2018 WTCF Latin America Tourism Conference held in Bogota

The 2018 WTCF Latin America Tourism Conference took place in Bogota, capital of Colombia from April 23 to 25. Among more than 200 attendees were representatives from city members and institutional members of the WTCF in Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Panama, Brazil, the U.S.A and China, media representatives, as well as tourism representatives from Colombia. This is a regional international tourism conference hosted by the WTCF and the Bogota City Council.

Cheng Hong, Executive Vice Chairperson of WTCF Council delivers a speech on the opening ceremony

The conference was themed "Latin America-New Power of World Tourism". With beautiful natural landscape, as well as time-honored history and culture, Latin America is a major tourist destination with huge potential. However, affected by traffic, language and other factors, Latin America holds a small share in the international tourism market, and there is large room for Latin America to develop world high-end tourist destinations and the Asian tourism market. Colombia is Latin America's fourth-largest economy, as well as one of the most energetic emerging economies in the world; and its capital Bogota is a renowned tourism center in Latin America. With the change of the pattern of world tourism development, Latin America's role in the world tourism system has become increasingly prominent.

Enrique Peñalosa, Mayor of Bogota delivers a speech on the opening ceremony

According to the Report on World Tourism Economy Trends (2018), in 2017, America registered tourist arrivals of 1.875 billion and total tourism revenues of 1.62 trillion U.S. dollars, up 1.9 percent and 4.9 percent from 2016 respectively; Brazil registered tourist arrivals of 180 million, ranking eighth in the world; Mexico registered total tourism revenues of 140 billion U.S. dollars, ranking ninth in the world. America's total tourist arrivals and total tourism revenues are expected to reach 1.917 billion and 1.73 trillion U.S. dollars in 2018 respectively; America's total tourist arrivals will grow by 2.2 percent, up slightly from 2017 and America's total tourism revenues will grow by 6.2 percent, up 1.3 percent from 2017. Emerging economies' total tourist arrivals and total tourism revenues are expected to grow by 8.7 percent and 9.3 percent in 2018 respectively.

Li Nianping, Chinese Ambassador to Colombia delivers a speech on the opening ceremony

Through the conference, the WTCF hopes to showcase Latin America's tourist resources, further enhance its reputation in the world tourism market, promote the collaborative development of Latin America's tourism and global tourism, and make a greater contribution to the economic, social and urban sustainability of Latin America.

Oscar Rueda, Colombian Ambassador to China delivers a speech on the opening ceremony

At the opening ceremony, Cheng Hong, Executive Vice Chairperson of the WTCF Council; Enrique Peñalosa, Mayor of Bogota; Li Nianping, Chinese Ambassador to Colombia; Oscar Rueda, Colombian Ambassador to China and Patricia Juarez Gallegos, Deputy Mayor of Lima delivered addresses. Song Yu, Secretary-General of the WTCF and Sandra Howard, Colombia's Deputy Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism delivered keynote speeches.

Patricia Juarez. Deputy Mayor of Lima delivers a speech on the opening ceremony

At the two forums themed "Tourism Cooperation between China and Latin America" and "Promotion & Marketing of Tourism Destination Products" respectively, tourism department administrators, senior executives of travel agencies, experts and scholars aired opinions.

Song Yu, WTCF Secretary-General delivers a speech on the opening ceremony

Sandra Howard, Deputy Minister of Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism delivers a speech on the opening ceremony

The Tourism Trade Fair, All Day Tourism B2B Meeting, International Tourist Destinations Promotion and Marketing Training and other events were held concurrently. Travel agencies and OTAs, including WTCF members-China International Travel Service, Tuniu, China Comfort Travel, Utour, Beijing Travel Service, Sunshine International Tours and Caissa, conducted one-on-one negotiation with Colombian and Latin American tourism enterprises. Latin American tourism enterprises promoted Latin American tourism products among Chinese tourism enterprises, taking on a warm atmosphere. Most renowned Chinese print media, television stations and network media, including Xinhua News Agency, CRI Online, Travel Channel and Sina, covered the conference at the invitation of the WTCF and the Bogota Tourism Board.

Tourism Trade Fair was held during the conference

With the core concept of "Better City Life through Tourism", the WTCF is committed to pushing forward member connectivity and integration, promoting exchanges among members and mutual learning among civilizations, building a bridge of friendship and progress between members, and forging towards the goal of tourism sustainability and world peace and prosperity!

Background

Currently the WTCF has 13 city members in 10 Latin American countries, including Bogota, Cartagena, Buenos Aires, Lima, Quito, Montevideo, Puerto Aysen, Valparaiso, Punta del Este, Cumana, Belo Horizonte, Monterey, Panama City.

The WTCF has paid close attention to enhancing the influence of city members in Latin America, built a homepage for each, opened columns on magazines, and introduced and recommended their tourism resources and information on magazines, WeChat, Weibo and Apps.

The Technical Workshop: "UNWTO-WTCF City Tourism Performance Research", hosted by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the Buenos Aires Bureau of Tourism, was held in Buenos Aires on September 26, 2017, with the participation of more than 100 representatives from the UNWTO, the WTCF, the National Institute of Tourism Promotion Argentina, as well as national and municipal tourism departments in Latin America. The workshop promoted exchanges and cooperation among the WTCF's city members and Latin American members.