WTCF Helsinki Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit 2019 will kick off in Helsinki this September

Better City Life through Tourism. This September, Helsinki will take a grand event as a chance to bring new vitality to its city life.

From September 2nd through the 4th, the WTCF Helsinki Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit 2019, co-hosted by World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) and Helsinki will be held in the esteemed Finland Hall, Helsinki. Themed on “Smart Tourism — Road to City Innovation and Development”, the summit will promote the world tourism industry to achieve another leap.

As the organizer of the summit, the WTCF was voluntarily formed by renowned cities in the sector and tourism-related institutions in the world under the initiative of Beijing. Additionally, it is the world’s first international tourism organization focusing on cities. Since it was established in 2012, the WTCF has successfully hosted the Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit seven times. Starting with 58 founding members, the WTCF has now grown into an international tourism organization with a total of 218 members, covering 73 countries and territories.

Celebrities gather at the summit, authorities lead the trend of smart tourism

With the aforementioned theme of “Smart Tourism — Road to City Innovation and Development”, the summit consists of the Opening Ceremony and the Keynote Speech, the Fourth Meeting of the Second Council, the Special Dialogues, the Press Conference, the Tourism Trade Fair, the Tourism Exhibition, the Theme Forum, the Closing Ceremony, the WTCF Flag Handover Ceremony and others. There will be about 40 tourism ministers, mayors from around the world, and key leaders from international organizations such as the UNWTO and the SCO to attend the summit. Now the summit has attracted more than 500 delegates from nearly 100 cities in about 60 countries.

During the Special Dialogue segment, participants will focus on specific initiatives that will take center stage such as City Innovation Practice of Smart Tourism, Resource Integration Energizes Intelligent Development of Tourism Destinations (i.e. Fosun Tourism Group’s acquisition of Club Med), Smart Tourism City Development: Challenges & Opportunities and other topics, deeply concerning the bi-directional drive between smart tourism and city development. The Sofa Forum will invite guests to conduct in-depth discussion on trends and progressive issues in the world's tourism industry by focusing on subjects including Cultural Heritage & Creative Industry, Intelligent Tourism City Marketing, Connectivity and Tourism Growth, Technological Innovation & Sustainable Travel, etc.

Fruitful academic achievements providing theoretical guidance for the development of tourism cities

Smart tourism is the developmental trend of the cultural tourism industry under the background of big data. This summit focuses on the frontiers of the industry, aiming to form an instructive outcome.

At the summit, the WTCF will sign a memorandum of understanding with the UNWTO, and two sides will cooperate in various areas of city development. In addition, the Global Report on Smart Tourism in Cities and the Annual Report on Development of World Tourism Cities (2019) will be released at the summit. Among them, the Global Report on Smart Tourism in Cities will provide a smart plan for the development of world tourism referencing six cities, with Beijing and Helsinki included in the lineup, as well as the research and practice of smart tourism in institutions such as MIT and Tencent highlighting six dimensions of the sector such as resource attractiveness, industrial competitiveness, tourism support, tourism convenience, etc. to analyze common challenges the world's tourism cities are faced with. The Annual Report on Development of World Tourism Cities (2019) will propose countermeasures for the development of tourism cities and releases the compound index ranking the top 6 cities and sub-index ranking the top 20 cities.

Hosting the Tourism Trade Fair to build an industry service platform for members

The Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit is dedicated to promoting the development of the tourism industry. It not only provides a platform for participants’ communication and exchanges, but also provides opportunities for cities and institutions to introduce resources and promote products. The Tourism Trade Fair and the Tourism Exhibition will also be held during the summit. A total of 18 institutional members including CAISSA, Utour, Ctrip, Tuniu, CITS, CTS, CYTS, etc. will conduct business negotiations with many companies within the tourism, hotel and cruise industries in Finland to promote seamless development.

After seven years’ development, Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit has achieved fruitful results, and continues to promote the appeal, capacity, leadership and influence of the WTCF in the tourism industry. As the host city of this year’s summit and a city member of the WTCF, Helsinki has become one of the most livable cities in the world with its high-level of modernization and happiness among residents. Its active exploration in the field of smart tourism will definitely add new impetus to this summit, and promote innovation, balance, tolerance and sustainable development of the global tourism industry.