The World Tourism Cities Federation Qingdao Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit 2018, Many Academic Research Results Help Boost the Sustainable Development of Tourism Cities

From September 7 to 9, the World Tourism Cities Federation Qingdao Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit will be held in Qingdao. During the summit, World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) will release the Annual Report on Development of World Tourism Cities (2018) and Market Research Report on Chinese Outbound Tourist (City) Consumption (2017-2018), and print and distribute the UNWTO/WTCF City Tourism Performance Research report (Chinese and English), and other academic research results, in order to provide intellectual support and decision-making services for the development of world tourism cities.

The Annual Report on Development of World Tourism Cities continues to launch the world tourism cities development ranking list

WTCF releases the Annual Report on Development of World Tourism Cities and world tourism cities development ranking list every year. The total number of sample cities in the Annual Report on Development of World Tourism Cities (2018) is still 100. In the choice of sample cities, this report has been working in accordance with the previous Reports of Development, and maintains the comparability and continuity of the evaluation index.

The Annual Report on Development of World Tourism Cities (2018) evaluation criteria continuously have applied the frame of a comprehensive index and six single indexes, with the comprehensive index being the “2018 World Tourism Cities Development Comprehensive Ranking”, including resource appeal, industrial competitiveness, support of the city and tourist convenience, economic contributions and tourism expectation. The overall index specially emphasizes the comprehensive functions of tourism cities, and embodies the comprehensive development standard of tourism cities. The six single indexes that have been covered not only include tourism resources, the tourism industry, tourism contributions and so on, but also urban economy, infrastructure, city management and so on; and they also contain all kinds of essential factors of tourism and cities, and have stressed the collaborative and integrating development concept between tourism and cities.

The Market Research Report on Chinese Outbound Tourist (City) Consumption has reveal what Chinese outbound tourists usually do

As the development of the world’s tourism keeps moving forward, China has become the top outbound tourism consumption country over the past few consecutive years. The 2015-2016 Market Research Report on Chinese Outbound Tourist (City) Consumption shows that more than 70% of the Chinese tourists, who have been interviewed, travel abroad at least once a year, or even multiple times per year. The average travel experiences can amount to 4.87 times; nearly half of Chinese tourists are willing to spend more than 1/5 of their total living expenses on travel. Among them, each tourist who joins a tour group spends 15,400 yuan on average, and each independent tourist consumes 23,139 yuan on average. Souvenirs and cosmetics are products Chinese tourists buy the most, followed by daily necessities, luxuries, clothing, shoes, and hats. “High quality” and “cheap price” are the main reasons why Chinese outbound tourists go shopping overseas.

During the summit, WTCF will release the Market Research Report on Chinese Outbound Tourist (City) Consumption (2017-2018), which systematically analyzes the new changes and new trends of China’s outbound tourism market. By releasing the report, WTCF hopes to help overseas tourism cities and related tourism institutions more comprehensively and systematically, and objectively know and understand Chinese outbound tourists, clearly understand Chinese outbound tourists’ behavior and habits, effectively respond to the demands of Chinese outbound tourists, improve and strengthen the providing of related tourism products and services, enhance service experiences, attract Chinese tourists to travel abroad, strengthen the travel experience sharing and spreading of Chinese tourists, and achieve the organic and healthy development of the global tourism market.

Release the UNWTO/WTCF City Tourism Performance Research to share the development experience of excellent tourism cities

During the Qingdao Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit, the UNWTO/WTCF City Tourism Performance Research (Chinese and English Version), launched by UNWTO and WTCF jointly, will also be released. The report selected 15 WTCF member cities including Beijing, Berlin, Bogota, Buenos Aires, Turin, Copenhagen, Hangzhou, Cape Town, Marrakech, Seoul, Tianjin and Sapporo, to conduct research from key performance areas, including Destination Management, Economic Perspective, Social and Culture, Environmental Perspective and Technology & New Business Models, etc.

The report set up the performance standard for the world tourism cities, the best case-study result will provide a reference for other cities, to enable the improvement and evaluate the overall development of city tourism. Take Hangzhou as an example, this city has an atmosphere of “relax life”, and through years of case studies, in 2014, the “Culture of Hangzhou” was considered to be the DNA of Hangzhou culture, which makes Hangzhou distinct from other Chinese cities’ core IP.

The theme of 2018 WTCF Qingdao Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit is “Orient Industry Trends, Brand Tourism Cities”. The summit will consist of 8 parts including the opening ceremony, council meeting, forum, tourism promotion, tourism trade fair, Investment & Financing conference, tourism exhibition, and sub-committee activities.

World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF), which was voluntarily formed by famous tourism cities and tourism-related institutions in the world under the initiative of Beijing, is the world’s first international tourism organization focusing on cities. Established on 15 September 2012 in Beijing, it is guided by the core vision of Better City Life through Tourism. WTCF provides services to its members that cover the entire tourism industrial chain. It aims to facilitate exchanges and cooperation among members, spread the experience of tourism city development, promote tourism products and resources, and contribute to the development and prosperity of world tourism industry. Starting with 58 founding members, WTCF has now grown into an international tourism organization with 205 members, covering 67 countries and territories. WTCF has successfully host 6 Fragrant Hills Tourism Summits, which is the brand activity and main platform to conduct exchanges and cooperation.