On 18 September 2017, co-organized by ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) and Leshan Municipal People’s Government, supported by Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), the Tourism Forum on Promoting ASEAN-China Tourism Development was held in Leshan. H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping, Secretary-General of ACC, Mr. Dale Lawrence, Special Adviser to CEO of PATA, H.E. Mr. Masataka Fujita, Secretary-General of ASEAN-Japan Centre (AJC), Mr. Tian Wen, Deputy Party Secretary of CPC Leshan Municipal Committee, Mr. Ivan Frank M. Olea, Minister of the Philippine Embassy in China, officials of ASEAN Embassies in China including Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar and Viet Nam, and related tourism experts, academic and media attended the forum, which was moderated by Ms. Kong Roatlomang, Director of Education, Culture and Tourism Division of ACC.
Secretary-General Yang Xiuping expressed her heartfelt thanks to friends from all circles for their strong support to ACC for a long time. She said that in recent years, despite the slow recovery of global economy, tourism industry has remained one of the most dynamic economic sectors, making significant contribution to job creation, consumption, sustainable development and preservation of natural resources. Recently, ASEAN-China tourism cooperation has maintained good momentum of development. ASEAN has become one of the most popular destinations for Chinese tourists. Looking ahead, ASEAN-China tourism cooperation enjoys bright prospects and great potential. The year 2018 would mark the 15th anniversary of ASEAN-China Strategic Partnership. At the ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in August, all Foreign Ministers welcomed the proposal to designate the year 2018 as the ASEAN-China Year of Innovation Cooperation. Both sides should seize the opportunity to make positive innovation, improve the quality of tourism products, promote the integrated development of tourism and more related industries, and make new and greater contributions to promoting ASEAN-China people-to-people exchanges. ACC would continue to implement the important consensus reached by leaders of both sides, work together with all circles, make full use of SCITE as an important platform and promote ASEAN-China tourism exchanges and cooperation to achieve more achievements.
Minister Olea congratulated the opening of ASEAN-China Tourism Festival, and expressed deep appreciation to ACC and Leshan Municipal People’s Government for hosting this event. He said that ASEAN countries, including the Philippines, have rich tourism resources and hospitable people. Chinese tourists rank first in visits to the ASEAN region. Tourism plays an important role in the common development between China and ASEAN. ASEAN would be further benefited in the years to come, especially on the condition that within the next 5 years it’s expected to have approximately 700 million outbound Chinese travelers. This year marks ASEAN’s 50th anniversary, and ASEAN is committed to achieving inclusive and sustainable development. With the common development of the world, ASEAN would continue to deepen its strategic partnership with China. Both sides should further strengthen tourism cooperation, jointly promote cultural exchanges, deepen mutual trust and respect among the peoples, and achieve mutual benefits and win-win results.
Mr. Tian Wen said that located at the South Silk Road and the Yangtze River Economic Belt intersection point, Leshan has the advantage in location and the convenience in transportation. Tourism is Leshan's "business card", and the cultural resources are the core competitive advantage of Leshan. The development of Leshan tourism industry has been a strategic move for building the Belt and Road and a new pattern of openness and cooperation, through which, Leshan strives to improve the level of internationalization, modernization and tourism industry. In the way of building "international tourism destination" as an overall scheme, reforming and innovating as the driving force, and tourism projects as instruments, Leshan tries its best to achieve the promotion of the transformation, upgrading and development of tourism. Leshan warmly welcomes more domestic and foreign enterprises and investors to actively participate in Leshan tourism investment cooperation, work together to build a world-class, domestic leading boutique tourism projects, the common development of a new form of tourism industry integration, innovation and creativity, and share golden opportunities of Leshan tourism development.
Mr. Dale expressed his appreciation of the important role played by ACC in promoting ASEAN-China tourism cooperation. He said that tourism is an important bridge and link to promote friendship among all peoples. With the strengthening of global connectivity, the development of tourism facilitation, and the richness and perfection of tourism products, the global tourism industry has developed rapidly and makes outstanding contributions to world economic growth. According to statistics, the current global tourism industry directly yielded USD 2.3 trillion GDP and more than 100 million jobs. Asia is regarded as the engine of growth in the global tourism industry. China and ASEAN countries have rich tourism resources and huge tourism market. The tourism industry is now in a period of vigorous development. Both sides should strengthen cooperation and coordination, give full play to the leading role of tourism in the socio-economic development, and adhere to sustainable development for the benefits of future generations.