Chen Jining, Chairman of WTCF Council and Mayor of Beijing: Act and Innovate for Recovery and Prosperity of World Tourism

Chen Jining, Chairman of WTCF Council and Mayor of Beijing delivers a speech

On September 5th, as one of the four summit forums to be held during 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), the World Conference on Tourism Cooperation and Development hosted by the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF), opened at the China National Convention Center in Beijing. Chen Jining, Chairman of WTCF Council and Mayor of Beijing, attended the opening ceremony of the conference and delivered a speech. Chen Jining said, "WTCF holds the conference with the aim of analyzing the impact of the pandemic on the global tourism industry, jointly discussing the cooperation and development of world tourism amid the continued spread of the pandemic, and boosting confidence in the development of world tourism."

Since the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has spread globally, causing a serious impact on world economic development, with tourism being one of the sectors most affected by the pandemic. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, the number of international tourists worldwide in 2020 will decrease by approximately 80% compared to last year, and the loss of tourism revenue will exceed 1 trillion US dollars. "The more we face difficulties, the more we need to strengthen confidence, unite and cooperate." Chen Jining said in his speech that tourism is a resilient and comprehensive industry, and the occurrence of large-scale pandemics often triggers major changes in tourism consumption and tourism services. However, historical experience often gives people more confidence to cope with today's challenges and better grasp the opportunities arising from the impact of this pandemic. He said, "The COVID-19 pandemic has not changed people's love for tourism, but has given rise to a new model of decentralized, personalized, customized and reservation-based tourism, bringing new opportunities for the rebuilding of tourism and economic recovery. Tourism professionals in all countries need to act proactively and strive to innovate, in order to jointly create favourable conditions for the industry's recovery."

Chen Jining pointed out that the rebuilding of the tourism industry is not simply starting all over again, rather, transformation and upgrading is the general trend. At the opening ceremony, Chen Jining, on behalf of the WTCF, issued a three-point initiative to the world tourism cities and tourism practitioners: the first is to effectively strengthen international cooperation in pandemic prevention and control. In view of the potential long-term risk of the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism cities should actively establish a rapid collection and feedback mechanism of pandemic prevention and control information, implement strict screening and control measures, promote a convenient and efficient information sharing system of personal health and safety, introduce safer and more convenient border detection measures, and strengthen risk control. In particular, tourism cities should strengthen cooperation, jointly develop mutually recognized standards for tourism risk assessment, carry out objective and fair evaluation of tourism risk levels, and establish bilateral or multilateral information exchange mechanisms to timely share information and experience. Secondly, we should advocate a green and healthy way of tourism. Each tourism city should understand that people now value health more, formulate tourism behaviour norms in line with the requirements of pandemic prevention and control, encourage tourists to pay more attention to environmental protection, resource recycling, pay more attention to their own health and public safety, and promote a greener and healthier way of tourism consumption. Tourism enterprises should make full use of modern scientific and technological means, actively promote tourism product innovation, focus on developing cultural experience tourism, wellness and sports tourism, digital virtual tourism and other new forms of tourism, so as to boost the development of smart tourism and smart cities. Meanwhile, we should strengthen industry regulations in market competition and food safety, and jointly build a symbiotic tourism ecosystem covering the region and even the world, in order to comprehensively promote the green, healthy and sustainable development of the world tourism industry. Third, we will actively help tourism enterprises and tourism practitioners. It is hoped that governments of all countries shall take active measures to support the transformation and development of tourism enterprises, help them adopt new technologies and new tools, improve their operational efficiency, place greater emphasis on staff training and provide sufficient support for tourism practitioners in adapting the requirements of new business models and new formats as soon as possible.

Beijing is the headquarters of the WTCF, a famous historical and cultural city with deep roots, and a modern international metropolis full of vitality. As the mayor of Beijing, Chen Jining particularly mentioned that, in response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Beijing resolutely implemented the requirements of the Chinese government on the pandemic prevention and control, and scientifically, accurately, vigorously and orderly promoted various prevention and control, rapidly controlled the spread of COVID-19 within the city, and created good conditions for rebuilding tourism and economic recovery.

"The personal experience of coordinating pandemic prevention and control as well as promoting economic and social development has reinforced our belief that unity and wisdom will eventually help us overcome difficulties and challenges." Chen Jining said, "As long as all tourism cities and tourism practitioners take positive actions, a better tomorrow will definitely come to the world tourism industry and the world economy!"