2012-2016 Fragrant Hills Tourism Summits

WTCF Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit is an important annual event of the Federation, attracting international tourism organizations, government officials of tourism cities and senior executives of tourism-related institutions from all over the world. Through five successful sessions, it has grown into a comprehensive platform of the tourism community for promoting exchanges, enhancing cooperation, boosting economic growth and building consensus of member cities and institutions. Major media organizations in the world, including leading newspapers and magazines, TV channels, websites and social media sites, have provided all-round coverage of the Summit to countries and regions across the world, attracting the attention of tens of millions of readers and viewers.

The 2017 Los Angeles Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit will be held soon, and let's have a look back at the primary coverage, fruitful results and wonderful moments of the previous summits held from 2012-2016. 

 WTCF 2012 Beijing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit

Better City life through tourism

The Inaugural Meeting of World Tourism Cities Federation(WTCF) & Beijing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit was held on 14-16 September, 2012 in Beijing under the theme of “Better City Life through Tourism”. Of WTCF’s 24 international city members, 23 sent representatives to the meeting. London also attended the meeting as an observer. All of the 23 Chinese city members (including Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Macau Special Administrative Region) and 11 institutional members attended the meeting. The mayors of Busan, Dublin, Riga and Victoria attended the meeting in person

The meetings included the following agenda: the WTCF General Assembly, during which the Statutes of WTCF and other relevant rules as well as the WTCF emblem, flag and logo were adopted; the Council Meeting, which selected the first WTCF Council, and recommended Wang Anshun, Mayor of Beijing, as the Chairman of the WTCF Council and appointed Lu Yong as the WTCF Secretary-General. The representatives participating in the meeting unanimously adopted the Beijing Declaration.

The first World Tourism Cities Expo, the World Tourism Cities Film Festival, the World Tourism Cities Beijing Gourmet Food Festival, the Closing & Award Ceremony of the Beijing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit and workshops were held during the summit, building a new platform for exchanges among the WTCF members. The publication of the research outcomes of tourism experts, i.e. the World Tourism Cities Evaluation System and the Comprehensive Evaluation Indicator System of the Tourism Industry, which provided the theoretical foundation for promoting the social and economic development of world tourism cities, was highly commended by the participants.

In addit ion, of the wor ld’s three leading tour ism organizations, CEO and President of the World Tourism and Travel Council, and CEO of Pacific Asia Travel Association attended and addressed the meeting, and Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization delivered a video message.

2012 Summit Main Activities

  - Gourmet Food Festival

  - World Tourism Cities Film Festival

  - General Assembly and Council

  - World Tourism Cities Expo

  - Beijing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit Forum

  - Inaugural Meeting

  - Award Ceremony

WTCF 2013 Beijing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit

Tourism: new driver of sustainabie urban development

From 11 to 14 September 2013, the 2nd Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit was held in Beijing. Featuring the theme of “Tourism: New Driver of Sustainable Urban Development”, the Summit was attended by 102 WTCF members. The Beijing Consensus , framework of tourism service guidelines of world tourism cities, was signed and released during the Summit, and the World Tourism Cities Evaluation System was launched. The Committee of Tourism-Related Businesses, Committee of Civil Aviation and Committee of Media Organizations were founded during the Summit, and four panel discussions were held on the topics of city tourism, civil aviation services, tourism services and media services. The first World Tourism Cities Experience Center started trial operation.

WTCF signed a memorandum of understanding with cities like Athens and Valletta, and built a platform for communication and cooperation among the world’s tourism cities, demonstrating the vigor and strength of WTCF as a rising international tourism organization.

2013 Summit Main Activities

  - Opening Ceremony

  - Second Meeting of WTCF Council

  - WTCF World Tourism Cities Expo 2013

  - Promotion Event of the World Tourism Cities Experience Center

  - Cities Tourism Forums

  - Closing Ceremony

WTCF 2014 Beijing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit

World Tourism Cities: market and cooperation

From 4 to 5 September 2014, the 3rd Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit was held in Beijing. The Summit was attended by some 600 participants, including nearly 100 city members and target cities invited by WTCF; representatives of about 85 founding members of the Committee of Tourism-Related Businesses, Committee of Civil Aviation and Committee of Media Organizations; members of the Expert Committee, United Nations representatives, and representatives of the world’s three leading tourism organizations. The theme of the summit was: World Tourism Cities: Market and Cooperation.

