WTCF Chongqing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit 2016 Will Be Held on September 19th - 21nd

On May 26th, WTCF and Chongqing Municipal People’s Government jointly held a press conference for “2016 WTCF Chongqing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit.” Li Shihong, Deputy Director General of China National Tourism Administration; Cheng Hong, Vice Chairperson of the WTCF Council and Deputy Mayor of Beijing; Tan Jialing, Deputy Mayor of Chongqing; Liu Qi, Director General of Chongqing Tourism Administration; and Li Baochun, Deputy Secretary-General of WTCF attended the press conference.

The WTCF Chongqing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit 2016 will be held at Chongqing Yuelai International Convention Center on September 19th to 21nd. This summit will be co-hosted by WTCF and Chongqing Municipal People’s Government, with a theme of “Shared Economy and Development of Tourism Cities.” Seven major events include a general assembly of WTCF members, a council meeting, summit forums, tourism promotions, tourism marketplace, tourism projects investment fair, and an expo of world tourism cities. In accordance with the WTCF Statute, a WTCF General Assembly is held every four years. At this summit the council will decide on some important matters. The summit will release the Chongqing Declaration. The council will also decide on the two host cities where 2017 summit and 2018 summit will be held. One major forum and three sub-forums will be held to discuss “Shared Economy and Development of Tourism Cities.” Ten tourism promotions will be arranged. Thirty famous overseas wholesalers will be invited to trade with about 100 local travel agencies of Chongqing. Members will be asked to bring their tourism projects to negotiate with 20 investment and fund managers. It is estimated that about 400 representatives from more than 100 tourism cities, more than 50 travel institutions and international tourism organizations, and about 100 representatives from world-famous tourism media will be present at the summit.

WTCF is a non-governmental organization formed under the initiative of Beijing, Berlin, Los Angeles, Barcelona and other famous tourism cities around the world. With its headquarters based in Beijing, WTCF is the first city-based international tourism organization in the world. WTCF currently has 174 members, consisting of 117 city members and 57 institutional members. In 2015, WTCF was awarded WTM's annual World Travel Leaders Award in London. This award aims at rewarding the unit or individual that has made great contributions and has great influence on the world tourism industry every year. WTCF is welcomed by its members, as it has provided many services to its members, including participation in meetings and exhibitions, marketing of We-Media, investment and financing of tourism projects, strategy consultation, trade fairs, promotions, customized service, and industry based training projects, etc.

Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit has previously been held for four times and is a major platform for WTCF for exchanges and cooperation between tourism cities worldwide. The first three summits were held in Beijing and the fourth one was held at Rabat and Fès in Morocco. In 2015, based on a vote, WTCF Council decided to authorize the hosting rights of 2016 Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit to Chongqing.

Tourism is a natural form of shared economy, and cities are the basic units of world tourism. Shared economy can mobilize various kinds of city resources and realize efficient allocation of resource factors. In order to promote the sustainable development of world tourism cities, we must give full play to the integrating role of sharing economy and promote the benign interaction between cities and tourism. As one of the initiators of WTCF, Chongqing has made great achievements in promoting shared economy. With “Shared Economy and Development of Tourism Cities” as its theme, this summit aims at summarizing Chongqing’s experience to bring the concept of shared economy to the development of world tourism and promote the sustainable, intensive, and efficient development of world tourism.

This summit has the following characteristics and highlights:

First, Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit used to consist of forums, promotions, tourism marketplace, and expo of world tourism cities. This year, tourism investment fair will be added. Meanwhile, Chongqing also has an international tourism carnival and various tourism routes, which will enrich the content of the summit.

Second, research reports will continue to be released. Annual Report on Development of World Tourism Cities and Market Research Report on Chinese Outbound Tourist City Consumption are the two main reports released by WTCF. During this summit, these two reports will be released, and the trend of world tourism development will be discussed at a higher level. Additionally, the “Report of a Case Study on Chongqing’s Building of World-famous Tourist Destinations” will also be released.

Third, at the 2016 Summit, the WTCF Chongqing Declaration will be issued, which is a goal-oriented, programmatic, and instructional document for the future development of WTCF. It will explain the relationship between tourism development and shared economy, challenges, and opportunities brought by shared economy for tourism cities. It will propose some measures for tourism cities to usher in the era of shared economy.

Fourth, the Committee of Tourism Investment will be founded with more than 400 members participating and is in charge of more than one trillion CNY, combined. Equity Investment Association of China will become the secretariat to initiate the founding of a committee of investment.

Fifth, during the summit, Chongqing will launch a tourism brand of “Beautiful Chongqing-A City of Landscape.” Together with its tourism plan of “One Center and Three Belts,” Chongqing will further improve its international popularity and influence, and promote the building of world-famous tourist destinations.

Chongqing government paid special attention to the 2016 Summit and specially formulated the summit preparatory work plan; they also made targeted arrangements for the preparatory work. The government also assigned specified tasks and responsibilities to the staff for the summit, and also formed the dense atmosphere “Welcome the summit, build a world-renowned tourism destination” around the whole city.

WTCF and Chongqing Municipal People’s Government have been well prepared to hold a summit in a non-capital city in China for the first time. We sincerely invite tourism organizations, tourism cities, tourism enterprises, news media, and travel enthusiasts from all around the world to sign up for the summit. We wish great success for the WTCF Chongqing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit 2016!