In the post-COVID-19 era, the tourism industry has ushered in a comprehensive recovery and injected vitality into the global economy." In the International Mountain Tourism Alliance Annual Conference 2023, Francesco Frangialli, Honorary Secretary-General of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and member of the Expert Committee of the International Mountain Tourism Alliance, published the World Mountain Tourism Trends Report 2023 (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") on behalf of the International Mountain Tourism Alliance, he said that in the past three years, global mountain tourism has broken the cocoon and become a butterfly, evolving a new pattern and stimulating new momentum.
The Report points out that in 2022, the global international mountain tourists will double their growth, and people will express their yearning for mountains with practical actions. In 2023, international mountain tourist arrivals are expected to meet or exceed 2019 levels.
At present, the development pattern of global mountain tourism is becoming more and more balanced. With a highly mature industrial system and a highly loyal customer base, Europe still occupies a leading position. Rising countries such as South America and Africa account for half of the Top10 mountain tourism destinations in the world by virtue of their native resources. More importantly, the list of mountain tourism destinations continues to see the emergence of "new stars", and Asia's mountain development potential is huge.
The Report shows that skiing is one of the best performing mountain tourism categories during the epidemic, especially in emerging countries, China, the Beijing Winter Olympics to promote "300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports", for China and even the global ski industry to bring large-scale customer expansion that meet people's demands to embrace the mountain have become the winners of the uptrend, such as camping activities, kpacking, exquisite camping, work camping, wild camping, wild glamping, RV camping. eople are constantly inventing new ways to camp.
At the same time, the well-being industry has also ushered in explosive growth, the mountain with many advantages, become the ideal well-being destination, forest well-being, hot spring well-being and other well-being industry has developed rapidly. In addition, the rich and colorful mountain culture has been favored by more people. For example, Guizhou, which is rich in mountain tourism resources, has emerged such phenomenon mountain cultural tourism events as "Cun BA" and "Cun Super", bringing joy and encouragement to the public.
The global mountain tourism industry will show a series of development trends, and large-scale vacation projects with greater safety, efficiency and experience will be favored; The public travel interests are becoming more and more diverse, and the new generation of customers are more inclined to visit little-known niche secret destinations; Biodiversity, dark night stars and other features will become the key support for the development of tourism in remote mountain areas. More sustainable and effective projects will be launched in the field of mountain well-being. Digital technology helps visitors explore the diversity of mountain beauty.
Francesco Francalli said that in the past three years, mountain tourism has been full of resilience, contributing valuable momentum to the global tourism industry and even the global economy, demonstrating its huge potential. In the future, mountain tourism has a great prospect and will contribute to more sustainable development solutions for the planet and bring us a better life.
