29th May was the day when human kind first climbed up Mount Everest, the highest peak on Earth. So, in 2018, IMTA set up this day every year as the International Mountain Tourism Day. Since then, it has become a holiday for mountain tourism enthusiasts and practitioners, as well as a sharing platform that benefits and is jointly developed and participated by the global mountain tourism industry and IMTA members. It has now evolved into the most influential and renowned mechanism-based brand that demonstrates how IMTA proactively participates in the global tourism governance. Each International Mountain Tourism Day has a theme based on the times, with profuse mountain tourism events characterized by the relevant industries. We also encourage mountain tourism destination administrations, organizations, enterprises, institutions and experts to concern about, support and participate in International Mountain Tourism Day theme events, to pool our strength to raise people’s awareness and responsibility of “protecting mountain resources, preserving mountain civilization, and promoting mountain economy to the benefit of the people living in mountainous regions.” In addition, we promote a positive and healthy lifestyle, and create sound mountain tourism environments, in a bid to facilitate the sustainable development and create a bright future for mountain tourism.

In 2019, the first International Mountain Tourism Day themed on “Ecology, Green, Science & Technology Lead the High-quality Development of Mountain Tourism” was held in Kathmandu, capital of Nepal, to showcase actions of participating in tourism governance and carrying out dialogues among mountain civilizations.

In 2020, a year plagued by the pandemic and blurred with uncertainties in the future of the tourism industry, International Mountain Tourism Day themed on “Pandemic Crisis and Challenges & Opportunities for Mountain Tourism” was held online, proving IMTA’s strain capacity and leadership in risk control. In 2021, "International Mountain Tourism Day 2021 – World Heritage Mountain (Jinfo Mountain) Summit" jointly held by Chongqing Municipality of China and IMTA as well as supporting events were themed on “World Heritage Protection and Green Development of Mountain Tourism,” reaching a sound balance and interaction between mountain tourism development and the protection of world heritage mountains. In 2022, International Mountain Tourism Day theme events were livestreamed around the world for the first time. IMTA members and tourism organizations from over 30 countries across the globe gathered together online regardless of the time and space, and had remarkable “cloud exchanges, dialogues and presentations” around the theme “Mountain Tourism Promotes Healthy Life and Cultural Exchange,” injecting confidence and strength to the pandemic-hit tourism industry.

In 2023, the year that marks the reshaping of world tourism, the fifth International Mountain Tourism Day theme events were held in Vientiane of Laos and themed on “Enjoy the Wonder of Mountains, Share the Beauty of Life, Revitalize the Tourism Industry.” Based on the great opportunities brought by regional economic cooperation, the events encouraged Asian countries and regions to face the new challenges in the mountain tourism sector, explore the tourism patterns oriented by the new consumer needs, jointly facilitate the full recovering and opening of the global tourism market, and probe into the system of mountain tourism cooperation and governance within the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) framework. In doing so, we, on behalf of China, called on the world to jointly revitalize the tourism industry, and obtained close attention and positive feedbacks from the world tourism sector.

Now, where will the International Mountain Tourism Day theme events 2024 be held? We are now collecting proposals from governments, IMTA members, destination administrations, and tourism enterprises from countries and regions all over the world.

I Date

From the day of releasing this announcement to 25th August, 2023.

II Requirements

1. The proposer must meet the policies and demands of the local government for holding large-scale events; countries where IMTA members are located are preferred;

2. The local government of the proposer needs to clarify its support, and offers convenience and security for event proposal, guest invitation and reception;

3. The proposer needs to submit the general plan of International Mountain Tourism Day theme events 2024, including expense in personnel, resources, materials, and promotion.

III Submission

Please submit your official proposal letter and general plan to the IMTA Secretariat (Email: liu@imtaweb.org) before 25th August, 2023.

Please contact Mr. Liu for cooperation details; Tel; 0851-85557227 Ext. 7020.

International Mountain Tourism Alliance Secretariat