Du Jiang's Speech at the 2023 International Tourism and Leisure City Qingdao Forum

On March 26th, the "2023 International Tourism and Leisure City · Qingdao Forum" jointly hosted by China Tourism Research Institute, Shandong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, and Qingdao Municipal People's Government was held in Qingdao, Shandong Province. Du Jiang, member of the Party Group and Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism, attended the meeting and delivered a speech. The full text is as follows.

The Chinese government attaches great importance to cultural construction and tourism development, and has explicitly proposed to promote the integrated development of culture and tourism, build a number of world-class tourist attractions and resorts rich in cultural heritage, create a number of national level tourism and leisure cities and blocks with distinctive cultural characteristics, and develop red tourism and rural tourism. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China made a major deployment to promote the deep integration of culture and tourism development. The national "14th Five Year Plan" and the "14th Five Year Plan" for tourism development have both made specific arrangements for "creating a group of national level tourism and leisure cities with distinctive cultural characteristics".

On the one hand, high-quality tourism and leisure are important components of people's beautiful lives. Reading ten thousand books and traveling ten thousand miles has been a fine tradition of the Chinese nation since ancient times. The goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects has been achieved as scheduled, and a new journey of building a socialist modernized country has begun. Mass tourism has entered a new stage of comprehensive development. Today, tourism has become a way of life, as well as a way of learning and growth. With the enrichment of travel experience, tourists hope and are going further, staying longer, and having more fun. The tourism industry is constantly presenting personalization and diversification, with customized tourism and quality leisure becoming the main tone of urban tourism.

On the other hand, international tourism and leisure cities are shining windows to showcase the beauty of China and spread Chinese civilization to the world. Cities are the main tourist source areas and important tourist destinations, as well as the key support and focus of high-quality development that deeply integrates culture and tourism. In the process of Chinese path to modernization, cities are constantly improving public services such as transportation and municipal infrastructure, and constantly enriching leisure consumption places such as civic centers, theaters, cinemas, museums, libraries, parks, hotels, restaurants, etc. These high-quality living spaces and leisure venues are also becoming new elements and scenarios for tourism and leisure.

Shandong is an economically strong province, a cultural and tourism powerhouse, with a multi-level, diversified, and relatively balanced urban development system. In 2022, the State Council issued the "Opinions on Supporting Shandong to Deepen the Conversion of New and Old Driving Forces and Promote Green, Low Carbon and High Quality Development", which clearly proposed to support Shandong to deeply explore the unique charm of Chinese excellent traditional culture and red culture, build an internationally renowned cultural tourism destination, and provide significant opportunities for the construction of Shandong's tourism and leisure city. With the support of the CPC Shandong Provincial Committee and the provincial government, the province has made full use of the rich cultural tourism resources in and around the city to create leading scenic spots such as Mount Taishan, Sankong, Taierzhuang, and national tourist resorts such as Phoenix Island, Mountain, Sea and Sky. Qingdao and other tourist cities have fully tapped into their advantageous resource endowments, actively developed new forms of tourism such as ocean tourism, health tourism, educational tourism, sports tourism, ecological tourism, and industrial tourism, and cultivated a number of new tourism and leisure landmarks. Urban tourism and leisure are flourishing.

Currently, the tourism industry has entered a new stage of market recovery and industrial innovation, and urban tourism and leisure are becoming increasingly popular choices for tourists. The construction of tourism and leisure cities has great potential.

Firstly, we must adhere to shaping tourism through culture and highlighting culture through tourism, promote the deep integration and development of culture and tourism, enrich tourism connotations with culture, enhance tourism taste, use tourism to drive cultural dissemination, promote cultural prosperity, and better connect poetry and distant places to create a better life together. Actively integrate tourism development into the overall situation of Chinese path to modernization, focus on promoting high-quality development, building a modern industrial system, promoting tourism for the people, giving play to the role of tourism as a driving force, and releasing the multiplier effect of "one industry prospers, one hundred industries prosper".

The second is to prioritize the recovery and expansion of consumption, and organically combine the implementation of the strategy of expanding domestic demand with the deepening of supply side structural reform. The human fireworks are the most soothing to the hearts of ordinary people. Tourism and leisure cities should focus on innovating tourism consumption scenarios, optimizing consumption environments, organizing diverse consumer promotion activities, stimulating consumption potential, enhancing urban vitality, and promoting accelerated consumption recovery as the main driving force for economic growth.

The third is to implement an innovation driven strategy, promote the deep integration of innovation chain, industry chain, capital chain, and talent chain in the tourism field, strengthen scientific and technological innovation and application, cultivate new tourism products and formats, enhance the connotation and taste, optimize the supply structure, enrich the supply of high-quality products, reasonably layout tourism facilities, develop smart tourism, and meet the diverse tourism needs of the people.

The fourth is to coordinate and promote the integrated development of urban construction and tourism and leisure. Blocks are important carriers of urban leisure, and tourism and leisure cities should be developed based on tourism and leisure blocks. We need to combine the tourism industry with urban development, coordinate the relationship between production, life, and ecology, strengthen tourism empowerment, promote the integration of tourism formats and public service functions into commercial facilities, industrial parks, neighborhood communities, parks, and green spaces, and build a new tourism consumption space shared by hosts and guests, so that tourism can add color to urban renewal.

Spring comes first, and all actions come first. I hope everyone can take this forum as an opportunity to deepen exchanges, learn from each other, cooperate and achieve win-win results, jointly promote the high-quality development of tourism and leisure cities, and promote the revitalization and recovery of the global tourism industry.

Finally, I wish the 2023 International Tourism and Leisure City Qingdao Forum a complete success!