【Record】Forum I: Tourism as a Catalyst for the Revitalization of the World Economy

Time: 10:40-11:50, 5th, September

Moderator: Tiger Wu, WTCF Expert, Professor of Peking University

Keynote Speech: Chang Yang, Vice President of Alibaba Group

Panelist: David Pipinashvili, Minister Counselor, Embassy of the Republic of Georgia in China

                Roger Chen, Chairman of Carnival Group Asia

                Anouar Chetoui, Chief Rept. of Tunisian National Tourist Office Beijing

                Yu Dunde, Founder and CEO of Tuniu Corporation

                Wang Chunfeng, Vice President of Utour Group

Tiger Wu, WTCF Expert, Professor of Peking University, was moderating the forum.

Moderator: Good morning everyone. I'm delighted to have this opportunity to convene this conference with you at a time when global attention is focused on rebuilding tourism. My role is to moderate this phase of the sofa forum and organize the presentation phase. The theme of this phase is tourism as a catalyst for the revitalization of the world economy, or tourism once again as an important enabler of the recovery of the world economy.

We have this segment organized in such a way. First, let's welcome a keynote guest to give a keynote speech on tourism as a catalyst of the world economy. Next, five guests will come up to the stage together for a sofa forum.

First of all, let us invite the first keynote guest to give a speech. He is from Alibaba Group. As we all know, Alibaba is the world's largest e-commerce platform, and has played a full role in this anti-epidemic process. The keynote speaker, Mr. Chang Yang, is also my alumnus of Peking University. What will he share with us? Now let's welcome Mr. Chang Yang.

Chang Yang, Vice President of Alibaba Group

Chang Yang: Hello, distinguished guests. I am very honored to have the opportunity to participate in this forum. As a representative of an enterprise, today I would like to share our findings, that is, our practice, amid the impact of the epidemic on the tourism industry. I hope this sharing can bring you some new ideas.

As for the impact of the epidemic on the tourism industry, the guests have just shown the shocking figures, so I won't go any further. Undoubtedly, this epidemic is a major crisis for the tourism industry. But in the development of all industries, the "crisis" and "opportunity" coexist at the same time. When there is “crisis”, there is “opportunity”. Who is the opportunity for? Opportunity must be for those who are good at thinking, at summing up, and at turning this thinking into innovative actions.

Let's look at the thinking part first, from the impact of this epidemic on the tourism industry and various industries, what is our thinking?

We have seen the impact of this epidemic around the world and have summed it up in three aspects: the first is the acceleration of digitalization; the second is the growth of new business forms; and the third is the change in consumption power.

The first is the acceleration of digitalization. The epidemic is certainly a process of compellent acceleration of the popularization of the Internet for all industries. Many people aged 50, 60, 70, and even 80, who have never used the Internet, had to force themselves to learn and use it during this epidemic. We can also see a lot of companies, including those in culture and tourism industry, who were already thinking about how to push digitalization to keep doing business when the epidemic first started. We can see that in many tourism attractions, although the number of tourists to the scenic spot is drastically reduced or they even stopped going there, these tourist attractions made many short videos and other media forms to maintain the popularity of this scenic spot among tourists through online communication. We call this "recommendation", and the act of "recommendation" has been ongoing.

The second is the growth of new business forms. In addition to tourism industry, we found that during the epidemic, many new industries suddenly appeared, such as meetings at home and classes at home. At the same time, the offline business of the culture and tourism industry has gradually stopped, but online performances have sprung up. What had never happened in the theater, or in a concert, now happened online. The growth of the new business form is the second finding in the epidemic phase.

The third is the change in consumption power. The original habit of users is to travel offline, watch performances offline, and so on. But during the epidemic, there was also a strong demand for culture at home, so watching various performances online, including online museum tours shared by the guest just now, is also a new trend. We believe the epidemic cannot make people give up their desire for a better life, or for tourism, which is something wonderful.

As the epidemic gets under control, more and more people go to travel. We believe that the impact of the epidemic on everyone will be reflected in consumption power, so people will pay more attention to the experience and the cost-effectiveness of tourism. Therefore, digitalization, new business forms and changes in consumption power amid the epidemic are worth more thinking.

