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International Mayor’s Forum on Tourism-Zhengzhou, China 2018 will be Held on May 27

Henan will gather the world’s attention again following the success of the Global Promotion Conference held in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On the morning of May 4, the People’s Government of Henan Province held a press conference in Beijing to announce that International Mayor’s Forum on Tourism-Zhengzhou, China 2018 (hereinafter referred to as “IMFT 2018”) will be held in Zhengzhou City from May 27 to 30. Xue Yaping, Secretary of the Department of Tourism Promotion and International Liaison of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Wan Xu, Deputy Secretary General of the People's Government of Henan Province, and Jiang Jiding, Director of Henan Provincial Tourism Bureau, released information on the general arrangement and preparatory work of IMFT 2018.

The press conference was hosted by Zheng Yanbao, Deputy Director of the Information Office of the People’s Government of Henan Province. On the conference, the organizers said IMFT 2018 will be an international event to show the integrative development of culture and tourism as well as to manifest the cultural confidence after the establishment of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Under the theme of “Urban Quality Tourism in the Era of Sharing Economy”, three special topics will be discussed, including tourism innovation, tourism sharing, and tourism cooperation.

In order to enable the guests to fully understand Henan as the cultural root of the origin of Chinese civilization as well as to experience the advantages and vitality of the integrative development of culture and tourism in Henan, three promotion activities will also be carried out, including the “Origin of Chinese Civilization” Eve of Henan Tourism, the Eve in Zhengzhou, and the Eve in Luoyang, in which, Henan will be exhibited in an all-around way, and the scenery of four quality tourist routes themed as “Origin of Chinese Civilization”, such as the Yellow River Silk Road Tour, the Chinese Ancient Capital Tour, the Chinese Kung Fu Experience Tour, and the Central Plains Landscape Tour, will be emphatically exhibited, so as to explore the direction and trend of sustainable development of cultural resources tourism cities.

It is said that IMFT 2018 is jointly organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People's Republic of China, United Nations World Tourism Organization, and the People's Government of Henan Province, supported by World Tourism Alliance, World Travel & Tourism Council, and Pacific Asia Travel Association, and jointly undertaken by Henan Provincial Tourism Bureau, Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of Henan Province, and the People’s Government of Zhengzhou. IMFT has been successfully held for 5 sessions in every two years since 2008, resulting in the formation of Declaration of Zhengzhou, Report on the Trend and Development of World Tourism Cities, and Convention on Mayor’s Alliance of World Tourism Cities, highly valued and widely recognized by the international tourism industry and the world tourism cities.

The development of urban quality tourism will be discussed centered on the sharing economy in IMFT 2018.

How will the operational types of tourism change in the era of sharing economy? What development opportunities will it bring to the urban development? The IMFT 2018 that will be held on May 27, will deeply discuss the development of urban quality tourism centered on the sharing economy.

For ten years’ hardships, IMFT has been held periodically and creatively since 2008, becoming an important stage for Henan to show cultural charm to the whole world. The success or failure of IMFT hinges on its theme. In the previous five sessions, IMFT was closely related to the pulse of the times, and had in-depth exchanges and discussions on the common problems of the world and China's national strategic issues.

Theme of 2008: Tourism, Challenges and Opportunities of Urban Development

Theme of 2010: Tourism, Better Urban Life

Theme of 2012: Tourism, Source of Urban Vitality

Theme of 2014: Tourism, Soft Power of Urban Development

Theme of 2016: Tourism, Link of Urban Connectivity

Theme of 2018: Urban Quality Tourism in the Era of Sharing Economy

Why this theme was chosen in this year? Wan Xu, Deputy Secretary General of the People's Government of Henan Province, made a detailed explanation on the press conference held on May 4.

Wan Xu stated that, the sharing economy is a new economic model emerging globally, which provides great opportunities and challenges for the development and improvement of quality of urban tourism. What are the characteristics of sharing economy? Firstly, it has greatly enriched the resources. These resources used to be scattered resources and idle resources, whose availability has been improved through integration and sharing. Secondly, it has greatly improved the participation of human resources.

Sharing economy is the trend and mainstream of the era. Tourism, as one of the industries affected the earliest and deepest by it, fits naturally with it, and is also deeply integrated with the all-for-one tourism which has been completely promoting by China. “The development of sharing economy will have great influence on our tourism. IMFT 2018 timely grasps the theme, which will contribute a lot to the promotion of the international tourism industry, especially the improvement of urban tourism,” said Wan Xu.

The main content of IMFT 2018 can be summarized as: one theme, three special topics, three “Eves”, and two summits.

One theme: Urban Quality Tourism in the Era of Sharing Economy

Three special topics: tourism innovation, light up the future of the city. Take technological innovation as an example to explore the impact of innovation on the development of urban tourism in the future. Tourism sharing, recreate urban value. Take “Belt and Road” as an example to discuss the opportunities and challenges brought by sharing economy to tourism cities. Tourism cooperation, create urban prosperity together. Take Europe as an example to explore the opportunities and power brought by tourism investment, regional cooperation and product cooperation to tourism cities.

Three “Eves” include: the “Origin of Chinese Civilization” Eve of Henan Tourism, in which the scenery of four quality tourist routes themed as “Origin of Chinese Civilization” such as the Yellow River Silk Road Tour, the Chinese Ancient Capital Tour, the Chinese Kung Fu Experience Tour, and the Central Plains Landscape Tour, will be emphatically exhibited; the Eve in Zhengzhou, exhibiting the image of Zhengzhou as a national center city; the Eve in Luoyang, focusing on the ancient culture of Luoyang, so as to explore the direction and trend of sustainable development of cultural resources tourism cities.

Two summits: “Belt and Road” Summit for Mayors of Tourism Cities, in which the theme of IMFT 2018 will be comprehensively expounded through keynote speech, speech on special topics, release of authoritative report, theme discussion and dialog on the themes; WAT Urban Summit, the first world-class summit for mayors of tourism cities since the establishment of World Tourism Alliance.

At the same time, IMFT 2018 will also hold the promotion meeting of tourism investment and financing as well as the signing ceremony of investment attraction projects, with the expected signing tourism projects reaching 38 and the contract amount exceeding RMB 100 billion.

So far, 94 cities from 26 countries, including the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Greece, Italy, Russia, Hungary, Spain, Australia, and South Korea, have decided to participate in IMFT 2018.

Copyright by Zhengzhou Municipal Tourism Administration