The mayor of Valletta, Alexiei Dingli, attended the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) conference in Beijing, China on 12 September.

The World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) is a non-profit, non-governmental international mass organisation created by tourist cities of all countries and regions and enterprises related to tourism.

Under the theme of "Tourism Makes City Life Better", the WTCF promotes coordinated economic and social development of World Tourism cities, enhance urban development, elevate the image of cities, strengthen inter-city international exchanges through tourism and innovate the mechanism of member cooperation. It aims at expanding the tourism economy scale, enhancing the quality of the tourism industry and improving the effectiveness of the tourism industry.

It also seeks to establish an evaluation system to provide a valuable theoretical basis for policy-making for the tourism industry; it also intends to plan tourism marketing activities and accomplish information sharing. The WTCF will provide services for complementary advantages and common prosperity.

During the meeting, the WTCF signed an MOU with Valletta’s mayor in a bid to advance tourism cooperation, especially in the Chinese market. The move is based on the consensus of WTCF members that tourism is the key to sustainable development and cultural communication.

"We hope cities will make better use of the federation's platform," said Lu Yong, the federation's secretary-general. "We will enlist the WTCF experts' committee for advice in the member cities' tourism development. We'll also bring together companies across the countries to create synergies."

Dr Dingli expressed his satisfaction over the fact that Valletta joined the WTCF together with other big players such as Beijing, London, Dubai and Washington DC, among others. He said that "this agreement will ensure that Valletta takes part in the decision-making process together with the member cities and it will help the Valletta local council promote the city in those markets".

It is enough to note that China alone boasts more than 80 million outbound tourists, a figure which is projected to increase in the coming years.

During his speech, Dr Dingli promoted Valletta 2018: European Capital of Culture whereby he explained its significance within a global context and also invited the 107 members of the WTCF to use it as a stepping stone in order to promote their cultures and ties with Valletta.

During his visit, Dr Dingli had separate talks with the mayor of Beijing aimed at strengthening the ties between the two cities.