WTCF Exclusively Co-Hosts International Tourism Exchange Berlin (ITB)

On March 9, 2016, the fiftieth International Tourism Exchange Berlin (ITB) was opened in Berlin with a grand ceremony. As the exclusive co-host of 2016 ITB, World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) led a delegation to attend ITB. On behalf of the 151 members of WTCF, Li Baochun, WTCF Deputy Secretary-General, delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony and congratulated the grand opening of the fiftieth ITB. He briefly introduced the development of WTCF and emphasized the WTCF to be involved with ITB’s core values. Secretary General Li Baochun concluded by extending a sincere welcome to all the global tourism cities and tourism enterprises to participate in the upcoming 2016 Chongqing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit.

ITB was founded in 1966, it is the worlds leading international tourism exhibition, ITB is known for their professionalism, richness and high efficiency in the tourism industry. The total exhibition area of 2016 ITB exceeds 160,000 ㎡ with 850 top buyers, 10,000 exhibitors, 23,000 exhibition visitors and 50,000 individuals from 185 countries and regions attending the event.

The visitor volume of the 2016 ITB trade fair exceeded 115,000 and the total trade volume was expected to reach 67 billion Euros.

In order to promote better exchange, communication and cooperation between world tourism cities, WTCF cooperated with ITB as the exclusive co-host and actively took part in various preparation work of the exhibition. WTCF set its own stand up during the 2016 ITB exhibition while other WTCF city members such as Abidjan, Belgrade, Helsinki, Salonica, Beijing, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Qingdao, Mudanjiang, Yangzhou and Zhangjiajie also participated.

At the exhibition, WTCF organized a forum themed “Chinese Tourism Market” in which Li Baochun, WTCF Deputy Secretary-General analyzed the general trend and main characteristics of China’s outbound and inbound tourism development. He facilitated key aspects for the WTCF to boost the world tourism development and introduced the preparations for the 2016 Chongqing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit. During the forum, Roger Kacou, Tourism Minister of Cote d'Ivoire made a speech and emphasized that Abidjan in Cote d'Ivoire felt greatly honored to join WTCF and be invited to attend WTCF Rabat & Fez 2015 Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit. He hoped in the future, that Cote d'Ivoire can host the Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit. More than 1,200 exhibit representatives attended the forum, afterwards representatives from many cities and enterprises expressed to WTCF their aspirations and ideas to further cooperation.