【Summit Senior Figures Interview】Interview with Wang Shujuan, Deputy Director of Qingdao Tourism Bureau: To Hold a Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit with Qingdao Characteristics

On the afternoon of September 20th, Wang Shujuan, Deputy Director of Qingdao Tourism Bureau who just attended the Meeting of the Cruise Committee, was interviewed by media representatives and answered a variety of questions on Qingdao tourism and the holding of 2018 Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit. At the just-concluded council, Qingdao was chosen to host the 2018 Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit.

Wang Shujuan said that Qingdao is not only an open and diversified city, but a famous historical and cultural city. The ancients had Dongyi and Confucian culture; the significant May 4th Movement in Qingdao history. Today the industrial culture is flourishing and Qingdao Beer is famous throughout the world but the most distinctive one is marine culture. Besides the natural landscapes with blue seas and clear skies, national marine technology laboratories are essentially in Qingdao. According to the requirements of tourists, Qingdao now is managing to create rural tourism culture, healthcare culture, and leisure sports culture to develop a new conception of Tourism Plus, all these factors indicates that Qingdao is one of the best cities to develop Region-wide Tourism.

Owing to the abundant tourism resources, Qingdao has received 74.55 million domestic and foreign tourists by 2015 and the revenue of tourism broke ¥128.5 billion. However, it has great disparity in the number of domestic and inbound tourists, thus to strengthen the promotion for overseas tourists to increase the number of inbound tourists is an important goal for Qingdao tourism within the next few years.

"It's a great promoting opportunity for Qingdao to join the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF). Qingdao is among the first batch of members of WTCF and we have carried out a series of promotions with WTCF's strong support and its platform. We took part in the ITB Berlin 2016 with WTCF in the first half of this year, which greatly reduced our promotion costs. The Cruise Committee was founded as well with the support of WTCF and the close cooperation with us. The host right for 2018 Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit is of great importance to the development of Qingdao’s tourism industry."

It's a surprise to win the rights to host the 2018 Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit, though we have no definite plans for preparing the summit at present, what is certain is that: firstly we will determine the summit theme together with WTCF, which will resonate with all member units. Secondly, we should strengthen the promotion with the holding of 2018 Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit to further expand the Qingdao's reputation in the world. Thirdly, drawing from the experiences in Chongqing, we should do well in service work of the summit to make participants deeply feel the hospitality of Qingdao. Fourthly, we should hold a Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit with Qingdao characteristics. In order to bring a pleasant surprise to everyone, I'll give you a hint that we will combine the summit with Qingdao Beer Festival to make participants feel the concept of “Enthusiasm Realizes Dreams.”

Qingdao citizens warmly welcome the tourists from all around the world. We will recommend well-traveled routes exploring historic culture and folk customs to overseas tourists in order to make them feel both the development rate of Qingdao in the past three decades of “Reform and Opening-Up” and the convenience of public infrastructure facilities in DIY and road trip in Qingdao, which could help foreigners travel around Qingdao without any trouble. Our recommended routes include the Old Town of Qingdao, where the Qingdao Landing Stage is located; May Fourth Square, built with modern cultural architecture; and Eight Great Passes, designed with European flavor which is especially colorful in autumn. Tourists can enjoy the snow sight in winter and escape the heat during summer, while there will be hundreds of plants beginning to bloom in spring.

Cruise tourism is another highlight for domestic tourists. Qingdao has carried out a lot of promotions and the number of voyages that we have finished reaches more than 70 and the city keeps striving to create an international cruise hub. So far over 70,000 tourists has gotten into international market through Qingdao Cruise Homeport, especially markets in Northeast Asia, Japan and South Korea, as well as the developing markets in Taiwan and Russia, all these has provided abundant products and routes for tourists who travel by cruise.