The main theme of the conference is how we can accelerate the recovery of the tourism industry. We believe that accelerating the recovery of the tourism industry requires not only the efforts that have been made in the tourism industry and continuous improvement, but also the addition of new engines to the tourism industry. Newton's fundamental law tells us that acceleration can only be achieved with new engines. As for the new engines, we Alibaba mainly share our practice from three aspects: the first is IP-based, the second is digitalization and the third is ecologization. We believe these three aspects will bring new engines to the culture and tourism industry.

The first one is IP-based, we have observed that places with stories are relatively less hit by this epidemic. As we know, a good drama can drive a city's tourism industry and even a country's tourism industry. In Suzhou, there is a very hot restaurant, which was relatively little affected during the epidemic. It is because the restaurant has appeared in a very good TV show. So IPs that have nice stories and evoke long-lasting emotions can give a strong impetus to tourism.

The second is digitalization. We believe that we can through digitalization connect offline and online practices, connect offline consumers and online consumers who are ready to spend money, better promote tourism attractions, and enhance ecological protection in offline tourism, so as to provide a better experience for tourists. So we believe that digitalization is the second engine.

The third is ecologization. Tourism is not only to visit a site, but also to know the background of it, to pay attention to the local native products, to enjoy the local special products, to enjoy the travel process by plane or train. Tourism itself is an ecologization process. How can we add new engines to tourism through IP, digitalization as well as ecologization? Now let me introduce the specific events that Alibaba has done during the epidemic.

First of all, IP. In these two years, there is a very hot drama called The Longest Day in Chang'an. We found that within a week after the show was broadcasted, people's search on Trip.com and the number of flight tickets to Xi'an rose by 130%. Special snacks in Xi'an, which were not very famous before, like fire crystal persimmons and basin mutton, had a very big sales growth in Xi'an at that time. This is an example of tourists consuming this kind of tourism product because of watching the drama.

The second example is The Eight Hundred, which many of you have seen and of which Alibaba Pictures Group is one of the investors. On August 21 this year, on the first day of the release of The Eight Hundred, many tourists visited the prototype of The Eight Hundred in Foursagade in Jing'an District, Shanghai. Now, Foursagade has become a popular local tourist attraction in Shanghai. So we believe that IP-based must be an important engine for tourism.

During the epidemic, Alibaba had more experience in combining IP and tourism. A lot of tourism businesses slowed down during the epidemic, so we used the epidemic period to plan the next hot tourism attraction and explore what the tourism attraction with IP attribute really is. On August 12 this year, we signed an agreement with Zhouzhuang, the "No.1 Water Village in China" in Jiangsu Province. We have a very good IP about which we are going to make five TV series, called The Picture Code of Along the River During the Qingming Festival. We signed a contract with Zhouzhuang to build an offline real-life base, which will truly reproduce the natural condition, social customs and culture, and prosperity of the Song Dynasty in China. The construction of this real-life base will take one year to one year and a half, we just happen to make strategies, planning and construction during the epidemic. We believe that one year and a half later, this real-life base with IP attribute will attract more high-quality Internet IP content in China, and can build the IP matrix of Chinese style. The constant Internet traffic IP will drive the local tourism and bring more Internet traffic to the tourism industry. We will combine it with the current tourism sites in Zhouzhuang to create a matrix of tourism sites, bringing more visitors and more stay time. That's what we're doing now.

The second one is digitalization. Regarding digitalization, the first thing I want to share with you is that during the epidemic, there were some companies that responded very quickly and did very well. Beijing People's Art Theatre is a very old and professional theater in China that has created a lot of great dramas. During the epidemic, it was not allowed to do offline performances at all. In June this year, it was holding an academy celebration that needs to be held every year. This year marks the 68th anniversary. Although the offline performances were still going on, there were no audience. Therefore, Beijing People's Art Theatre fully entrusted to Alibaba the job of live content planning and distribution, and the number of viewers on the whole network exceeded 5 million. This theatre used to seat 800 to 1,000 people, but this broadcast drew 5 million viewers. The average time each person watched was 28 minutes, which is a very long time.

So when reviewing and summing up this matter with the staff of Beijing People's Art Theatre, we were all very excited. Firstly, we found that although the offline performances are temporarily unavailable, we can try to disseminate the excellent content created by Beijing People's Art Theatre. Secondly, these excellent contents are not only seen by 800-1000 people at a time in the original theatre. You can divide the 5 million by 800 or 1000, and you can see that how many years it will take for these people to learn about the excellent culture content created by Beijing People's Art Theatre. At the same time, we believe that these 5 million people will become the best and most loyal users when the theatre reopens. This is also an example of combining online and offline practices. Although the offline performances have a pause, we are doing the online publicity and distribution at the same time, and even some of the content of the live broadcast is quite popular.

