WTCF Secretariat Attends the 2018 Dalian China-Japan Tourism Communication Convention (Forum)

The “Pagoda Tree Flower Viewing”, 2018 Dalian China-Japan Tourism Communication Convention (Forum) and the 28th Japan Kitamae-bune Harbour Forum was held in Dalian from May 26 to 28. Nearly one thousand representatives from China, Japan, Germany, Russia, South Korea, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Malaysia attended the convention of which about 900 were Japanese representatives including senior government officials Mr. Toshihiro Nikai, Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party; Shigeyuki Tomita, member of the New Komeito Party, serving in the House of Representatives in the national legislature, as well as 17 Japanese City mayors and supervisors from tourism companies. Li Jinzao, Vice Minister of Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China; Hao Chunrong, Vice Governor of Liaoning Province; Tan Zuojun, Secretary of the CPC Dalian Municipal Committee; Tan Chengxu, Mayor of Dalian City; as well as other 9 mayors and vice mayors of China attended the event.

The convention consisted of the opening ceremony, keynote speech, round table conference, forum, China-Japan enterprise fair, cruise cooperation conference, tourism promotion, etc. Mr. Li Baochun, Executive Deputy Secretary-General of WTCF delivered a speech during the opening ceremony. He introduced the development of WTCF in recent years and the current situation of China and Japan tourism communication.

He says that China and Japan are close neighbors although they are separated by the sea. The two nations are geographically near each other, have close economic and trading ties, and mutually serve as tourist source nations and destinations. In recent years, the two nations have increasingly tightened their tourism communication, the number of tourists from the two nations visiting each other has constantly increased, and this fact has turned out to be an importance driving force for pushing forward regional fusion and cooperation. In 2017, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Japan reached 7,360,000, with a growth increase of 15%, and accounts for 1/4 of the total number of inbound tourists to Japan. The Chinese mainland has long become Japan’s largest tourist source market. The number of Japanese tourists visiting China has reached 2,680,000, with a growth increase of 3.6%, and accounts for 9.2% of the total number of inbound tourists to China. At present, some Japanese institutions and a city of Japan have become the institutional and city members of WTCF, including JTB Corp., All Nippon Airways (ANA), Okura Nikko Hotel Management Co., Ltd., and Sapporo. He says that he hopes that, taking the Dalian Convention (Forum) as an opportunity, the two parties can further deepen their understanding and cooperation in the tourism industry. At the same time, he welcomes more renowned Japanese tourist destination cities and travel enterprises to join WTCF to achieve the win-win development.

Li Baochun accepted the exclusive interview from the News Center of Dalian Radio and TV station