Jin Zhun：Mountain Tourism and Sustainable Development Under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Framework

On 29 May, the “International Mountain Tourism Day 2023” theme events titled “Enjoy the Wonder of Mountains, Share the Beauty of Life, Revitalize the Tourism Industry” kicked off in Vientiane, Laos. The events were jointly organized by Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism of Lao PDR (MICT), International Mountain Tourism Alliance (IMTA), Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), and Global Tourism Economy Forum (GTEF), and supported by World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), ASEAN-China Center (ACC), China NGO Network for International Exchanges (CNIE), Guizhou Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism and Foreign Affairs Office. Over 250 guests from international organizations, IMTA members, and tourism institutions, culture and tourism enterprises, experts and scholars, and global media workers from Laos and other countries, gathered together to discuss the supply, market development, and solutions of mountain tourism facing the new consumer demands, explore the system of mountain tourism cooperation and governance within the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) framework, and jointly facilitate the full recovery, opening and interaction of the tourism market. Guests, from various perspectives, offered constructive and forward-looking insights on the new-stage innovation and regional development of mountain tourism. The events has aroused widespread concern in the international tourism industry.

On the "Enjoy the Wonder of Mountains, Share the Beautify of Life, Revitalize the Tourism Industry" Theme Forum, Jin Zhun,Tourism Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences delivered a speech on "Mountain Tourism and Sustainable Development Under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Framework".

2022 has seen the official implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), signaling the founding of the largest tourism economic community in the world. This cross-border, cross-market, and intercultural community, in which economic development has played the most important role, boasts of covering the largest number of people in the world, including international tourists and the largest tourism industry in scale. Meanwhile, it also pursues cooperation, openness, and development to realize its cutting-edge potential.

This tourism market covers 2.27 billion people and yields 26000 billion dollars worth of annual GDP, with an overall export worth of 5200 billion dollars. About 24% of international tourists come from this community, and 21% of the global tourism sector relies on it for development. International economic and trade development is the most stable support for tourism growth as more and more open economic and trade will produce endogenous growth, and cultural interactions, which in turn will promote the regional market environment, provide production elements for national tourism development, and establish a close relationship between tourism demand and supply for cross-border nations.

Regional trade agreements play a vital role in tourism development. Every year, over 2000 agreements are signed around the world. Analyzing such agreements can generally promote global tourism development. For example, the NAFTA (North America Free Trade Area) initially signed in 1994 includes America, Canada and Mexico. Within three years, the number of Canadian tourists to Mexico has increased by 1.6 fold, while Mexican tourists to Canada have risen by 1.71 fold. The ANZFTA (the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand free trade agreement) signed in 2009 is an agreement between New Zealand and Australia and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, including Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Vietnam. After three years, tourists from Myanmar to New Zealand increased by sixfold, and tourists from Vietnam to New Zealand have grown 1.43 fold. In 1994, the EEA (European Economic Area) was signed. It includes the European Union, Monaco, Norway, and Liechtenstein. Three years later, tourists from southern Europe to Monaco have risen 1.44 fold, and to Norway 1.89 fold. Compared with other pacts, the RCEP has enjoyed an unprecedented scale and stays ahead of time. As a result, an open economic and trade environment fostered by the RCEP under the large-scale market system will further boost international tourism development, thus forming a global tourism and economic community.

