【Summit Senior Figures Interview】Interview with Theresa Belpulsi, the Vice President of Tourism and Visitor Services, Destination DC : Shared Economy Makes Every Tourist Become Local People

On September 20th, during the 2016 Chongqing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit, Ms. Theresa Belpulsi, the Vice President of Tourism and Visitor Services, Destination DC was interviewed by members of the press media and talked about the travel resources of Washington DC and discussed the idea of “shared economy.”

Ms. Belpulsi said that whenever people mention Washington DC, first of all, they think about the White House. Definitely White House is the most famous scenic spot of DC, but other than that, a trip to Washington DC has the potential for more variety. “Over the past few years, with over 8 billion dollars of development that is happening in the city, more and more people are moving into Washington DC now. It really has stood up a lot of new things in the city. And with that becomes new restaurants, new shopping, new infrastructure that is happening inside the city itself. More tourists come to Washington DC for traveling.”

2016 is the China-US Year of Tourism, along with which the Ten Year Visa policy was released providing the great convenience for the Chinese tourists travel to US. “The Ten Year Visa might be a milestone for us. China now has become our No.1 inbound market for oversea visitors as 2 years ago. Last year, Chinese visitors increased by 30% in one year, which is astronomical growth.”

Washington DC and Beijing became sister cities in 1984 and established a city agreement. On September 19th, during the summit Washington DC signed the MOU with Chongqing. Commenting on that, Ms. Belpulsi said that she had been to China a couple of times, however this was the first time she been to Chongqing and she had very good experience in Chongqing. The River Cruise on 19th gave her a very deep impression of Chongqing and she thought that Chongqing is a potential city. “We learn the pillar is about cultural exchange. We try to celebrate each other’s different cultures. I think especially with this particular reason with Chongqing, this is definitely an opportunity for us to partner together. We will exchange different kinds of festivals activities and events”

When mentioning the travel resources of Washington DC, Ms. Belpulsi said that in the past, Chinese people usually stayed in Washington for 2 days and then head to other American cities. She recommends that the proper average stay in Washington DC is about 4 days. “In Washington DC, over 17 museums are free of charge. Last week Bon Appetite Magazine just nominated Washington D.C. the Best Restaurant City in the World for 2016. There is a restaurant road on Fourteen Street in Washington DC that just opened up 40 new restaurants, with 30 different new restaurants opening up in 2017. Shopping is the No.1 thing Chinese people love to do and when they come to Washington DC which is one of the things we build a lot of new infrastructure into the city itself. Also, we are going to have two major music venues. One that’s going to be an indoor venue and one that’s going to be an outdoor venue. And really building up on the river front area to where we can hold festivals and events outside because we are a very outdoor city and people love to absolutely do that. In 2015, we were nominated by Forbes Magazine as America’s Coolest City, and I tell you, it is definitely America’s coolest city.”

It is understood that America is going to welcome over 100 million visitors by 2021, and Ms. Belpulsi thought that in order to reach this goal, shared economy and social media will have to play a very important role. “As I travel in London or Paris I like to stay in Airbnb because people who actually own those facilities are giving me their best tips and I can actually live like a local when I come to the city.” She continued, “People love to tell their story, rather through social media or through shared economy, both of them are great avenues that we definitely utilize those.”

“Times are changing and definitely social media is definitely one of the avenues that we have really invested a lot of money in. Social media has been the one of the things that has really industrialized a lot of time in. We are currently working with WeChat to develop a year-long promotional program with them. We shall work that out probably in the fall of this year.”

When asked about this summit, Ms. Belpulsi said she benefited a lot from this summit, on the occasion of the five anniversary of the establishment of WTCF, Ms. Belpulsi express her best wishes, “Over the past couple of years I have definitely seen the progress that WTCF made. The one great thing about this federation is all about the practice in exchange. It is not just in American cities, but cities all over the world, cities we are familiar with and cities we are not very familiar with. We all learn something from everyone. The best way is to learn and collaborate together and how we can grow tourism in general.”