On 18 September 2017, in-depth discussions were made by experts and scholars on how to promote ASEAN-China two-way tourism development on the Tourism Forum on Promoting ASEAN-China Tourism Development organized by ASEAN-China Centre (ACC).

In keynote speech, Mr. Zhong Hui, Vice President of Beijing Tourism Guide Association and CEO of On the Way, said that ASEAN-China tourism cooperation has achieved fruitful results, and ASEAN has become the largest tourist destination for Chinese tourists. However, the travel between the two sides is still uneven, which means both sides need to continue to improve infrastructure and tourism services, streamline visa procedures, improve the transport facilitation between China and ASEAN countries by increasing the number of direct flights and the number of charter flights. In this way, tourists could more easily obtain the information on tourism destinations, flights and other mode of transportation so as that the balanced and sustainable development of tourism in both sides could be promoted.

Ms. Wei Meiyou, Grand Champion of China National Tour Guide Contest 2017 and Deputy General Manager of Sichuan Business Travel International Travel Service Co., Ltd., stated the importance of promoting the quality of tourist guides to promote the development of two-way tourism. She pointed out several key points to improve the reception level of the tourist guide. Firstly, improving the ability of tour guide, and train more intellectual and cultural guides. Secondly, enhancing service consciousness, integrating service into tourism life, and trying to put oneself in other’s shoes. Thirdly, extensively reading and learning relevant cultural knowledge to ensure having abundant knowledge reserves. Meanwhile, she suggested that tourism industries from both sides should focus on the present with foresight, optimize the tourism environment, enhance tourists experience, work together to promote and upgrade tourism cooperation, and make new contributions to promoting regional common prosperity and development.

In Case Analysis and Experience Sharing, Ms. Wang Yajuan, Vice Dean of Leisure Institute of Guilin Tourism University, analyzed the opportunities and challenges brought by the new tourism format to ASEAN-China tourism development, and put forward some countermeasures. She pointed out that the widespread of shared economy, the rapid development of network and VR technology, and innovation of tourism business model have brought new markets and economic growth to the two-way tourism development between China and ASEAN. Both sides should strengthen top-level design and institutional innovation, promote tourism customs facilitation, establish a multi-level tourism industry cooperation platform, and train more tourism professionals by cooperating with universities and professional training institutions.

Mr. Zeng Ke, Deputy General Manager of Sichuan China Youth Travel Service Co. Ltd, made three suggestions on promoting ASEAN-China two-way tourism sustainable development based on his own experience. Firstly, efforts would be made to promote service level, enhance the service consciousness of tourism practitioners and meet the individual needs of tourists as much as possible. Secondly, increase publicity efforts to vigorously enhance the safety awareness of tourists to ensure travel safety. Thirdly, the ability of both sides to respond promptly and effectively to the unforseen situation should be further improved.

The delegates also had warm interactions afterwards. H.E. Mr. Masataka Fujita, Secretary-General of ASEAN-Japan Centre (AJC) shared the tourism and cooperation between Japan and ASEAN, and the work AJC did to promote the preservation of tourism resources and tourism cooperation between Japan and ASEAN. The guests spoke highly of the Forum, and hoped ACC would continue to exert its advantages to make more contributions to promoting ASEAN-China sustainable tourism development.

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