【Record】Wang Hong, Executive Vice Chairman of the WTCF Council and Vice Mayor of Beijing delivers a keynote speech

Wang Hong, Executive Vice Chairman of the WTCF Council and Vice Mayor of Beijing, delivers a keynote speech

Wang Hong:

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good morning! I am pleased to meet you at the World Conference on Tourism Cooperation and Development. This is a great opportunity for us to analyze the enormous impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on world tourism, discuss major topics concerning the recovery and development of world tourism, and look into its future.

I'd like to share the following points from my personal working experience.

I. The Covid-19 pandemic has brought radical changes to global tourism.

The Covid-19 pandemic is a global public health emergency, which has severely hit world tourism.

1. Covid-19 has changed the development trend of world tourism.In the past decades from 2000 to 2020, especially since the financial crisis in 2008, world tourism has maintained rapid growth. Back then, even though the global economy was on the continued decline, tourism maintained a rapid growth of above 5%, becoming a driving force for the global economy. As the pandemic has changed the continuous development trend of world tourism, international tourists will decrease by about 80% and more than USD 1 trillion might be lost in 2020 according to relevant statistics.

2. Covid-19 has changed the traveling mode across the world. The pandemic has greatly changed people's lifestyles and travel patterns, exerting a profound impact on the world tourism which has kept booming in recent years. Tourism was a journey of spiritual freedom once. However, "no appointment, no travel" has become the norm, and decentralization, family-based tourism, and customization have become basic choices in the pandemic period. Border control suspended cross-border tourism. Even though some countries and regions are trying to ease border control and restart tourism activities to a limited extent in the second half of 2020, global tourism would recover to only about 30% YoY. Considering the impact of Covid-19, domestic outdoor tourism of low-density may recover more quickly than international long-distance group tourism whose full recovery takes a long time.

3. Covid-19 has changed the management mode of world tourism. This pandemic is still plaguing the world, resulting in high daily confirmed cases with no vaccines on the market or for mass inoculation. This battle between human and Covid-19 might be a long and tough one. To curb the spread of Covid-19, governments of all countries have closed borders, restricted travel, and reduced social interaction. Regional rescue mechanisms for public health emergency will be widely established, and the check of personal health information at border ports may continue into the future. International tourism has to adapt to the needs of pandemic prevention and control and accelerate the establishment of management mechanisms compatible with Covid-19 prevention and control. On the prerequisite of guaranteeing tourist safety and health, institutional support has to be provided to the resumption and prosperity of global tourism amid Covid-19.

II. Recovery and development of global tourism is of great significance.

World tourism is a major indicator and powerhouse for global economic recovery. A rapid rebound in the tourism industry is crucial to social stability because it could stimulate economic growth, enhance people-to-people exchanges and reduce poverty.

1. Tourism recovery is a major indicator of the resurrection of the world economy. In 2019, the total number of global tourist arrivals was over 12.3 billion, and the total global tourism revenue reached USD 5.8 trillion, equivalent to 6.6% of global GDP. An orderly recovery and development of global tourism is conducive to global consumption, driving economic growth and reducing pandemic-induced-losses suffered by the world economy.

2. Tourism recovery provides favorable support for social security and stability. Tourism industry is important to national economy and people’s livelihood because it offers 10% of global jobs. According to research and analysis of relevant institutions, more than 50% of tourism companies in the world are threatened by bankruptcy due to Covid-19, and 120 million employees related to tourism might lose their jobs. If the pandemic is still at large in the short term, the global tourism industry will suffer from irreparable and huge losses. An orderly restart and recovery of global tourism will increase residents’ income, reduce poverty and maintain social security and stability.

3. Tourism recovery is a key link to consolidate achievements of pandemic prevention and control. Based on main measures of pandemic prevention and control taken by various countries, the key to curbing Covid-19 spread is to cut off its transmission channels, and this is why a better control of tourist flow is crucial to containing Covid-19 spread. Tourism activities are a main form of international mobility. As long as Covid-19 is not effectively controlled, governments and tourism cities of all countries should balance two factors: one is the orderly resumption of tourism activities, and the other is the prevention of Covid-19 recurrence.

