Focusing on "Mountain Tourism Pattern Innovation and Community Co-Construction", IMTA Successfully Held the Thematic Training Workshop
From December 27th to 29th, the Thematic Training Workshop on "Mountain Tourism Pattern Innovation and Community Co-Construction" was held in Chengdu. The training focused on in-depth analysis and case sharing around the theme, exploring and grasping the characteristics and laws of mountain tourism operations, and obtaining methodological guidance for ideological leadership and practical support. The International Mountain Tourism Alliance (IMTA) invited experts in domestic tourism and related fields to give systematic and high-quality specialized lectures. IMTA members, industry representatives, representatives of mountain tourism destinations in Guizhou Province, Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism, and representatives of related industries participated in the training.
Site of Training
Source: IMTA
A feast of knowledge, opening up "tourism + new thinking"
Fu Yingchun, Vice Chairman and Executive Secretary-General of IMTA, stated in his opening speech that 2023 is known as the first year of tourism recovery, with a concentrated release of tourism demand and a significant increase in the number of trips, marking a steady pace in the overall recovery of the tourism economy. With its remarkable risk resistance and iterative capabilities, mountain tourism has demonstrated a structural advantage full of potential in the overall recovery process of the tourism economy. He pointed out that the expansion of the scale of mountain tourism customers, the improvement of overall quality, and the emergence of emerging hotspots echo consumers' pursuit of safe, healthy, high-quality, and experiential products in the post-pandemic era. The continuous emergence of new tourism formats in recent years is built on the basis of "tourism + new thinking", and the strong momentum shown by mountain tourism poses new requirements for integration, linkage, and innovation-driven development. More notably, tourism is entering the era of demand on the side of 8900. With changes in the mainstream consumer group, ideas, channels, and models, in other words, thinking, practices, and ways of playing, will all advance with the times. The diversification, youthfulness, life, and fashion consumption themes corresponding to the supply side are an inevitable trend. Young people not only represent consumer trends but also represent thinking and creativity, and will undoubtedly play a leading role in transformation and development. This is the underlying logic of business innovation.
Mountain Hot Spring
Source: IMTA
As a supporting unit of this training event, Tang Xiaofeng, Deputy Director of Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism, introduced that Chengdu is one of the most vibrant and happiest cities in China, named as the best tourist city in China and a demonstration city for tourism and leisure in China. It also has abundant mountain tourism resources and needs more active thinking to open up new spaces and achieve new progress. He hoped to seize the opportunity of this training workshop to jointly explore the latest concepts and practical experiences of mountain tourism business innovation with the IMTA and its members, understand the significance and methods of community co-construction, and jointly explore ways to promote the sustainable development of mountain tourism.
Qinlai Tiantai Mountain
Source: Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism
This special training workshop is a specific practice of the IMTA serving its members and industry development. It combines thematic lectures, cases sharing, discussions, and on-site inspections to provide participants with opportunities for interaction and exploration of new ideas and cooperation opportunities, contributing to sustainable mountain tourism development.
Training Venue
Source: IMTA
A collision of wisdom, exploring new trends in mountain tourism development
Fu Yingchun pointed out that the latest "Report on Development Trends of Global Mountain Tourism 2023" and other relevant data and analysis released by the IMTA show that the number of international trips for global mountain tourism in 2023 may reach or exceed the level of 2019, and the recovery capacity of the mountain tourism industry will lead the overall level of the tourism industry. Against the background of China's tourism industry accelerating its transformation towards high-quality development, mountain tourism will usher in new development space with its unique advantages.
Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia
Source: IMTA
"China's tourism is facing the historical task of transformation and upgrading, mainly in the traditional field. The upgrading is high-quality development, which is a comprehensive requirement. Among them, quality and efficiency are equally required, and efficiency is the fundamental reason behind it." Wei Xiao'an, senior expert and Council of the IMTA, made a detailed and in-depth report. He focused on the theme of "Mountain Tourism: Innovation and Market" and shared: At present, China's tourism pattern has undergone fundamental changes, with declining consumption capacity, prominent diversified products, and lack of development potential in tourism investment. However, at the same time, a new development pattern has emerged, and the cultural tourism industry is developing towards high quality. The mountain lifestyle in the post-epidemic era is of great attraction to tourists, and vacation demand has become a rigid demand. Wei Xiao'an said that the improvement of mountain tourism faces difficulties such as inconvenient transportation, insufficient infrastructure, seasonal constraints, etc. Mountain areas need to innovate products, brands, models, and concepts to deal with the relationship between tourism development and mountain ecology and local residents to achieve compound development and comprehensive promotion. In addition, the transformation of tourism enterprises, innovation of new formats, improvement of productivity, optimization of structure, promotion of demand, and promotion of science and technology are all new focuses of current tourism development. To achieve high-quality development of tourism industry, we should make joint efforts from multiple aspects such as decision-making, projects, products, operations, services, science and technology, talents, and development pattern.
