Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Friends,

Good morning.

Today, the WTCF Rabat & Fez Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit 2015 is opened in the beautiful city of Rabat. I am entrusted by Chairman Wang Anshun to deliver a welcome address here. The participants of the Summit include 311 representatives of 100 WTCF members from 42 countries, regions and other relevant organizations, Mr. Marcio Favilla, Executive Director of UNWTO, Mr. Duan Qiang, Vice Chairman of WTTC, Ms. Pansy Ho Chiu-king, Vice Chairperson & Secretary General of the Global Tourism Economy Forum, Ms. Shen Tong of PATA and other representatives of international tourism organizations, as well as distinguished guests of the world tourism community and friends from the media. We are also pleased to welcome xxxx of the government of the Kingdom of Morocco, Minister of Morocco National Tourism, leading officials of the major tourism cities of Morocco and our colleagues of the tourism industry to the Summit. On behalf of WTCF, let me extend my warm welcome to all the WTCF members and guests from around the world, and pay sincere tribute to the other distinguished Moroccan guests. I also want to thank our friends for their interest in and long-term support for the work of WTCF.

Over the past year, we have made new progress in delivering the WTCF vision of Better City Life through Tourism.

First, our membership has further expanded. Currently, WTCF has 151 members, including 100 city members and 51 institutional members. Our members include not just world-famous tourism cities like Beijing, Washington D.C., Rome and Berlin, but also companies that are key to the tourism industrial chain, such as Air China, Costa Cruises Shipping Group and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. Our growing membership has laid a sound foundation for the development of WTCF and cooperation among WTCF members.

Second, WTCF has acquired growing influence. Over the past year, WTCF has strengthened exchanges and cooperation with UNWTO, WTTC, PATA, Global Tourism Economy Forum and other international tourism organizations. We have supported each other’s work, jointly hosted tourism activities, and shared the experience in team building and market exploration. WTCF has hosted or co-hosted a number of international conferences, including the Northeast Asia Cruise Industry International Cooperation Forum, the Silk Road Tourism Cooperation Forum and China Smart Cities Investment & Finance Forum. Meanwhile, we have also been invited to several important tourism forums hosted by UNWTO, PATA and other international tourism organizations. These forums have provided us with the opportunity to promote WTCF’s vision and brand image, share our perspectives and suggestions on global tourism development, and strengthen exchanges and communication with the world tourism community.

Third, services for the WTCF members have been strengthened. WTCF attended ITB (Berlin), BITE (Beijing) and other major international exhibitions on behalf of the members who were unable to attend these events upon their authorization to help the members promote their competitive resources and brands. This new form of member services is welcomed by our members. WTCF’s official website now publishes the introduction and tourism information of all our 100 city members and 51 institutional members in both Chinese and English. Our weekly, monthly and bi-monthly magazines, through the provision of more targeted and timely information, have witnessed a boost in circulation. This year, WTCF has published an internal report, the Market Research on Chinese Outbound Tourist (City) Consumption (2014-2015), to help the WTCF members better understand China’s outbound tourism market and improve the guidance for promoting sustainable development of tourism cities.

Fourth, cooperation among WTCF members has become closer. Within the framework of WTCF, the friendly exchanges and cooperation among our city and institutional members have been strengthened and produced fruitful results. For example, the Tourism Administration of Guangzhou Municipality has held tourism promotions, business seminars and other exchange activities in London, Lisbon and Dublin. Costa Cruises Shipping Group has worked with Shanghai, Tianjin and other cities as well as companies such as CYTS, CAISSA Touristic and CTS to develop China’s cruise market. New direct flights between WTCF members, including Beijing-Budapest and Chengdu-Seoul, have been launched. All these exchanges and cooperation have contributed to tourism development in cities and delivered win-win results for all parties.

For the past three years, thanks to the concerted efforts of all WTCF members and the strong support of our friends from the tourism community, WTCF has played a positive and constructive role in leading global tourism development and promoting inter-city exchanges and cooperation, and made its voice heard in the international tourism community. At the same time, through various forms of exchanges and cooperation among its members, WTCF has also provided more development opportunities for the building of a prosperous tourism economy in the world’s cities.

In recent years, despite the sluggish world economy, global tourism has maintained strong growth and served as an important driving force for economic growth and employment. Tourism has also contributed to the integration and mutual learning of different civilizations and boosted the mutual understanding and friendship between people of all countries. As a result, tourism development is receiving the attention and support of more and more national governments. Under the theme Diversity and Sustainability, the Summit aims to explore the diverse cultural dimensions of tourism and ways of tourism development, build a new platform for dialogue of the global tourism industry, improve the quality of tourism services and the benefits of tourism brands, and open up new areas, new markets and new products in the tourism sector. We believe cities are a basic unit of key importance to tourism development and operation. As the world’s first international tourism organization based on cities, we must clearly understand the economic, social and environmental benefits of sustainable tourism development and our important responsibilities in achieving sustainable tourism development. During last year’s summit, WTCF published the Guidelines and Best Practices of Quality Services in Tourism Cities, which called on the cities to pay greater attention to building the network of public services and improving the provision of comprehensive tourism services while developing their tourism industries. WTCF has conducted a long-term research program on the international standards of the services of world tourism cities. In this year’s forum, we will formally publish the Report of World Tourism Cities Development (2015) in order to establish globally applicable indicators and statistical standards for tourism cities evaluation and develop a cooperation mechanism for multi-channel data collection. In the next two years, WTCF will deepen its cooperation with UNWTO on a joint research project of tourism industry performance in cities, which will include case studies and best practices of tourism performance in cities. All these will provide useful guide for the tourism development of world cities.

I hope the WTCF Secretariat and the four branch institutions will take stock of the suggestions and opinions put forward by the parties during the Summit, continue to focus its work on member services, and provide more and better services for the WTCF members. I also hope the members will actively participate in and make full use of the updated WTCF Handbook of Member Services (2015-2016), which will soon be launched by the Secretariat at the Summit. Meanwhile, the role of the WTCF platform should be further explored to innovate exchange and cooperation mechanisms, and encourage the city and institutional members to engage in mutually beneficial exchanges and cooperation at different levels and in different forms.

As the seat of the WTCF headquarters, Beijing will continue to support the building and development of WTCF. We will build on the strong momentum of China’s outbound tourism market and Beijing’s abundant tourism resources to strengthen communication and cooperation with other WTCF members and take the work of WTCF to a new level. Beijing has just won the bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics, and the World Leisure Congress will also be held in Beijing in 2020. All these will inject new impetus to the sustainable development of the tourism industry. Beijing stands ready to work with all the WTCF members to share the opportunities for common progress.

The Rabat & Fez Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit is the first WTCF summit held in African cities. We could not have such a successful summit without the support of the Moroccan government and the relevant institutions of Rabat and Fez. Please accept our most sincere thanks.

To conclude, I wish the WTCF Rabat & Fez Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit 2015 a full success. Let me also thank the Moroccan National Tourist Office, the city of Rabat and the city of Fez for the efforts they have made for the summit. I wish all the members, guests and friends every success with your work and good health. Thank you.