EDITOR'S NOTE: On December 21, the 2021 International Mountain Tourism Alliance (IMTA) Annual Conference kicked off online. Against the backdrop of global COVID-19 pandemic, the Conference held via videoconferencing for the first time, the main venue was at IMTA headquarters in Guiyang City. International organizations, IMTA members, tourism experts, scholars and entrepreneurs from all over the world attended online, about 50 guests were presented at the main venue. The theme of the Conference is "How Can International Organizations Play a Leading Role in Global Tourism Recovery and Reshaping Governance". Dominique de Villepin, IMTA Chairman and former French Prime Minister addressed to the Confernece online.

It is a great pleasure for me to be with you all for this annual conference .

In line with the post COVID19 crisis, we need all together to discuss the challenges and opportunities faced by different countries and regions in order to find how best it is possible to recover and revitalize tourism.

Around the world the tourism sector has been the most impacted by this nearly two year crisis.

So my first recommendation would be asking all of us to be realistic: International travel is down by 80% in the first seven months of this year compared to 2019 and Asia and the Pacific countries are among the one’s the most severely hit. Many countries have not yet opened their borders and changing safety guidelines and regulations is creating many uncertainties, not favorable for the reopening of international travel and tourism destination. This should last still for the next couple of months at least, while many countries are hit or expecting a new wave. And this could last until either the virus vanishes by itself or the vaccine coverage is enlarged to the whole planet.

My second recommendation would be to keep united. Through this crisis, we see how much we are depending on one another for our common safety and prosperity based on trust and cooperation. This is even more true for international tourism.

My third recommendation would be to center our efforts, meanwhile things get adjusted globally, on a regional scale, and even more on the time being on a national scale. With borders often closed, the safest tourism is the local one. And in this regard, mountain tourism should rely on its many assets as we can see in this beautiful Guizhou province.

More than ever, we are in need of culture, outdoors sports and activities, health and wellbeing that can be provided by mountain regions to the general population, families or elderly people.

So it is important to recreate the conditions of trust to attract tourists that have been confused by the events during the last two years.

-First, we should upgrade health measures in each resort to guarantee the security of the users and consumers.

-Second, we should be more careful in integrating the protection of environment in a time where climate change and global warming have such disastrous effects.

-Third, we should improve the quality of services in adjusting economic and financial facilities.

-Fourth, we should focused on reviving local cultures, arts and crafts to select projects respecting the life of local populations.

Today there are growing expectations about a new tourism policy based on diversity and quality at a human scale. So, we should take advantage of this current trend to value the many resources of mountain tourism, as we can see in the Guizhou province with its natural and ethnic diversity, unique arts and traditions, boosted by the window opportunity of the winter Olympics of Beijing in 2022.

This is a good moment to build up infrastructures in remoted areas, to support cross borders projects, or to promote shared development aimed towards training and education. We should never forget that mountain is a place of collective heritage where people can share through many activities, culture and values that can contribute greatly to maintain the harmony of our societies, building up on the harmony between man and nature.

That’s why we have the obligation to move forward, to respond each day more to the need of the people. This is both an honor and a beautiful challenge.