We are also hosting concerts in the "Parallel Mic Live" mode. Since offline performances are not allowed for the time being, we will perform online. In one case, the revenue from online shows exceeds that from offline shows.

While doing tourism-related digitalization, we are also trying to connect the whole business. We talked with various business partners related to tourism in a region, about connecting regional tourism service businesses through Alibaba's current infrastructure, so that users can get a better experience. As you can imagine, I bought a ticket to a show, but I need to plan my transportation route, I need to plan my dining, I need to plan what kind of souvenirs to buy, I need to plan the city hotel where I'm staying today and other things. How to do these things through the digitalization of performance areas? As you know, London and New York have their own performing arts circles and are large tourism destinations in themselves. How can we connect this thing through digitalization?

Alibaba has a lot of other ecology. For example, just now we mentioned how to ensure the safety of tourism. Amap is currently negotiating with the responsible persons of many tourism destinations to develop "one-click tour" project to optimize user experience. With just a mobile phone, users can know the destination they want to go to, plan and buy tickets. As for the destination, we can monitor the density of passenger flow and pedestrian flow in real time with the management of tourism attractions to ensure the safety of tourism.

During the 20 years of development, Alibaba has actually built a lot of commercial infrastructure, including Alibaba Cloud, payment method, finance, and marketing. This is the construction of infrastructure. Among them, we have established full connection with users in various scenarios, including tourism, catering, e-commerce and other consumption scenarios. We want to use these infrastructures and the understanding of the users that we have built, to contribute more to the recovery of the tourism industry.

I think the tourism industry is a very wonderful business because it promotes mutual knowledge, respect and synergy between people of different cultures. We hope that Alibaba can better use our technology to serve the whole culture and tourism industry, promote the recovery of the industry, and rebuild world tourism for prosperity. Thank you everyone.

Moderator: May I express thanks to Mr. Chang for this outstanding presentation? Mr. Chang's speech gave us a chance to think about how to keep our society and economy running in time through online responses in a special emergency or crisis. It also gave us a challenge or a question of how people can maintain control online and offline during an epidemic or during a certain crisis. Just as the epidemic is gradually being controlled in many places now, tourism is going to be rebuilt. After the rebuilding, for some of the technical advances that we do online, or the corresponding measures, how should we handle the relationship between online and offline practices after the epidemic is under control and tourism is rebuilt? It's indeed a great exploration for us.

In the next session, let's invite several important guests from different countries and industries to discuss with us how to rebuild the tourism industry and how to drive the development of the world economy.

Here are a couple of forum guests.

David Pipinashvili, Minister Counselor, Embassy of the Republic of Georgia in China

Yu Dunde, Founder and CEO of Tuniu Corporation

Anouar Chetoui, Chief Rept. of Tunisian National Tourist Office Beijing

Roger Chen, Chairman of Carnival Group Asia

Wang Chunfeng, Vice President of Utour Group

Our theme this time is that the tourism industry drives the revitalization of the world economy and promotes the recovery of world tourism. Our five guests come from different countries and different industries. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, they were unable to introduce themselves. Let's get straight to the point. If you open the map app of your phone, you can find where Georgia is. It's just in the mountains of Caucasus, in the middle of Eurasia. Therefore, in terms of tourism development, it's well positioned to attract tourists from Europe in the west and Asia in the east, including China. Of course, as a tourism destination country, Georgia may have a lot of new places that we don't know much about. More of what's good, what's interesting and what's delicious are waiting to be explored. It is a great honor for us to invite Mr. David Pipinashvili with us this time. And now let's invite Mr. David Pipinashvili to tell our listeners a little bit about Georgia, or how Georgia, as a tourism destination, can attract tourists from both Europe and Asia, as well as what is the impact of tourism on the future recovery of the Georgian economy, or the rebuilding of tourism in the Asia-Pacific.