III. Promoting cooperation and innovation in tourism resumption and Covid-19 prevention for the recovery of global tourism

WHO claimed that Covid-19 would coexist with us for a prolonged time to come. To restart global tourism, we have to fully consider the long-term feature of this battle and pay attention to the driving force that tourism provides to economic growth. And thus we have to erect a more humane, healthier, and more orderly development concept, balancing pandemic prevention and control, and tourism resumption. A systematic tourism recovery plan has to be adopted as soon as possible and new tourism formats and management modes corresponding to requirements of Covid-19 prevention and control should be established at a faster pace based on ratings, regional conditions and time slots. In this way, green and sustainable development of the world tourism would be promoted in a comprehensive way.

1. We have to prioritize life and balance pandemic prevention and control, together with tourism resumption. In tourism activities, the first principle that should be followed is to ensure the safety and health of tourists. It is people who always come the first and people's health should be better managed. Countries where Covid-19 is basically under control could restart domestic tourism at first followed by international tourism, encouraging outdoor tourism formats of low-density, such as rural and automobile tourism. International tourism should prioritize the resumption of international transportation by adopting point-to-point personnel transportation and matching travailing routes. Air transportation between major tourism cities should return to normalcy in the first place so as to gradually drive the recovery of accommodation, catering, entertainment and other related industries in tourism cities. We have to actively promote appointment-based travel scheme, encourage the combination of online and offline factors,and develop decentralized, customized and family-based travel.

As for cruise traveling, it is necessary to further improve the internal function settings of cruise and other enclosed tourism spaces according to requirements of pandemic prevention and control. Cruises have to build up on capabilities against all sorts of risks.

2. We have to reinforce international cooperation and make joint efforts to rise up to the huge challenge delivered by Covid-19 to world tourism. WTCF calls on tourism cities and enterprises to actively engage in international cooperation and join hands against this common enemy of all humankind, the Covid-19. We advocate a mechanism of information sharing in global crisis, a global database of safety information and an international platform to cope with crises. Based on these platforms, we could timely share information on destination, public health, security management, tourism products and market promotion. This is to fully utilize various social media to disseminate official information on tourism in an efficient, fast, transparent and precise way.

3. We have to strengthen policy support to keep the system of world tourism service basically intact. Facing huge losses induced by Covid-19 to the tourism industry, WTCF calls on governments and tourism cities of all countries to actively introduce relief policies such as tax and fee reductions, subsidies and financial support to protect tourism industrial chain and fully mobilize the market to help tourism companies overcome difficulties. We have to actively establish and promote a non-discriminatory system to retrieve personal health information, keep data secured and well managed, and protect personal privacy. Clearer entry and exit management standards should be put into place, so is a border controlling mechanism that is dynamic, intelligent and convenient, satisfying requirements of Covid-19 prevention and control. We are calling on countries and tourism cities to actively sign up to pilot projects of mutually favorable policies and recognize each other's Covid-19 testing results. More visa management measures suitable for Covid-19 prevention and control should be introduced.

4. We have to pursue innovation-driven development and seize the opportunity of Covid-19 prevention to promote the iterative updating of world tourism. Covid-19 has exerted a profound impact on people's traditional lifestyles, communication modes and travel patterns. WTCF encourages tourism cities and companies to trace closely the latest trends in world tourism and make full use of the Internet, big data and intelligentization to actively explore new modes of tourism and travel, crisis response and tourism management, which should be compatible with requirements of pandemic prevention and control. These would help change the traditional development mode of mass tourism focusing too much on the number of tourist visits and group size.

We should advocate a decentralized, personalized, customized and appointment-based travel mode that is compatible with Covid-19 prevention and control, together with the shared economy, effectively improved tourism infrastructure, and further developed products of niche-market destinations and customized tourism.

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, WTCF is the world's first international tourism organization focusing on cities. Under the core concept of Better City Life Through Tourism, it is committed to promoting cooperation for the world tourism. WTCF would like to work with other international tourism organizations to further analyze the huge losses caused by Covid-19 to global tourism, actively plan for the development and cooperation of world tourism, and play a more positive role in lifting global tourism out of the negative impact of Covid-19 as soon as possible. This is the end of my speech. Thank you!