World tourism players vow to boost cooperation for industry recovery from global crisis
- Source: Xinhua
- [08:41 March 22 2010]
- Comments
Leaders of the world tourism industry at the 2010 Boao International Tourism Forum Sunday vowed to promote cooperation to achieve full recovery of the industry, which last year witnessed the first downturn in the past 15 years.
As the industry is sensitive in nature, the world's tourism industry should establish cooperation and development mechanisms to jointly respond to natural disasters, disease outbreaks, as well as economic crisis and other sudden occurrences, according to the Hainan Tourism Declaration adopted at the forum, held in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province.
Under the theme of "transformation of tourism and cultural industries in the aftermath of the global economic crisis," participants to the forum discussed measures adopted by different countries to cope with the global economic downturn and trends of the global tourism industry.
Taleb Rifai, secretary general of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), said global tourism experienced the most difficult year in 2009 as the industry saw the first decline in tourism revenue in the past 15 years and the global tourist number dropped 3-4 percent from the previous year.
Global challenges could only be tackled through global cooperation, he said.
In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Rifai said lessons should be drawn from the past several years, and "the most important lesson is that if world leaders get together and they cooperate, they can change things."
He also called for cooperation between government, state-owned enterprises and the private sector.
He said signs have been seen in the recovery of the industry, however, "we cannot call it a full recovery."
The UNWTO forecast the global tourism revenue in 2010 would grow by 3-4 percent.
Secretary General of the Shanghai Cooperation Forum Muratbek Imanaliev said that tourism and culture cooperation is part of the partnership between members and observers of the organization, and such cooperation enhances understanding of each other.
The Chinese government has paid much attention to the role of tourism and has taken a series of measures to boost tourism development with determination to put tourism as a pillar industry, according to the Declaration.
Shao Qiwei, head of the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), said the Chinese government did not change policies for residents to travel overseas when China faced climbing difficulties in economic growth.
The CNTA figures showed Chinese outbound tourists rose 15.4 percent to 9.22 million in the first two months year on year. The rise was achieved after Chinese outbound number rose 4 percent year on year to 47.65 million in 2009.
The increasing outbound tourists effectively helped destination countries or regions boost economic recoveries, Shao said.
Gregory Duffell, CEO of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) , believed Chinese consumers are one of the most active consuming groups in the world and Chinese outbound tourists are important not only to the Asian-Pacific areas, but also to the world.
The forum attracted delegates from more than 50 countries and regions, including leaders from the UNWTO, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the PATA and tourism ministers from a number of countries.
Hainan would continue to host the Boao International Tourism Forum in a long term with the help of the UNWTO, WTTC, PATA and CNTA, according to the Declaration.