>David Pipinashvili, Minister Counselor, Embassy of the Republic of Georgia in China

David Pipinashvili：Thank you very much. You're right. Georgia lies between Europe and Asia, and because of its geographic position, it has served as a very important transportation junction in the Caucasus region over the past few centuries, and also played a crucial role on the ancient Silk Road. We have a quite pleasant climate as well. Many sites were listed by the UNESCO as cultural heritage, and we also have a competitive reception capability. Georgia's tourism has been growing, which helps promote the economic recovery of Georgia as well. Before the pandemic, tourism created a lot of jobs in Georgia, and the number of tourists was huge as well. For example, in 2010 there were only 2 million international tourists, but in 2019 the number reached 9 million. It is due to our international tourist strategy that the number of foreign visitors can reach 11 million in 2025, and we can attract more tourists from Asia and Europe. We have made a 10-year plan which contains many measures including strengthening infrastructure and promoting international transportation. Besides, we also have related market strategies and activities which can help promote the development of international market.

During the pandemic, Georgia kept its borders open, and after the pandemic, as you can see, Georgia is a very safe travel destination of Europe. We also have adopted many measures to offset the impact of the pandemic. For example, we have an emergency supporting system in response to the pandemic, and our government has cut taxes for enterprises including hotels and other industries. This year, we have provided many subsidies and even granted 4 million dollars of loans in order to support the development of these industries. Other measures are in place as well. For example, we have two free flow bases, and we'll provide land for these investors free of charge, and cut and exempt taxes and fees for them until 2026. Meanwhile, we'll provide free licenses for their hotels.

In light of the dynamics of the pandemic, Georgia has re-opened its borders including both the land and the aviation borders, and gradually resumed international air service. We have now opened our borders with Germany, France and Estonia. Georgia also has a fantastic visa policy, allowing people of 50 countries to enter Georgia free of visas. We also allow E-visa clearance, and Chinese residents can obtain our E-visas within five workdays, and don't need to go to our consulate in person. Georgia is also a very attractive tourist country, and our government will also make efforts to help tourists discover the diversity and beauty of our country. We also sincerely hope they can come back often. Thank you!

Host: Well, thank you so much, Mr. Pipinashvili. From the description of Mr. Pipinashvili just now, we have a better understanding of Georgia now. Georgia is a travel destination. You expect that about 11 million tourists will visit your country, and will there be more tourists from Europe than from China and other Asian countries?

David Pipinashvili: We have both European and Asian tourists. There are perhaps more European tourists now, but we hope, in the foreseeable future, the number of tourists from China and other Asian countries will increase as well.

Host: I have never been to Georgia myself. I hope I can have an opportunity to visit Georgia in the future, and I also hope more Chinese tourists can go to Georgia.

David Pipinashvili: So do we! We hope there will be a direct flight between China and Georgia.

Host: Thank you, Mr. Pipinashvili. Thank you for sharing with us. What impresses me most is that Georgia is very safe both in its pandemic response and its environment. The natural environment there is beautiful. We hope more and more international tourists, including Chinese tourists, can go to Georgia.

Now let's welcome our next guest, the founder of Tuniu, Mr. Yu Dunde. You look quite young, Mr. Yu. During the pandemic, China and many other countries have adopted the means of making travel reservations through the network. Tuniu is an OTA, and can you predict what changes there will be concerning the tourist market and people's tourist behaviors in the future development of global tourism?

Yu Dunde, Founder and CEO of Tuniu Corporation/p>

Yu Dunde: Thanks to the host and thanks to Mr. Wu. Hello, ladies and gentlemen! I'm happy to attend today's activities and forum. First, please allow me to make a report on the recovery of tourism from our perspectives. Globally speaking, the recovery of tourism in China is indeed relatively fast. Local travel has begun to recover since April, May and June, and cross-province travel has returned to normal from July 15. We move to a new stage now in September, and people's willingness to travel has been further enhanced. In the whole process, I am really impressed by the month-on-month growth rate of the whole industry. It can be 100 percent and even 200 percent per month. The growth rate of customized travel is particularly high.

I remember in July, our customized travel registered an increase of 300 percent over the last month. Compared with the same period last year, the proportion of domestic tourism increased from 10 percent to 20 percent, and from 30 percent to 40 percent in March, April and May, and now the whole industry registers a growth rate of 50 percent to 60 percent.

I think having the conference and discussions at such a timing could boost our confidence. I can feel, from September, people's willingness to travel in the coming National Day holiday or even in September, which is off-season for travel, has further increased. People's expectation and desire to travel have been further restored, and their confidence has been further enhanced as well. In addition, their travelling ways have changed a little throughout the whole process. First of all, making a second reservation has become much more common. Before the pandemic, people tended to decide on the travel date directly, and make a payment directly, and get prepared for the travel.

