Providing a platform for communication: the World Tourism Cities Federation enhances the sustainable development of global tourism

During the summit, speakers and guests alike stated that the WTCF has provided a multilateral platform that houses a number of features. Among them includes a medium to spur discussions on the development of the sector, enhance international communication, inject more vitality into the communication and cooperation among international cities, foster common prosperity, and win-win reciprocity to fuel the growth of the global tourism economy.

Release time : 2019-09-15 18:54:04

source : WTCF

Hills Tourism Summit is an important platform for exchanges and cooperation among tourist cities. At present, eight editions of the Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit have been held in Beijing, Rabat and Fez, Chongqing, Los Angeles, Qingdao, and Helsinki successively. According to statistics, in the eight editions of the summit, about 700 heads of international organizations, national tourism ministers of different countries and mayors of tourism have been in attendance, over 20 cooperation agreements and memoranda have been signed, over 1000 domestic and foreign media institutions have reported the summits, and 25 cities members have bidden for five editions of the summit. Since March 2017, WTCF has held regional tourism conference in Penang, Casablanca, Bogota, Seville, and Panama City respectively, and carried out one-to-one business negotiations for over 3000 times. This has promoted the prosperity of the local tourism industry.

Helsinki is the first European city to host the Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit. Mayor Jan Vapaavuori stated that, thanks to the help of the WTCF, Tencent and Helsinki cooperated to develop the Wechat applet of the “Helsinki City Travelling Bag” in 2018, providing nearly 1 billion Wechat users with a detailed travelling guide and digital self services in Helsinki. This has not only earned Helsinki the favor of more Chinese tourists but also comprehensively improved the digitalization of the city and the travelling experiences of tourists.

Rob Lang, Head of Marketing at Edinburgh Airport and a member of ETAG’s China Ready program said that during the summit, many world-famous tourist cities have shared their successful experiences in the development of smart tourism industry, which is an important learning reference for Edinburgh. Rob Lang said that the cooperation with WTCF has allowed Edinburgh to have a comprehensive understanding of tourism requirement of countries around the world, and helped Edinburgh better explore