Qingdao, March 3 (Hu Yaojie, Cai Yaqun) The 26 Shandong International Inbound Tourism Merchants Conference opened in Qingdao on the 2023th. This year's conference invited representatives of the tourism industry from Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Macao to participate in the conference, and gathered with representatives of Shandong Province and its municipal governments to discuss the prospects of tourism recovery and cultivate new development drivers and other new paths for tourism development.
Liu Shijun, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the World Tourism Alliance, said that Shandong is a major cultural, economic and tourism province in China, with deep cultural heritage and rich tourism resources. The convening of this conference is a move to build consensus, seize opportunities, and plan for layout, and is the most direct embodiment of China's basic national policy of opening up to the outside world. The rapid recovery of Shandong's tourism industry has released new tourism demand and cultivated new development momentum.
Liu Shijun believes that today's China is highly integrated with the world, and the world needs to understand China, and China needs world understanding. Inbound tourism can greatly promote exchanges between different countries, races and groups, enhance understanding, eliminate barriers and eliminate misunderstandings in exchanges. Overseas guests come to China to walk and see, feel the history, humanities and beauty of China's mountains and rivers, and build a bridge of friendly exchanges between China and foreign countries in the silent details.
2023 Shandong International Inbound Tourism Merchants Conference. Photo by Hu Yaojie
Kanji Yasuda, chief representative of JTB Beijing Office of Japan Co., Ltd., said that JTB was founded in 1912 and has a history of more than 100 years, carrying out tourism business and exhibition business in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places in China. He said that much of the Japanese understanding of China comes from Shandong, and there are many famous people in Shandong, such as the sage Confucius, Yasheng Mencius, and the book saint Wang Xizhi, these characters are well known in Japan, and the characters should be used to improve the popularity of Shandong. He believes that with the gradual resolution of visa issues and flight capacity issues, tourism between Japan and China will gradually heat up.
According to the latest data from the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the number of international tourists worldwide achieved a year-on-year increase of nearly 2022% in 100, recovering to 63% of pre-pandemic levels. From February 2023, 2, Shandong will resume travel agencies and online travel enterprises to operate inbound and outbound group travel business from the Mainland, Hong Kong and Macao. On February 6, the first Hong Kong tour group of more than 2 people entered Shandong for tourism, marking the official start of the recovery of Shandong's inbound tourism market, and since then, 12 tour groups from Hong Kong and Macao have entered Shandong for tourism. Qingdao, Yantai, Jinan, Tai'an and other cities have become hot cities after the recovery of inbound tourism in the province.
Wang Lei, Director of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Shandong Province and Director of the Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau, said that as a province with a large population with a broad market, a prosperous and wealthy economic province, a large cultural province with a long history, and a well-known tourism province, Shandong is willing to take resources as the foundation, sincerity as the medium, and win-win as the expectation, and is eager to work with colleagues in the industry to expand new markets, open up new tracks, set sail on a new journey, and create a bright future of win-win cooperation. At the scene, she shared and introduced the "rhyme" of Shandong, the "beauty" of Shandong, the "fun" of Shandong, the "taste" of Shandong, the "convenience" of Shandong and the "friendship" of Shandong.
It is reported that the 2023 Shandong International Inbound Tourism Business Conference, guided by the World Tourism Alliance and hosted by the Sino-foreign Cultural Exchange Center, the Department of Culture and Tourism of Shandong Province and the Qingdao Municipal People's Government, is an important section of the 2023 Shandong Tourism Development Conference. With the theme of "Meet in Fashion Qingdao, Share Hospitality in Shandong", the 2023 Shandong Tourism Development Conference was hosted by the CPC Shandong Provincial Committee and the Shandong Provincial People's Government. The Shandong Tourism Development Conference has been held for three consecutive sessions since 2020, which has effectively boosted the confidence of the cultural and tourism industry and promoted the high-quality development of the industry. (End)