, but also important to global industry. People will be benefited after the summit.” Tegegnework Gettu, Under Secretary-General of the United Nations said.

Nigel David, Executive Director of WTTC, said:“It is an impressive and professional event. People from different places get together to communicate and seeking the cooperation opportunities. I think it is a great event.”

Wei Xiaoan, Chief Expert of WTCF Expert Committee indicated that this year’s summit is an international summit. International influence of WTCF is getting stronger because of the well-arranged activities. “I never had the chance to get to know this summit. This year, I saw many important figures, such as Mr. Tegegnework Gettu, Under Secretary-General of the United Nations and Nigel David, Executive Director of Business Development of WTTC and I had an interview with them, which made me realize that the summit is not only an international influential event but also a great promotion to world tourism industry.” David Lake, Chief Editor of Austar said.

After winning the 2018 summit bid, Wang Shujuan, Deputy Director-General of Qingdao Tourism Bureau said: "Thank WTCF. It is a great honor for Qingdao to host 2018 Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit. WTCF and the summit are both important platform to further introduce Qingdao's tourism resources to China and the world. WTCF builds an international influential platform for members to promote their resources to the world with limited cost. We have made presentations for two years in a row to bid for hosting the summit. WTCF provided opportunities for us to promote Qingdao. I want to thank WTCF again."

This year’s summit revealed a hospitable, efficient, tolerant, open and inclusive city of Chongqing and is widely praised by global tourism cities, organizations and industries.