On 15 October 2019, the Opening Ceremony of the 4th Conference on Development of Tourism Industry (CDTI) of Hebei Province was held at Shijiazhuang International Convention and Exhibition Center. Mr. Wang Dongfeng, the Secretary of Hebei Provincial Committee of the CPC, Mr. Xu Qin, Deputy Secretary of Hebei Provincial Committee of the CPC and Governor of Hebei Province, Mr. Ye Dongsong, Chairman of Hebei Provincial Committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Mr. Wang Xiaofeng, Member of the Party Group of Culture and Tourism Ministry of China, Mr. YB Tuan Muhammad Bakhtiar bin Wan Chik, Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture of Malaysia, Mr. Eric Duluc, President of International Tourism Federation and more than 1100 delegates from home and abroad attended the ceremony. Ms. Kong Roatlomang, Director of Education, Culture and Tourism Division of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) and diplomats from embassies of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, The Philippines and Viet Nam participated in all the major relevant activities.
Mr. Wang Dongfeng announced the formal opening of CDTI. On behalf of the local government and 75 million people of Hebei, Deputy Secretary of Hebei Provincial Committee of the CPC and Governor Xu Qin extended his warm welcome and heartfelt thanks to all the delegates. He stated that Hebei Province boasts rich cultural and natural resources as well as advantageous conditions for developing quality tourism industry. Hebei province is always ready to share developmental opportunities with its domestic and overseas partners and try to achieve common prosperity for all.
Mr. Wang Xiaofeng believed that CDTI can fully demonstrate the importance that the Provincial Government is attaching to the tourism industry. He said that the integration process of tourism industry in Hebei maintains a good momentum and the theme of CDTI stresses quality development in the new era of mass tourism. The Culture and Tourism Ministry will continue to support Hebei for its tourism strategy.
Mr. Eric Duluc spoke highly of Hebei Province in terms of tourism resources and development potentials. Since the first session of CDTI, many new-format industries in Hebei has been developing very fast, with tourism serving as the best example. His Federation expects to deepen its cooperation with Hebei so as to make greater contributions to the tourism industry in the world.
One day earlier, the Opening Ceremony of the 24th North China Travel Fair (NCTF) was held at the same venue with the presence of nearly 300 delegates from home and abroad. NCTF is one of the leading travel exhibitions held annually in China. The current session had over 20,000 square-meter exhibition area and attracted exhibitors from 31 countries, regions and international organizations.
As the Partner of Honor for NCTF and CDTI, ACC set up a well-designed and eye-catching pavilion and further promoted the ASEAN tourism as a single destination through handing out the pamphlets, playing the documentary Hi! ASEAN and conducting Q & A interactive games.
Besides the above activities, the delegates of ACC and the embassies of ASEAN Member States in Beijing also met with local officials and travel fraternity, and exchanged views with them on promoting tourist destinations and strengthening people-to-people exchanges between ASEAN and Hebei Province. During the technical tour in Shijiazhuang, they learnt about the latest development of tourism in Hebei Province.