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On 27 May 2018, the Opening Ceremony of International Mayor’s Forum on Tourism (IMFT) was successfully held in Zhengzhou, Henan province. Co-organized by Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China, World Tourism Organization and the People’s Government of Henan Province, IMTF 2018 took “City Quality Tourism in the Era of Share Economy” as the theme. Mr. Li Jinzao, Vice Minister of Culture & Tourism of the People’s Republic of China, Mr. Liu Wei, Chairman of the Henan Political Consultative Conference, Mr. Zhu Shanzhong, Executive Director of World Tourism Organization, Ms. Zhao Suping, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Henan Provincial Committee and the Head of Publicity Department of CPC Anhui Provincial Committee, Mr. Ma Yi, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Henan Provincial Committee and the Secretary of the Zhengzhou Municipal Party Committee, mayors or representatives of nearly 30 countries and more than 100 tourism cities, as well as media representatives, totaling over 500 representatives attended the opening ceremony. Mr. Chen Kesong, Tourism Officer of ASEAN-China Centre was invited to attend and exchanged views with the participants.

Mr. Li Jinzao said in his remarks that IMFT has been successfully held five sessions and has become an important platform for deepening international tourism cooperation, an important stage to show the features of every tourist city and an important channel to enhance the level of tourism exchanges. As an important birthplace of Chinese civilization, Henan has rich cultural tourism resources and is developing towards the global tourism. He hoped that IMFT 2018 will achieve more results, every participant will see more in Henan and feel the history and culture of Henan and the diligence and wisdom of the Henan people.

Mr. Zhu Shanzhong said that tourism is an effective way to promote economic and trade contacts between different countries. He believed that the holding of IMFT 2018 will effectively deepen the cooperation between the world tourism organization and Henan and contribute more to the development of tourism in China and the world.

Entrusted by Mr. Wang Guosheng, Secretary of the Henan Provincial Party Committee and Mr. Chen Runer, Governor of Henan, Ms. Zhao Suping expressed her warm welcome to all the participants and introduced Henan’s history, culture and the development status. She said that IMFT 2018, rich and colourful in content, closely links the pulse of the times, and provides a rare opportunity to promote the integration and development of tourism resources and the interaction and sharing of tourism market in the related countries and cities.

IMFT is held every two years, aiming at setting up a platform for high level dialogue and common development for international tourism and world tourist cities, analyzing the problems, discussing the measures to deal with and promoting the sustainable and healthy development of the international tourism industry. Since 2008, IMFT has been successfully held five sessions. Hundreds of mayors from tourist cities in the world gathered in Henan and issued the Zhengzhou Declaration, the Development Report of World Tourism City Trend, the World Tourism City Mayor Alliance Convention, and so on, which were highly valued by the international tourism industry and the world’s tourist cities.