Now most of the travel services support a second reservation. Before going on a trip, people can make a reservation, sign a contract or occupy a seat by means of second reservation, and determine the final travel time just before setting out. Tourists can get a full refund before making a second reservation. They can arrange their travel flexibly based on their own schedule and the overall situation of pandemic prevention and control. Such a way has become much more common.

Secondly, I want to talk about travel products. In the past, different cities have different prices in the travel market. As for the products, we must take the factor of mass transportation into consideration. The cost to a destination differs considering different cities, departure places, flights and means of transportation. Now when people make a reservation, they can directly book a local itinerary, and choose mass transportation while making a second reservation. So as a result, when the product is quoted, or when a client make a reservation, or when the product is introduced, it will be divided into two parts: the local itinerary and the mass transportation, which also gives rise to the implementation of dynamic packaging in the whole process to make a reservation. This is also quite an important feature.

What's more, as you can see, many enterprises, including tourist enterprises, are trying to sell their products by means of live broadcast, which is also a sales mode close to customers. They can interact with tourists more closely in this way. During the live broadcast, tourists can ask directly whether the product can support a second reservation, or whether a scenic site they want to visit, and vehicles are included in the product. That is the case especially when it comes to the number of people in a tourist group. It is quite common before that there were thirty or forty people in a tourist group, but now the number of people in a group is usually less than twenty. Most groups have fewer than ten tourists, and we even provide options of groups with two, four or six tourists. It is also a very important feature we have seen. The number of people choosing group trips is decreasing. Of course, we're also deliberately trying to control the number of tourists in a group in order to meet the need of pandemic prevention, and reduce crowd gathering, which is also a feature we have observed.

We think tourists can have a better travel experience in this way in the future. We also expect there will be more options considering travel destinations.

Thank you.

Host: Thank you, Mr. Yu. It is true that the pandemic, the Internet and the 5G technology have not only changed our consuming behavior, but also urged operators to change a lot. Recently Mr. Liang Jianzhang from Trip.com even made cosplay and became an actor. Mr. Yu, do you have any plan like this, or will you make a live broadcast?

Yu Dunde: We do have live broadcasts once a week. Now we have done it for four months with nearly 20 broadcasts. As for cosplay, Mr. Liang is better at it than us.

Host: Mr. Liang is really very impressive. So enthusiastic!

Yu Dunde: We do have many differences in other aspects.

Host: Indeed, Mr. Yu and a number of tourist industry practitioners, including the aforementioned practitioners in aviation, travel and hotel industries, as well as scenic spot managers, are very enthusiastic. Let's cheer for the whole tourist industry.

Our next lecturer is from Tunisia, a country in North Africa. There are many tourist attractions in the Mediterranean region, such as France, Italy, Spain, and Egypt. Tunisia is a relatively new tourist country for tourists from China and other Asian countries. So is there any possibility that we could combine Tunisia with other countries in North Africa to launch a travel package?

Anouar Chetoui, Chief Rept. of Tunisian National Tourist Office Beijing【

Mr. Anouar, you live in Being now, right? How many years have you been here? Could you tell me how your country plans to promote itself as a tourist attraction to the Chinese market? And is it possible that Tunisia can be combined with some tourist countries in North Africa to form a packaged travel route?

Anouar: Thank you very much for your question. I'm happy, too. Indeed, our Tunisia is a North African country to the south of Europe and in the Mediterranean region. It has beautiful seashores, beaches and deserts. Part of the Sahara is also within our territory. Many Chinese tourists also like the scenery of the Sahara Desert. We also have many cultural heritage sites listed by UNESCO. Since the 1970s, we have been vigorously developing this industry. In 2019, we received more than 9 million tourists. We have only 11 million citizens. It can be seen from these figures that most of our tourists come from Europe and Russia. From about 2012 onwards, we began to welcome more and more Chinese tourists. In 2017, we began to implement the visa-free policy for Chinese tourists. Returning to your question, we really hope to set up a tourist route in other countries around us, especially in North Africa. For example, we can connect with France, because we can travel from France to Tunisia in two hours. It takes only 35 minutes from Rome to Tunisia. We are very close. This also gives us a good opportunity to package our products, to make them more attractive and organize tours of these routes.

Host: Is there a cruise service? What routes do Tunisia have to connect with Egypt and Italy via cruise ships?

Anouar: We have cruise ships, such as those from Spain to Tunisia, France to Tunisia, Marseille to Tunisia, and Italy to Tunisia.

Host: How long does it usually take?

