On 17 November 2016, the representatives of the 6th Joint Council (JC) Meeting of the ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) exchanged views with the officials of Tourism Administration and representatives of travel agencies of Guangdong Province. Permanent Representatives of Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore and Viet Nam to ASEAN, Secretary-General of the ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping, officials of ASEAN countries and Chinese Mission to ASEAN, Director of Tourism Administration of Guangdong Province Ms. Zeng Yingru, Deputy Director of Tourism Administration of Guangdong Province Mr. Mei Qijie, officials of Foreign Affairs Office of Guangdong Province, and representatives of GZL International Travel Service Ltd and Nanhu International Travel Service Ltd participated in the meeting.
Director Zeng Yingru introduced the general situation of tourism development in Guangdong and its tourism exchanges and cooperation with ASEAN countries. She said that Guangdong ranked top in China’s tourism industry with over 1 trillion RMB of tourism income in 2015. Guangdong enjoyed geographic proximity and cultural similarity with ASEAN countries. Since 2002, Tourism Administration of Guangdong Province signed cooperation agreements with relevant tourism authorities of ASEAN countries, including Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Viet Nam, etc., and bilateral exchanges became ever more frequent. The number of visitors from Guangdong to ASEAN reached 4.45 million in 2015. Since this year, Tourism Administration of Guangdong Province, in partnership with tourism authorities of Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions, conducted promotional activities in Thailand. It also invited tourism officials of Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia to attend the 2016 Guangdong International Tourism Industry Expo. Year 2017 will be the Year of ASEAN-China Tourism Cooperation. Guangdong will push forward its tourism enterprises and agencies to strengthen cooperation with their counterparts in ASEAN countries.
H.E. Ms. Elizabeth P. Buensuceso, Permanent Representative of the Philippines to ASEAN said that ASEAN and China witnessed closer tourism exchanges and cooperation in recent years. Both ASEAN and China are most dynamic economies in the world with robust tourism industry, and there is huge potential to explore bilateral tourism cooperation. Year 2017 will be the 50th anniversary of the establishment of ASEAN and is designated as the Year of ASEAN-China Tourism Cooperation. It is expected that Tourism Administration of Guangdong Province will enhance communication with ACC and Consulates-General of ASEAN countries in Guangzhou and actively participates in relevant activities with a view to improving the level of exchanges and cooperation.
Secretary-General Yang Xiuping introduced that there were 1.3 billion tourists travelling the world while China had 120 million outbound visitors in 2015. Among them, mutual visits between ASEAN and China reached a record high of 23 million travellers. She also briefed on ACC’s plan in 2017 on tourism promotion. She looked forward to strengthening communication with Tourism Administration of Guangdong Province to jointly promote ASEAN-China tourism cooperation to a new stage.
The representatives of the 6th Joint Council also exchanged views with the representatives of the tourism enterprises of Guangdong on further promoting ASEAN in Guangdong, attracting more tourists of Guangdong to ASEAN and enhancing cooperation and business matching between the tourism enterprises of both sides.