On 23rd September 2016, Mr. Wang Dongming, Provincial Party Committee Secretary met with delegates of international organizations, attending the 3rd Sichuan International Tourism Expo. Mr. Zhu Shanzhong, Executive director of World Tourism Organization( UNWTO) , Mr. Andrew Jones, Chairman of Pacific Asia Travel Association( PATA) , Mr. Gerald Lawless, Chairman of World Travel& Tourism Council( WTTC), Mme Yang Xiuping, Secretary-General of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC), Mr. Wu Jingping, Municipal Standing Committee Member and Secretary-General of Sichuan, Mr. Yang Hongbo, Vice Governor of Sichuan Provincial People’s Government, Mr. Mu Xinhai, Director of Department of Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs of Sichuan, Mr. Hao Kangli, Director-General of Sichuan Provincial Commission of Tourism Development, and Mr. Peng Lin, Municipal Party Secretary of Leshan, attended the said meeting.
Secretary Wang announced that tourism had been the topic of interest from countries around the world, as a consequence of its being an important link to inherit civilization, deepen friendship and strengthen people's cultural exchanges. Sichuan was one of the major tourism provinces in China for its rich tourism resources and famous sceneries. The number of World Natural and Cultural Heritage ranked second in China. In recent years, Sichuan Provincial Government had been promoting tourism industry as a major promotion reception, and achieved that the number of tourists to Sichuan and tourism revenue increased rapidly. There is great potential for the development of tourism in the future. He wished that Sichuan tourism industry could continue to be supported for development by relevant international organizations He emphasized that ACC was an important international organization. He hoped that ACC would ontinue to provide support and assistance to promote Sichuan in ASEAN and promote its tourism industry both in ASEAN states and China.
Director Zhu congratulated the Expo 's success. On behalf of UNWTO and other internaitonal organizations, he reiterated that tourism was the important part of the world economic and social development. In the year 2015, the number of global cross-border tourists reached USD 1.186 billion and tourism revenue reached USD 1.5 trillion which accounted for 10% of the world's GDP. He briefed on the fundamental state of UNWTO and said that UNWTO attached great importance to cooperate with Chinese government by sending a group to visit Sichuan after the Wenchuan earthquake and establishing an observation point in Chengdu in 2013. UNWTO declared that 2017 would be the International Year of Sustainable Tourism Development and would hold the 22nd General Meeting in Chengdu next year0 Sichuan had done a lot of work to promote tourism and created good opportunities for the future.
Secretary-General Yang briefed on the function of ACC and the work on promoting mutural functional cooperation. She emphasized that leaders of ASEAN and China had reached consensus to announce the year 2017 to be the ASEAN-China Year of Tourism Cooperation. ACC was willing to continue to help Sichuan to promote the unique tourism resources, expand exchanges between ASEAN states and Sichuan, as well as promote the mutural cooperation.
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