2014 China Urban Tourism Development Strategy Seminar Held in Chengdu

Live streaming link on People's Daily Online: http://travel.people.com.cn/GB/211392/372774/index.html On the morning of January 10, 2014, the "2014 China Urban Tourism Development Strategy Seminar" was held in Chengdu, hosted by the China Tourism Research Institute and organized by the People's Daily Online Tourism Channel and Tourism Satellite TV. Professor Dai Bin, President of China Tourism Research Institute, Yu Chong, Director of Shandong Provincial Tourism Administration, Zeng Min, Deputy Secretary General of Chengdu Municipal People's Government, An Jinming, Deputy Director of Beijing Municipal Tourism Development Commission, Song Ming, Deputy Director of Sichuan Provincial Tourism Administration, Yang Qiying, Deputy Director of Chengdu Municipal Tourism Administration, Liu Mingliang, Deputy Secretary General of Shijiazhuang Municipal People's Government, Sheng Lei, Deputy Mayor of Suzhou Municipal People's Government, Zhang Shimin, Deputy Mayor of Luoyang Municipal People's Government, Zhou Tianwei, Deputy Mayor of Mount Huangshan Municipal People's Government, Gao Wenbin, Deputy Secretary General of Yan'an Municipal People's Government, etc. attended the conference. Leaders and industry executives from more than 40 tourism city governments and tourism administrative departments across the country, 22 member units of the Chengdu Tourism Industry Leadership Group, leaders and heads of tourism administrative departments from 20 districts (cities) and counties in Chengdu, as well as representatives from media organizations such as People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency, CCTV, China Daily, Central People's Radio, People's Daily Overseas Edition, People's Daily Online, China Net, Tourism TV, Chengdu Television, Hailan TV, China Tourism News, China Tourism Network, Chengdu Daily, etc. also attended the press conference. Mr. Zeng Min first delivered a welcome speech for the conference. She stated that since the launch of the work to improve tourist satisfaction, the Chengdu Municipal Party Committee and Government have always regarded it as an important lever to promote tourism development, unified it into the overall development strategy of the city's tourism, effectively enhanced the external image of Chengdu's tourism, and comprehensively promoted the healthy and benign development of Chengdu's tourism industry. The convening of this conference will enable the Municipal Party Committee and Government to earnestly learn from the good experiences and practices of improving tourist satisfaction in the participating cities, listen to the good suggestions and opinions of the attending experts, further optimize the quality of Chengdu's tourism, enhance Chengdu's external image, and create a leisure tourism capital that satisfies the people more. Dai Bin subsequently delivered a keynote speech. He said that both in terms of development environment and macro data, the just passed year 2013 was the best year for tourism development in China so far. The promulgation and implementation of the Tourism Law marks the arrival of the era of "promoting tourism according to law and governing tourism according to law". The National Tourism and Leisure Outline gives us hope for the implementation of paid vacation rights. From the speeches of central and local leaders and newly issued documents, the strategic position of the tourism industry is gradually improving. While recognizing the overall achievements, we are concerned about several structural issues in the operation of the tourism economy: firstly, the imbalance between the development quality represented by tourist satisfaction and the growth rate and scale of the tourism market; Secondly, there is a lack of synchronization between changes in consumption structure and adjustments in industrial supply structure; Thirdly, local governments have high expectations for tourism development and use industrial planning thinking to promote tourism investment and project construction. He stated that based on the awakening of people's awareness of tourism and leisure, the improvement of consumption ability, the transformation of traditional tourism industry by capital and technology, the entrepreneurial efforts of young people, and the high attention of central and local party committees and governments to the tourism industry, he has full confidence in the operation of the national tourism economy in the new year and the future period, and maintains relatively optimistic expectations. He made two judgments on the fundamentals of tourism economy. Firstly, with the arrival of the era of individual travelers, self guided tours, and smart tourism, more and more tourists are entering destination public places and participating in the normal life of ordinary people. Cities and rural areas have begun to become shared living spaces between foreign tourists and local residents. Secondly, after more than 30 years of market cultivation, regardless of whether the consumption ability is high or low, tourists have generally developed a sense of rights and quality requirements. Tourists' "enjoying while complaining" will be a normal evaluation that the government must face. He hopes that tourism development in various regions will pay more attention to the tourism rights of the general public and pay more attention to the core demands of millions of ordinary tourists; In the process of developing tourism, various regions should effectively play the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, especially emphasizing the