Anouar: Almost 3 days, because the distance is very short.

Host: In this way, people can enjoy the magnificent coastal scenery and rich cultural traditions, right?

Anouar: Yes.

Host: What is the official language of Tunisia?

Anouar: Our mother tongue is Arabic and we also speak French. French and English are spoken throughout Tunisia. As you can see, a quarter of our population can speak some German and Italian, and our languages are quite diversified.

Host: I hope I can visit Tunisia in the future. I haven't been there.

Anouar: Welcome, welcome.

Host: Thank you very much. Thank you for your speech. Tunisia, as a destination in North Africa, has a very good cultural and natural landscape. Of course, Tunisia can also form joint tours with some neighboring countries, including Italy or other countries across the Mediterranean. They can be cruise tours. As for cruise ships, we all know that cruise tourism is mobile, but it was greatly affected during the epidemic. Mr. Roger Chen, Chairman of Carnival Group Asia. May I ask you some questions? How will the cruise industry, including Carnival, face risks such as epidemics in the future? Just now, the president of the International Air Transport Association said that the planes are ready for epidemic prevention and the air in the plane was even cleaner than the air in the hospital operating room. So what is the recent response of the cruise ship? In addition, what are the new changes or development opportunities for the Asian cruise industry and the Chinese cruise market in the future?

Roger Chen, Chairman of Carnival Group Asia

Roger Chen: Thank you, Professor Wu. I am very glad that the organizing committee invited me to attend today's meeting. I feel honored as a representative of the cruise industry. Just now my friend in Tunisia also mentioned that Tunisia is a very good cruise destination. Carnival is the world's largest cruise group. We have about 45% of the market share and 9 brands. Costa Cruises, a subsidiary of Carnival, is located in the Mediterranean region and has a great influence. It is also the first international cruise company to enter China, thus making certain contributions to the development of China's cruise industry. Carnival and China State Shipbuilding Corporation have set up a joint venture in China. We should not only use cruise ships in China, but also build large cruise ships to fill the gap in China's shipbuilding history.

The problem mentioned by Professor Wu just now is that the epidemic has really had a great impact on the cruise industry. In China, we have been "closed" for several months since the Spring Festival. As far as the global cruise industry is concerned, it has basically stopped operation since March, which is indeed unprecedented and has caused a huge impact on the cruise industry. In fact, cruise tourism is quite popular. I don't know how many friends here have already taken cruise ships. In fact, it is a series of "sea cities" integrating transportation, entertainment, catering, hotels, accommodation and shopping. It is very popular. In recent years, cruise tourism has developed vigorously in China and Asia at large. In 2013, the entire Asia-Pacific region accounted for only about 8% of the world's tourists, and by 2018 it had exceeded 13%, becoming the world's largest cruise source market except the Caribbean. In recent years, China's cruise ships have also developed rapidly, with a drop in 2019. But before 2019, the Chinese cruise ships registered a double-digit growth rate. The Chinese government also attaches great importance to the development of the cruise industry. The Ministry of Transport has issued a guidebook, hoping that by 2035, the number of cruise tourists in China will reach about 14 million. Then China should almost be the largest cruise market in the world. Whether it can be realized depends on the continuous efforts of all parties in the cruise industry.

I think at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, cruise ships also suffered a blow. Although the cruise industry has rich experience and a set of methods to prevent epidemics, COVID-19 is a new type of virus after all, so it was really hit at the beginning. However, I think cruise ships are still a very safe form of travel. It is not much different from hotels or other forms of tourism. After the outbreak, the cruise industry has also done a lot of work, studying the resumption plan, improving safety and quality, as well as innovating cruise products. We have done a lot of work with relevant government departments, cruise industry associations and medical experts to formulate new epidemic prevention standards, greatly improving the overall safety standards of the cruise industry. We have made many arrangements before, during and after the voyage. Before sailing, the cruise crew will undergo several nucleic acid tests before boarding the ship. At the same time, the crew will be isolated on shore and on board for a long time. Before cruise tourists board the ship, we would also examine the health status of tourists together with the port and adopt big data authentication methods such as identifying "health QR code". During the cruise trip, we have also strengthened temperature monitoring and disinfection, to ensure 100% fresh air system.

Host: With this experience, I believe cruise ships are a very safe way to spend their holidays.

