Cai Chaolin: The IMTA helped effectively improve Guizhou tourism industry’s internationalization level

Editor's Note: On September 15, The "International Mountain Tourism Alliance (IMTA) Annual Conference and Dialogue among World Famous Mountain 2023" opened in Xingyi City, Guizhou Province. Gathering over 200 participants, including IMTA members, renowned international organizations, relevant national cultural and tourism departments, leaders and officials from Guizhou Province, professional tourism organizations and enterprises, world-famous mountain and mountain tourism destination institutions, media and other esteemed guests. The Conference was themed with "Mountain Tourism Resource Innovation and Destination Construction." Simultaneously, the Dialogue among World Famous Mountain explored the theme "World Famous Mountains Empower the Wellness of Mountain Tourism." Discussions revolved around cutting-edge strategies for mountain resource protection, innovative utilization, and development, fostering an inclusive and collaborative atmosphere.

Cai Chaolin, Vice Governor of Guizhou Province, presented at the Annual Conference and delivered a speech.

The following is the full text of the speech:

Today, the Annual Conference of International Mountain Tourism Alliance (IMTA) takes place in Xingyi. On behalf of Guizhou Provincial Government, I hereby extend my warm congratulations on the opening of IMTA Annual Conference & Dialogue among World Famous Mountains, give my heartfelt thanks to the people of all walks of life who show solicitude for the development of Guizhou Province!

Source: Qiao Qiming

As the time goes by, more glories will be achieved. On 15th August 2017, IMTA was officially established here. Today, we get together again in Xingyi. Looking back on the past 6 years, IMTA has made extraordinary explorations and achievements. At the inception phase of its establishment, IMTA, as a newly emerging thing and the world’s only international organization positioned at mountain tourism, carried the expectations from Guizhou, from China, and even from all around the world. IMTA has never deviated from its development purpose to “protect mountain resources, preserve mountain civilization, promote mountain economy to the benefit of the people living in mountainous regions, and facilitate international exchanges, experience sharing and business cooperation among its members.” and its development notion mountain tourism for promoting healthy life and civilization exchanges. It actively boosted the exchanges and cooperation in international mountain tourism, took part in the construction of the global tourism governance system, embarked on business and topic research, and pressed ahead with resource grafting and investment promotion. Simply put, IMTA played a guiding role in promoting the healthy development of the international mountain tourism industry, and its prestige and influence expanded with each passing day. IMTA also helped effectively improve Guizhou tourism industry’s internationalization level.

Source: International Mountain Tourism Alliance

As cloud and fog are dispelled, the opportunities are looming. The global tourism industry is being rejuvenated at an accelerated pace. Amid this backdrop, this Annual Conference themed on “Mountain Tourism Resource Innovation and Destination Construction” and “Dialogue among World Famous Mountains” themed on “World Famous Mountains Empower the Wellness of Mountain Tourism” echo perfectly with International Conference of Mountain Tourism and Outdoor Sports themed on “Culture, Sports, and Tourism Integration, High-quality Life”, which right mirrors the professional international tourism organization IMTA’s prospective judgement on the regional development trend and precise analysis on the change of market demands. We hope that all industry experts and IMTA members will share their viewpoints and hold talks at this IMTA Annual Conference, in order to offer suggestions and guidelines for the high-quality of mountain tourism in the new era.

Guizhou Libo XiaoQikong Laya waterfall

Source: Libo Xiaoqikong scenic spot

Guizhou is a kingdom of the mountains, and reputed as “Mountain Park Province”, so Guizhou’s natural endowment provides strong resource support for the mountain tourism. In recent years, Guizhou has stepped up efforts in developing the “Mountain Tourism+”, and incubated a string of business forms such as “Tourism +Sports” and “Tourism +Wellness”, which become an important growth point for the sustainable development of Guizhou’s mountain tourism economy. In Guizhou, two world-class mountain tourism destinations with regional characteristics, namely Huangguoshu and Libo, are coming into being, implying Guizhou is drawing close to its goal of building the international first-class mountain tourism destination and domestic first-class mountain tourism destination. Over the past three years, the people’s pace of life has slowed down under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Guizhou tourism industry has never halted its step forward. With the improvement of its software and hardware such as transportation and service, Guizhou, relying on mountain resources throughout the province, keeps enriching the supply of mountain tourism products and uplifting the connotation and quality of the mountain tourism, and promotes the transformation of cultural tourism from “Sightseeing” to “Leisurely Travel”.

Maling River Bridge

Source: Tang Ke

Guizhou is a kingdom of the mountains, and reputed as “Mountain Park Province”. In recent years, Guizhou, relying on mountain resources throughout the province, keeps enriching the supply of mountain tourism products and uplifting the connotation and quality of the mountain tourism, and promotes the transformation of cultural tourism from “Sightseeing” to “Leisurely Travel”. Guizhou has stepped up efforts in developing the “Mountain Tourism+”, and incubated a string of business forms such as “Tourism +Sports” and “Tourism +Wellness”, which become an important growth point for the sustainable development of Guizhou’s mountain tourism economy. Statistics show that From January to August this year, the province's tourist arrivals and tourism income recovered to 109.2% and 117.7% respectively before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, and from July to August, it showed a "blowout" growth, and the number of tourist arrivals and tourism income increased by more than 30% over the same period in 2019. Guizhou’s “Village Super League”, “Village BA” bringing Guizhou tourism into the spotlight and the whole network of praises exceeded 50 billion people. It has been praised by CCTV as "the epitome of economic and social changes in this decade, and has become a window to observe Chinese-style modernization." At present, Guizhou's tourism industry shows a good trend of high-quality development.

Today, the tourism industry is stepping towards all-around recovery and rejuvenation. As a large mountain tourism province and the sponsor for the establishment of IMTA, Guizhou will actively create conditions for the construction and development of IMTA, and it will work together with IMTA to make contributions to the mountain tourism’s high-quality development.

Editor Ⅲ: Liu Guosong

Editor Ⅱ: Wu Dan

Editor Ⅰ: Zhang Wenwen