cultivation of local tourism market entities; He also hopes that the government can better adapt to the changes in contemporary tourism development, keenly capture market changes, effectively enhance the leadership of government tourism regulatory departments, and play a greater role in pursuing better quality development. Next, Yu Chong, Director of Shandong Provincial Tourism Bureau, will give a keynote speech on "New Urbanization and Smart Tourism". An Jinming, Deputy Director of the Beijing Municipal Tourism Development Commission, delivered a keynote speech on "New Urbanization Promotes Tourism Transformation and Upgrading". Sheng Lei, Deputy Mayor of Suzhou Municipal People's Government, delivered a keynote speech on "Tourism makes cities more beautiful". Zhou Tianwei, Vice Mayor of Mount Huangshan Municipal People's Government, made a keynote speech on how to promote the integrated development of tourism, new urbanization and information technology in Mount Huangshan and create an upgraded version of Mount Huangshan tourism. Yin Jianhua, Chairman of Chengdu Culture and Tourism Group, delivered a keynote speech on "Leading Cultural Tourism, Making Life Better". At the meeting, Associate Researcher Song Ziqian, Director of the Policy Institute of China Tourism Research Institute, conducted an in-depth analysis of the operation of China's tourism economy in 2013 and the development forecast for 2014, as well as the interpretation of the "Blue Book of China's Tourism Economy (No. 6)". The report shows that in 2013, China's tourism economy operated steadily, with strong consumer demand, sustained investment growth, relatively prosperous industrial operation, and accelerated transformation of development mode. However, due to the rapid growth of outbound tourism, the international tourism trade deficit continues to widen. We hold a relatively optimistic outlook for the development of the tourism economy in 2014, believing that it will continue to maintain a steady and rapid growth trend. Vice Researcher Li Zhongguang, Director of the Industry Institute of China Tourism Research Institute, released the report on the fourth quarter and annual national tourist satisfaction survey in 2013, as well as the ranking of tourist satisfaction in 60 cities. The report shows that the national tourist satisfaction index in 2013 was 74.88, which was at a "moderate" level, a decrease of 5.78 from 2012. There was a breakthrough in the satisfaction of tourism complaints and quality supervision throughout the year. Environmental factors, represented by air quality, have become the main factors restricting the improvement of tourist satisfaction. There is still a long way to go in cultivating the tourism industry into a modern service industry that satisfies the people more. Dr. Chen Xu from the Industry Institute has released the satisfaction survey report on Chinese citizens' overseas travel for the fourth quarter and the whole year of 2013, as well as the satisfaction rankings of 22 countries. The report shows that the satisfaction index of overseas travel for the whole year was 78.88, reaching the level of "basic satisfaction". Out of the 22 sample countries, 9 achieved a "satisfaction" level of 80 or above. Three roundtable discussions were held in the afternoon. Dean Dai Bin presided over the Mayor's Roundtable Forum with the theme of "Cities: Shared Living Spaces for Citizens and Tourists". Yu Chong, Director of the Tourism Administration of Shandong Province, Sheng Lei, Vice Mayor of Suzhou Municipal People's Government, Zhang Shimin, Vice Mayor of Luoyang Municipal People's Government, and Zhou Tianwei, Vice Mayor of Mount Huangshan Municipal People's Government, carried out in-depth discussions around urban tourism, that is, how to understand the city as a living space shared by citizens and tourists, efforts and goals. Li Zhongguang presided over the second roundtable forum with the theme of "Smart Tourism Promotes New Development of Urban Tourism". The Deputy Director of Chengdu Tourism Bureau and Yudong gave keynote speeches on the situation of smart tourism in Chengdu, while Wan Qian, General Manager of Smart Tourism Division of Zhongdian Baidaxing Technology Co., Ltd., gave keynote speeches on user experience based smart tourism solutions. An Jinming, Deputy Director of Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development, Huang Guobin, Director of Xiamen Tourism Administration, Chi Hua, Vice President of Digital City Research Institute of Beijing Tsinghua Planning and Design Research Institute, Ai Changyong, Director of Qingcheng Mountain Dujiangyan Irrigation Project Scenic Area Information Center, and Ma Yiliang, National Tourism Economics Laboratory of China Tourism Research Institute, conducted in-depth discussions around the theme. Vice Researcher Ma Xiaolong, Director of the Regional Institute of China Tourism Research Institute, presided over the third roundtable forum with the theme of "New Requirements of New Urbanization for Urban Tourism". Zhang Chunchun, Director of Wenzhou Tourism Bureau, and Lin Feng, Dean of Lvwei Chuangjing Planning Institute, respectively gave keynote speeches on "Regional Tourism Industry Agglomeration Model in the Evolution of New Urbanization" and "New Urbanization and Urban Tourism Development". Li Zhong, director of Mount Huangshan Tourism Commission, Zhang Chunjie, director of Wenzhou Tourism Bureau, Liu Bin, deputy general manager of Beijing International Tourism Exchange, and Yang Yanfeng, deputy general manager of destination marketing of Ctrip launched in-depth discussions around the theme.