Roger Chen: We have increased our investment in medical equipment and medical personnel, so cruise ships are a very safe form. There is also very good news. On September 6, Costa Cruises under Carnival resumed flights from Trieste, Italy, the city next to Venice. In another two weeks, it will resume flights from Genoa. The Italian brand AIDA Cruises will also resume flights from Europe. I believe the cruise industry is very resilient and has strong vitality. Thank you!

Host: Congratulations, today is a good time to announce such good news. You shared with us the development of the world cruise industry represented by Carnival and its re-launch after the epidemic.

The last guest is from U-Tour Travel Group. As one of the major wholesalers or organizers of China's outbound tours, U-Tour has certainly suffered great losses due to international flight routes, but I believe U-Tour, backed by China's large outbound market, will definitely make a comeback. I would like to ask Mr. Wang Chunfeng of U-Tour a question: What changes have taken place in international and domestic tourism or inbound and outbound tourism? Whether more outbound consumption will be converted into domestic tourism in the near future, and how long will it take for the revival of the outbound tourism market?

Wang Chunfeng, Vice President of Utour Group

Wang Chunfeng: Thank you, Professor Wu. Hello, everyone. U-Tour's main business has always been outbound tourism, accounting for 90% of our total. The outbreak was indeed a disastrous blow to U-Tour's main business. So far, our outbound tourism has not resumed yet. Judging from the financial report for the first half of this year, the whole income has returned to zero. This is the status quo.

U-Tour has always had an idea about the whole tourism business. From the perspective of suppliers or market tourism activities, the whole tourism market can be divided into domestic tourism market and international tourism market, and the international tourism market can be further divided into inbound tourism and outbound tourism. However, judging from the final consumers and tourists themselves, their tourism activities determine that they are both domestic tourists and outbound tourists.

U-Tour's previous business was mainly outbound tourism, and tourists' outbound tourism activities mainly followed U-Tour. It doesn't mean that they only traveled abroad but not at home. Our customers hope that we can adapt to the current situation and quickly launch domestic tourism products.

Judging from the overall situation in the first half of this year, after the orderly recovery of China's tourism industry across provinces and around the places of residence, as of August, our tourism business has brought us 1.1 billion yuan from retail to wholesale. How do you view such financial indicators? As far as U-Tour's business as a whole is concerned, this revenue indicator is equivalent to 20% of the same period last year, or down 80%. However, compared with the domestic tourism business, it does grow. This also shows that we have a lot of room for the development of the domestic tourism market and the supply of products. Only by changing the management concept and adapting to the market demand can the enterprises themselves step closer to their revival. This is our view.

Judging from the future trend, whether in terms of outbound or domestic tourism, we have to accept the fact that the market may recover slowly and the recovery might take a long time. It is impossible to make up for losses quickly. We need patience and good preparation.

Secondly, we should reflect on how to reevaluate production capacity in the process of tourism revival. What you can see now is the dynamic adjustment of 30%, 50% and 80% of the total carrying capacity of the scenic spot. I think this dynamic adjustment, from the perspective of tourism suppliers, is equivalent to the production capacity of our industry. There should be a new evaluation when epidemic prevention might become normalized. Based on the production capacity, we can assess the satisfaction of demand. There is a very important theory in the economic circle: "equilibrium". Before the epidemic, our tourism industry may have deviated greatly from the equilibrium theory, resulting in a really prosperous market. However, this time we have the opportunity to look at the relationship between future production capacity and demand with the equilibrium theory of economics.

Thirdly, everyone should get used to the reservation and travel plan. We should have a new understanding of "a trip at any time". It doesn't mean completely following one's whim. We need to adapt to online and offline reservations. In the reservation process, consumers need to wait patiently and the suppliers need to consider tourists' travel rights. For some scenic spots, we need to make reservations due to limited production capacity, so some people might not be able to travel to the site within this year. We should make a balanced analysis of the number of times and the same consumer.

In general, after the epidemic prevention becomes normalized, the entire industry structure, including our operating system, will undergo fundamental changes. The original state of the industry cannot be completely restored. The epidemic is just a warning. If there is no innovation or no change, it will be difficult to find any living space in the market. Thank you.

Moderator: Thank you, thank you for your summary.

After hearing the speeches made by David Pipinashvili, Roger Chen, Anouar, Yu Dunde and Wang Chunfeng, I have found what have changed are the risks, market demands, policies and times, while what remain unchanged are always the need to innovate and to add value to tourism.

Thanks for the five guests on the stage. Once again, please applaud for the five guests for their wonderful speeches. Thank you all.