This enormous tourism economic community is not only brought together by a large number of people and unprecedented economic and trade scale but also is supported by the fact that tourism has broken free of its own barriers to make innovations. Once we realize such progress, we will understand the importance of mountain tourism amid such a process. Mountain tourism often marks an important milestone towards economic openness and innovation for a country. Looking back on Chinese reform and opening-up, it is not hard to notice the major role of mountain tourism. In 1979, when China first launched the reform and opening-up initiative, Deng Xiaoping delivered a speech titled the Yellow Mountain Talk at the famous Yellow Mountain, which represents the beginning of modern Chinese tourism pushing towards reform through mountain tourism development. Both special administrations and industries characterize Chinese reform. Why did Xiaoping deliver such a speech? Firstly, reform craves new ideas. He said, “Tourism has so much potential. Here, mountains are your assets.” Reform needs foreign capital. He said, “Tourism is, in fact, the export of scenery. Its income will increase annually.” Reform demands market. He said, “Yellow Mountain is where tourism can grow, and money can be made. Let’s suppose each visitors spend a thousand dollars, and each year, we have one million visitors; that equals ten billion dollars or 5 billion dollars if receiving half the visitors.” Reform needs corporations. He said, “We could set up multiple tourism companies with each one being independent and engaging in competitions.” Reform needs infrastructure. He said, “Sometimes, foreign tourists have doubts when they spend less money. We need to take advantage of such opportunities to ensure sound transportation, accommodation, and facilities. On the other hand, we should strive to develop our city and tourism industry so that we can attract maximum foreign capital.” The reason why Xiaoping delivered such a speech on Yellow Mountain was that the marketization of tourism requires a series of conditions. The typical features of mountains in China and East Asia represented by the Yellow Mountain include: 1. The geographical location of cities and mountains: mountains are situated near cities, thus enjoying their infrastructure and services. 2. Typical culture: mountains are typical symbols of Chinese culture. Seeing the mountains will make one understand Chinese culture. 3. Rich history: the deep tourism culture dated back a long time ago. 4. Industrial clusters: including intangible cultural heritages, handicrafts, and agricultural infrastructure. The reasons why Xiaoping would choose tourism as the drive for reform and opening up can be summarized as follows: 1. With few internal restrictions, tourism attracts the largest common interest and promotes market reform. 2. As a naturally open business, it can boost the process of Chinese opening up. 3. The deeply interrelated tourism sector can mobilize comprehensive reform for social and economic development. We can conclude from the Chinese mountain tourism experience that its development has played a huge part in leveraging and enhancing RCEP. Most famous mountain tourism sites stand at the forefront of their national reform and opening up. For example, the proactive strategies of the Alpes and the sustainability of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks. Pushed by broad reform and opening-up policies, mountain tourism will stimulate national reform to a larger degree.

Taking the Lancang-Mekong Corridor as an example, it is clear that tourism has embarked on a journey of open development under the framework of RCEP. From the chart, countries along the corridor, such as China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, are all pursuing tourism development according to their own national conditions. They have eased the restrictions on market access and citizen treatment. Investments, industries, tourism flow, regulations, and cooperation are increasingly integrated among these countries, thus forming a world-level tourism corridor.

Mountains are the birthplace of human civilizations and an important carrier for exploring their origins and destinations. Mountain tourism accounts for about 15% to 20% of the global tourism market, producing 70 to 90 billion dollars in avenues every year. Mountains and coasts are regarded as the two most important forms of tourism all over the world, with the former being the core geographical pattern for RCEP countries. With the help of RCEP and mountain tourism, a tourism network is gradually becoming woven together by world-level tourism destinations and corridors. There are 158 world heritages in the network, amounting to 13.7% of the world's total. The Great Wall and Palace Museum from China, the Luang Prabang from Laos, the Ha Long Bay from Vietnam, the Angkor Wat from Cambodia, the Bagan from Myanmar, the city of Melaka from Malaysia, Komodo National Park in Indonesia, the Kakadu National Park in Australia, the New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands are all included in this network. There are also a series of vibrant corridors in this network, including the Lancang-Mekong Corridor, the China-Laos Economic Corridor, the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor, and the China-Laos Mohan-Boten Economic Cooperation Zone. In addition, the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway, China-Laos Railway, China-Vietnam International Railway, China-Myanmar, and China-Myanmar-India International Railway have dramatically expanded tourism accessibility and flow. World-level tourism networks will produce more mountain tourism destinations around the world, which in turn will enhance the network. Mountains are the birthplace of human civilizations, and international mountain tourism destinations are the key embodiment of national and regional mountain civilizations. They can reflect the deepness, vigour, economic performance, and future potential of mountain civilizations. These global sites are where mountain culture is passed on, where mountain life converges, and where mountain tourism achieves the utmost economic performance. They are also the testing fields for mountain civilizations. Developing mountain tourism destinations under the RCEP framework requires exploring embedded destinations, with green modernization, green urbanization, and green globalization as the main driving forces for growth. Based on global innovation and technology, sustainable development, and reform and opening up, a high-quality international circular tourism consumption mode will be formed. Together with the RCEP network, this mode will strive to improve the national image, promote modern ideology, enhance open international exchange, and stimulate exploratory development.

Thanks to the opportunity provided by RCEP, the single largest global mountain tourism economic community is taking place with international tourism destinations and corridors as support. Countries in the network should join hands to channel more impetus from economic and trade development into the tourism industry and lead Asia-Pacific tourism and economy towards a new form of development through open cooperation and sustainable development.