WTCF Forges Close Ties With SCO to Promote Tourism Along the “Belt & Road”

According to the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) and China Tourism News on May 11th, WTCF Secretariat and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Secretariat plan to sign a framework agreement regarding tourism cooperation.

The mutual cooperation agreement covers a wide array of topics including publicizing China and historical and the cultural heritage of the countries and cities along the Silk Road Economic Belt, co-hosting SCO’s Secretariat Open Day, and co-planning promotional brochures for SCO and its members. It is agreed that the nonprofit collaboration between WTCF and SCO will be conducted on the principle of mutual benefit.

Song Yu, WTCF Secretary-General, said that the cooperation between WTCF and SCO will enhance communication and understanding among the member countries’ tourism cities by building collaborative platforms such as the Belt and Road tourism corridor.

Recent years have witnessed the WTCF’s continuing efforts in promoting sustainable development and cooperation among the tourism cities along the Belt and Road. During the WTCF Rabat & Fez Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit 2015 held in the Kingdom of Morocco, the topic “Diversified Development in the Tourism Cities Along the Belt and Road” was tailor-made for the WTCF members in the West Asia and the North Africa. Additionally, a special program with the theme “Thousands of Chinese Tourists to Magnificent Morocco” was officially launched.

In January 2016, the International Forum on “One Belt One Road & Tourism Cooperation” was held in Altay, member of WTCF. In March 2017, the WTCF Asia Pacific Tourism Conference was held in Penang, the famous Malaysian tourism city, with the theme “One Belt One Road: Development of Tourism Corridor and City Hub.”

The Belt and Road Initiative that links China with Asia-Pacific and European economic zones is of strategic importance. It covers more than 60 countries, benefits a total of 4.4 billion individuals or 63 percent of the global population, and registers a collective GDP of 23 trillion U.S. dollars that accounts for 29 percent of the world's wealth.

Statistics suggest that tourism consumption in the countries along the Belt and Road accounts for over 70 percent of the world’s tourism consumption. In 5 years, some 150 million outbound trips along with around 200 billion U.S. dollars of tourism consumption will be made to countries along the Belt and Road region and 85 million tourists from the Belt and Road countries are expected to visit China.

According to Song Yu, WTCF is expected to boost world tourism by enhancing cooperation among its members worldwide, developing a batch of boutique tour packages, and building key node cities along the Belt and Road Tourism City Corridor. To achieve this goal, WTCF will further develop its Node Cities members, develop new tourism products and routes, and build efficient innovative collaborative platforms for cooperation, market standard, and tourism promotion.

So far, 57 city members of WTCF are distributed along the 19 Belt and Road countries, among which 28 are in China, and 29 are in Europe and other parts of Asia.