IURC-China successfully organized the third “Zoom-in China” online training session “Understanding Tourism & Culture Industry in China”, on Thursday 03 March 2022. The online training session aims to bring together urban and regional stakeholders to understand major challenges faced and innovative strategies implemented in the Chinese tourism industry. The training helps the EU cities and regions deepen the understanding of the social, economic and ecological context of China and transfer the knowledge to the EU-China city and regional cooperation.
Ms. Alexandra LEHMANN, the EU Delegation to China, delivered the opening speech, highlighting tourism and culture as the key sectors for the COVID recovery, placing special emphasis on digitalisation and resilience. She underlined the main topics addressed in the training session.
Welcome speeches were delivered by Ms. WANG Qian, Team Leader of IURC China. She stressed the key thematic priorities and the approaches for the IURC-China programme and clarified the timeline for the main activities, especially the coming ZOOM-IN China sessions.
The first talk was by the distinguished speaker, Mr. SUN Ruofeng, the Former Director-General of the Department of Science, Technology and Education in the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China, and the Director of the National Technical Committee on Tourism Standardization. He analyzed the Impact and Opportunities in China’s 14th Five-Year Tourism Development Plan, highlighting interactions between Tourism strategies and Rural-Urban Development. He gave concrete good cases of culture and tourism development and its interactions with urban renewal and rural revitalization.
In continuation, Ms. ZHOU Yi, Director of the International Cooperation Department in China Culture Industry Institute of Renmin University, presented the Innovative practices and future trends in the digital cultural tourism of China. She reviewed the key actors of the Chinese cultural industry, underlining 12 Trends in China’s Culture Industry in 2021.
More specifically, Ms. Franka Gulin, Chair of China Chapter in The European Travel Commission, talked about the Trends and Perspectives of tourism in China, highlighting the opportunities for the European stakeholders for the EU-China cooperation in the Post COVID-19 era.
The Zoom-in session built the discussion on the post-COVID recovery strategy, tourists’ preferences and potential cooperation areas within the framework of the IURC-China. It was the third of a series of training sessions planned by the IURC-China on key issues targeting the social, economic and ecological development in China.
The event is moderated by Ms. FENG Keru from the IURC-China team.
