On April 21, a salon event titled "High-quality Development of Mountain Tourism in the New Era" co-sponsored by the International Mountain Tourism Alliance and Minsheng Think Tank was successfully held in Beijing. International organizations and well-known cultural and tourism experts discussed and shared the new trends, opportunities and ways of mountain tourism, and offered suggestions on the development of mountain tourism.

He Yafei, Vice President and Secretary-General of International Mountain Tourism Alliance, delivered a speech at the event. The full text is as follows:

The past is not gone, but the future is here. At present, global challenges such as shifts in the international landscape, updates in the global governance system, intensifying geopolitical competition, the surging technological revolution led by AI, climate change and pandemic diseases are on the rise, which have brought about disruptive changes in human production and life. The depth and breadth of this development trend is unprecedented, and it is accelerating.

Therefore, both the international and Chinese tourism industries have entered a new historical stage of development and renewal. To explore the high-quality development of tourism, we need to have a deep understanding of the overall framework and trend of the development of the times, and on this basis, we need to make a careful and careful study of the current situation of tourism, especially mountain tourism, and the cultural, social and economic tension shown by its development in the near and medium term, propose some new ideas, new ideas, formulate new goals and their realization paths, and promote the high-quality development of mountain tourism. To meet the people's growing demand for a better life.

Let me briefly make a few points for your reference.

1. The essence of tourism is to provide platforms and channels for the contact, communication and integration between people, man and nature, culture and culture. This was, is and will be the case. In the new stage, tourism development focuses on the green development concept of "harmonious coexistence of man and nature"; The new concept of "people-oriented", such as "tourism + culture" and "tourism + health", is highly consistent with the law of historical development and is the only way to high-quality tourism development.

International Mountain Tourism Alliance gallery

Tourism, especially mountain tourism, should adhere to innovative development, seek development through protection, enjoy ecological dividends on a sustainable basis, and create a balance between ecological resources and people's needs. According to the characteristics and characteristics of mountain tourism, new ideas, new plans, new ideas are proposed to achieve high-quality development.

2. "Science and technology is the foundation of national prosperity, innovation is the soul of national progress". In the post-COVID-19 era, China's tourism industry, especially mountain tourism, needs to be modernized, personalized and intelligent by scientific and technological innovation, so as to continuously provide high-quality new forms of business, new services and new experiences.

New technology enabled tourism has unlimited prospects, especially the new technology enabled by AI, which is bound to bring endless power and opportunities for the tourism industry in concept updating, hardware and software service upgrading, professional and multi-talent cultivation, and drive the tourism industry from the traditional service industry to a new economic form of comprehensive and coordinated development of agriculture, industry, culture and the whole region.

Photo source: network

"Seeing is not as good as hearing, and seeing is not as good as practicing." In the new era of rapid development of information technology and intelligence, the vast majority of tourism consumers and suppliers have increasingly complex, customized and intelligent demand for tourism consumption, and have a strong desire for new experiences generated by integrating various resources on the tourism platform and the creativity to meet these aspirations.

This new and constantly changing relationship between supply and demand has broken the traditional definition of tourism products and the concept of upstream and downstream. If the tourism practitioners and enterprises cannot adapt to the reality that the tourism industry has also undergone subversive changes and keep up with the pace of change, they will be eliminated. This is also the harsh reality. The driving force behind these changes is mankind's new understanding of itself and the world, and the ever-expanding space for imagination and creation.

International Mountain Tourism Alliance gallery

Intuitive mountain tourism, people's desire to integrate into nature, "the unity of nature and man", impulse to understand different cultural civilization, curiosity to explore the unknown area, obviously more prominent. Therefore, the development of global mountain tourism in the new era requires a consumer market and upstream and downstream relationship that is open, inclusive and respectful to each other, and reshaping and transforming the supply side and supply chain of tourism. The beautiful new world will surely show its infinite charm with a new look of greater openness, inclusiveness and harmony.

3. As a non-governmental and non-profit international organization in the field of global tourism, the International Mountain Tourism Alliance has been committed to the lofty goals of protecting mountain resources, inheriting mountain civilization, promoting mountain economy, benefiting mountain people, and jointly contributing to the sustainable development of mountain tourism since its establishment in 2017. Even in the difficult situation of the epidemic, we have always adhered to the new ideas of tourism development, made efforts to unite members and industry colleagues, actively responded to the crisis, explored a way out of the crisis, and fulfilled the mission and responsibility of the IMTA.

The International Mountain Alliance is willing to continue to work with domestic and international tourism practitioners to further study the revitalization and innovative development of mountain tourism; We are ready to work with the United Nations World Tourism Organization and other international tourism organizations as well as tourism governance participants in reform and innovation, and promote the development of new tourism rules featuring openness, inclusiveness, connectivity and win-win cooperation. With the support and help of various sessions, the platform system of the IMTA has been accelerated and its influence has been continuously enhanced. We will continue to innovate and forge ahead bravely to make greater efforts for the high-quality development of mountain tourism in the new era.