2014 Summit Main Activities

  - Opening Ceremony

  - The Third Meeting of WTCF Council

  - Summit Forum

  - Tourism Cities Expo

  - Marketplace

  - Tourism Promotion

  - Closing Ceremony

2014 Summit Achievements

  - Unprecedented Scale and Rich Content

  - With an Emphasis on Professionalism and Effectiveness, the Marketplace Offers a New Platform for Expanding Tourism Trade

  - The Summit Forum Provided More Information and Opportunities for the Participants

  - WTCF Set up Different Kinds of We-media Platforms with the Purpose of Improving the Quality of Member Services

  - WTCF Council Decided to Hold the Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit Alternately Between Member Cities Inside and Outside of China

WTCF Rabat & Fez Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit 2015

World Tourism Cities: diversity and sustainability

The fourth WTCF Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit was held in Rabat & Fez, Morocco, under the theme of “World Tourism Cities: Diversity and Sustainability” from 20 to 22 September 2015.

The 2015 Summit was attended by some 400 participants, including 311 representatives of 100 WTCF members, i.e. 69 cities and 31 institutions from 42 countries and regions, and other invited guests. Focusing on the theme of “Diversity and Sustainability”, this year’s summit discussed several tourismrelated topics in the context of the constant development of the global tourism market, including highlighting the tourism features of cities, cultivating urban tourism brands, improving tourists’ consumption experience, serving diversified tourism demand with new marketing tools, promoting the sustainable development of tourism, protecting the ecological environment, cultural diversity and inheritance of tourism destinations. The Summit also included activities such as tourism promotion, expo and marketplace to strengthen cooperation among members and promote development of tourism industry.

2015 Summit Main Activities

  - Night of Beijing

  - Intangible Cultural Heritage Exhibition

  - Member Image Show

  - Opening Ceremony

  - Council Meeting

  - Marketplace

  - Closing Ceremony

  - Fireworks Show

2015 Summit Achievements

  - Concluding MOU with UNWTO

  - Tourism Fair

  - WTCF Organized a Tour of 1,000 Chinese Tourists to Morocco

  - Releasing the Manual of Member Service Projects

  - Releasing the Performance Report for World Tourism Cities

  - Launching the Annual Report on Development of World Tourism Cities (2014), a Result of the Research on the Development Index of World Tourism Cities

  - Releasing the Market Research Report on Chinese Outbound Tourist (City) Consumption (2014 - 2015)

World Tourism Cities Federation Chongqing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit 2016

Shared Economy And The Development Of World Tourism Cities

From September 19th to 20th, the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) Chongqing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit 2016 was held in Chongqing, China. About 400 guests from 89 cities, 57 tourism-related institutions and 6 international organizations attended this year's summit. Member attendance exceeded 80%. Representatives and officers from embassies and consulates attended the summit, including: the United Nations (UN), the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), the Global Tourism Economy Forum (GTEF) and the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA); the Colombian Ambassador to China, the Austrian Ambassador to China, the British Consul General in Chongqing, the Consul General of Italy in Chongqing, the Consul General of Japan in Chongqing, the Consul General of the Netherlands in Chongqing, the Consul General of Cambodia in Chongqing, the Consul General of Hungary in Chongqing, the Consul General of the United States in Chengdu, the Consul General of Australia in Chengdu, Deputy Consul General of Israel in Chengdu, Commercial Officer of the Consulate General of France in Chengdu. Mayors and vice mayors from 20 cities around the world also joined the event.

More than 120 news agencies from all over the world reported on the summit including Xinhua News Agency, China Central Television (CCTV), People's Daily, CNN, BBC and China Daily, which covers a number of countries and regions from around the world.

2016 Summit Main Activities

  - Opening and Closing Ceremonies

  - Electing of WTCF new council and host cities of 2017/2018 Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit

  - Fragrant Hills Summit Forums

  - Tourism Presentation, Tourism Marketplace and Tourism Investment Fair

  - World Tourism Cities Expo

  - Achievements of 2016 Summit

  - Theme of the summit attracted massive attention

  - Released the World Tourism Cities Federation Chongqing Declaration indicated that sharing economy will lead the development of world tourism cities

  - Released research results of World Tourism Cities Development Report

  - Established the Committee of Tourism Investment Branch and got great achievements in Tourism Investment Fair

  - Signed a number of cooperation agreements to create a platform for city members cooperate and communicate with each other