Targeted Poverty Alleviation in Yushu, Encourage Characteristic Tourism Development

From September 9 to 12, the 2018 International Forum on Characteristic Tourism Development and Poverty Alleviation Cooperation in Western China was held in Yushu, Qinghai. The forum is sponsored by World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF), the People’s Government of Yushu Prefecture, Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development and Beijing Poverty Alleviation Cooperation and Support Office, and organized by the Qinghai Yushu Commanding Office, Xinjiang Hetian Commanding Office and Tibet Lhasa Commanding Office of Beijing Leading Team for Targeted Aid and Economic Cooperation, and the Tourism Administration of Hetian, and the Tourism Administration of Lhasa City. Experts from WTCF Experts Committee, representatives of WTCF international city and institutional members, and more than 100 representatives from Yushu, Hetian and Lhasa were invited to attend the meeting.

The forum included several activities such as the keynote speech, tourism development case sharing, round-table discussion, and others. The aim was to provide an example mode of tourism development for Yushu and other regions in West China through the analysis of featured tourism destination cases and relevant issues discussion, thus promoting the targeted poverty alleviation in the assisted regions.

During the forum, representing WTCF, Wang Ning, Executive Deputy Chairman of the WTCF Council, and Vice-Mayor of Beijing, delivered a speech. He said that the Beijing Municipal Committee, and the municipal government focuses great attention on the collaboration work of poverty alleviation. Secretary Cai Qi and Mayor Chen Jining have held special meetings several times to arrange the deployment of related work. Tourism is the key of collaboration work between Beijing and the western region. To promote the rapid development of tourism collaboration between Beijing and the western region, we need to open up the key links affecting tourism in the two places. Since the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan, Beijing’s investment projects to aid Yushu, Qinghai Province reached 165, totaling the investment to 1.061 billion yuan; its projects to aid Hetian reached 552, totaling the investment to 7.525 billion yuan; and its projects to aid Lhasa tourism reached 22, totaling its investment to 413 million yuan. Tourism is a comprehensive and strategic industry, and works as an important pulling force in pushing forward employment and increasing income; and working hard to conduct tourism alleviation functions as a driving effect in promoting the comprehensive development of western China.

As an international organization based in Beijing, WTCF has successfully held various forums, summarized and analyzed advantages and disadvantages of regional tourism industry development in order to promote the dynamic and sustainable development of regional tourism industry. The forums that WTCF has held, and will be held at a later date includes: the WTCF Asia-Pacific Tourism Conference in Penang, Malaysia; the WTCF Latin America Tourism Conference in Bogota, Columbia; and the European Tourism Conference, which will be held in WTCF member city in Europe at the end of this year. In addition, WTCF uses its think tanks to promote tourism development of Chinese cities in the west, and improve the popularity and influence of western cities in the world tourism industry.

At the forum, CPC Yushu Prefecture Party Secretary Wu Dejun said that since the reconstruction of Yushu after the disaster, a new Yushu has risen up again from the snowy plateau, because of the unselfish assistance of the people from across China and the counterpart support of Beijing as well as the efforts made by the people of the entire prefecture. Basically, equipped with regional tourism industrial development conditions, Yushu has transformed into the land which started late but has advantages, in the cultural tourism industrial development of Qinghai or even the entire Tibetan area. Yushu will build the cultural tourism industry into a strategic pillar industry of the entire prefecture’s national economy, a happiness industrial that is closely associated with the people of the entire prefecture, and an important platform industry used for alleviating poverty and overcoming difficulties. It will further explore the essence of the culture of the Three River Origins (Yangtze River, Yellow River, and Lancang River), attach importance to the holding of the cultural tourism events in which the descendants of the Yan and Yellow Emperors worship the origins of the Three Rivers, and exert to make contributions to the great unity the Chinese nation and to the achieving of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

At the forum, Dimitri Pittet, Economic Officer of the Embassy of Switzerland in China, shared the development experience of Swiss mountain tourism. Tokumura Shisei, member of WTCF Expert Committee, delivered the keynote speech with the theme “Holy Yushu, a City of Excitement”. Their speeches provided ideas for the development of Yushu’s tourism, introduced experiences, guided the direction, and received praises of the guests.

During the round-table discussion, Karl Wöber, Director of Expert Committee of WTCF; Fang Zehua, and Ding Peiyi, members of WTCF Expert Committee; and representatives from CAISSA Touristic, Utour Group Co., Ltd., JTB Corp., BTG International Travel & Tours answered, discussed and analyzed questions raised by Yushu, Hetian, and Lhasa tourism departments.

WTCF was voluntarily formed by famous tourism cities in the world, including Berlin, Barcelona, Los Angeles and others, under the initiative of Beijing. WTCF now has 205 city members, cover 67 countries and territories. Since its establishment in 2012, WTCF has been successfully held the WTCF Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit in Beijing, Rabat, Fez, Chongqing, Los Angeles, and Qingdao. During the summit, WTCF released the Beijing Declaration, Chongqing Declaration, Los Angeles Declaration, as well as the Action Plan for the Brand Building of World Tourism Cities, to introduce sharing economy to the tourism industry and promote global development of the world tourism industry. WTCF has grown into one of the most influential tourism organizations in the world.

Yushu city, located in the southeast of Qinghai province, is the capital city of Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The city, with great development potential, has beautiful natural scenery and a rich and varied history and culture. This place is also called “source of rivers, mother of hills, home of yaks, place of dance and song”, “The Tang-Tibet ancient road”, and “China’s water tower”.