China International Travel Mart 2015 Opens in Kunming
On November 13, China International Travel Mart (CITM) 2015, jointly organized by China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), Civil Aviation Administration of China, and Yunnan Provincial People’s Government, was unveiled at Kunming Dianchi International Convention & Exhibition Center.
Luo Fuhe, Vice Chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, attended the opening ceremony. CNTA Chairman Li Jinzao attended and addressed the event. Also present at the event were Li Jiheng, Secretary of the CPC Yunnan Provincial Committee. Chen Hao, Deputy Secretary of the provincial Party Committee and Governor of Yunnan, addressed the event. CNTA Vice Chairman Du Jiang also attended the opening ceremony and CNTA Vice Chairman Li Shihong hosted the ceremony. Addresses were also delivered by Mahesh Sharma, Minister of Tourism of India, on behalf of the Guest of Honor; and by Zhu Shanzhong, Executive Director of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
In his address, Li Jinzao said that according to Chinese President Xi Jinping, tourism was an integrated industry and an important driving force for economic development. Premier Li Keqiang also required that tourism make its contribution to the quality and efficiency improvement as well as the upgrading of the economy and do its bit for the leap-frog improvement of people’s living standards. China has become the largest source of outbound tourists and the fourth largest tourist receiving country in the world and it boasts the largest domestic tourism market. In 2014, China’s contribution to the global tourism turnover was up to 13%, making it an important engine of world tourism development. In 2015, tourism year activities have been launched with Korea, India, and Central & Eastern Europe successively, with similar events with the US to follow next year. Such high-level international cooperation has become highlights of China’s exchanges with other countries. In the next three years, China will host the first World Tourism Development Conference, the 22nd UNWTO General Assembly, and the 18th World Travel and Tourism Council Global Summit. Tourism-based diplomacy now plays an important role in China’s enhanced strategic cooperation with other countries and international organizations. As the 13th five-year plan period approaches, China’s tourism, guided by the principle of “innovation, coordination, greenness, openness, and sharing”, will take a more open stance, embrace enhanced international cooperation with increased inclusiveness, and endeavour to contribute to the building of a large tourism country of all-round moderate prosperity.
Also present at the opening ceremony were Aleksandr Shamko, Belarusian Minister of Sports and Tourism; Arief Yahya, Indonesian Minister of Tourism; Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul, Thai Minister of Tourism and Sports; Jean-Christophe Bouissou, French Polynesian Minister of Tourism; Kevin Murphy, Chairman of Pacific Asia Tourism Association (PATA); guests from around China as well as Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan; and representatives of domestic and foreign travel agencies, exhibitors, and journalists. After the opening ceremony, guests went on a tour around the exhibition site.
As the largest professional tourism exhibition, CITM was first held in 1998, with a total of 16 sessions up till now. This year, the event lasted three days and witnessed the participation of 105 countries and regions at a total of 3087 booths which covered up to 70,000 square meters, the largest ever. During the event, with the theme of “Silk Road Tourism”, a number of activities will be held, including China International Tourism Symposium and China-India Tourism Forum, China-South Asian Countries Tourism Ministerial Meeting, Awarding Ceremony for the First Competition of Featured Tourism Products of China, and China Tourism Investment Symposium.