Wei Xiao'an, senior expert and Council of the IMTA
Source: IMTA
"The tourism industry experienced a historic increase in 2023, which played an unprecedented role in driving the national economy." Dr. Jin Zhun, specially invited expert of the IMTA and Secretary General of Tourism Research Centre, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, shared his views on "Reality and Path of the Integration of Culture and Tourism". In the context of double growth, tourism economy has become the biggest bright spot of the national economy in the first half of 2023, and has repeatedly become a troubled industry. Jin Zhuan pointed out that tourism has gradually shifted from a resource-consuming industry to a cultural development industry, and is in a period of reshaping the pattern. We should further pay attention to the competition and cohesion of culture and tourism. Jin Zhuan believed that we should start from the fundamental issues, leveraging artistic capital, scene capital, technological capital, institutional capital, and sound capital to promote the integration of culture and tourism.
Dr. Jin Zhun, specially invited expert of the IMTA and Secretary General of Tourism Research Centre, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Source: IMTA
Wang Xiaoyu, specially invited expert of the World Tourism Cities Federation and contract research fellow of the Tourism Research Centre, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, shared his views on the theme of "New Trends in Sports Tourism Consumption and New Directions for Development and Operation" from the perspectives of social structure transformation, middle class differentiation, investment and development trends. He pointed out that China's cultural tourism market has entered a post-high-speed development stage, with middle class stratification, consumption stratification, refined demand, and tourists' demand shifting to quality sightseeing and theme leisure vacation. Therefore, the quality of basic products and the deepening of theme content in experiential products will become the new development trend. Wang Xiaoyu believed that in the future, the eastern region can develop diversified theme leisure and micro vacation products around metropolitan areas and urban agglomerations, while the central and western regions can develop theme leisure vacation products and characteristic tourism products as well as local leisure products around tourist source areas.
Wang Xiaoyu, specially invited expert of the World Tourism Cities Federation and contract research fellow of the Tourism Research Centre, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Source: IMTA
Zhang Chaowei, deputy dean and associate researcher of the Institute of Modern Urban-Rural Development Planning Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences made a special presentation on "New Trends and New Formats of the Cultural Tourism Industry" from three aspects: whole-area tourism, deep experience, and cross-border integration. Urban leisure + rural micro-vacation constitute whole-area tourism, and the development of tourism and leisure industries covering both urban and rural areas can promote the equalization of infrastructure and public services and the integration of urban and rural areas. "Deep experience" has the characteristics of immersion, experiential, and interactive, and the instinct and desire to be close to nature are its driving force. The integration of agriculture, culture, sports, and tourism, as well as the extension of industrial chain, industry collaboration, and cross-border integration are inevitable features of economic development and industrial ecological development. Health care tourism is a model of cross-border integration, among which the most representative formats are health preservation agriculture and health preservation homestays.
Zhang Chaowei, deputy dean and associate researcher of the Institute of Modern Urban-Rural Development Planning Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Source: IMTA
An exchange and mutual promotion to boost the high-quality development of mountain tourism
In recent years, new tourism formats have emerged, such as boutique homestays, wellness and healing, family travel and study, self-driving travel, outdoor camping, mountain climbing and hiking, skiing and adventure tourism. These new formats represent a new trend in the transformation and upgrading of mountain tourism, and create new space for the development of immersive experience products such as mountain vacation, leisure and wellness.
Mountain Skiing
Source: IMTA
"Hot spring is a world-wide culture about health and happiness", Wang Jie, the president of Asia-Pacific Institute for Hydrotherapy and Climatotherapy Tourism (APIHC), introduced different types of health care industries such as hot spring health care, climate health care and forest health care around the theme of "innovative development of mountain hot spring vacation industry", and shared corresponding tourism cases. Wang Jie pointed out that "hot spring + health care" is the core driving force for achieving breakthrough development of local tourism, and mountain hot spring tourism is also an important force to promote rural revitalization. With hot spring tourism as the pillar, with life service industry as the leading, with cultural industry as the characteristic, focusing on village appearance, farming culture, characteristic agriculture, will build a "hot spring + agriculture, culture, tourism and health" integration industrial development pattern.
Wang Jie, the president of Asia-Pacific Institute for Hydrotherapy and Climatotherapy Tourism (APIHC)
Source: IMTA
Mountain tourism has unique values such as supply innovation, national fitness, and consumption flow. Zhang Haifeng, founder of Huway.com and CEO of Nanjing Qijiaer Network Technology Co., ltd. (Mango Haitong Investment Enterprise), shared outstanding cases such as Wugong Mountain, Pokhara in Nepal, and Shenxianju Scenic Spot, which have emerged in recent years, around the theme of "exploring the traffic password of mountain tourism". He said that sports tourism fits the current young people's pursuit of differentiation, unique aesthetic, rich experience and social interaction. Mountain tourism destinations can conduct top-level design from mountain sports space, differentiated brand image, diversified outdoor routes, diversified accommodation carriers, and mountain culture labels.
Zhang Haifeng, founder of Huway.com and CEO of Nanjing Qijiaer Network Technology Co., ltd. (Mango Haitong Investment Enterprise)
Source: IMTA
"Forest health care industry refers to a commercial complex that integrates tourism, leisure, medical care, sports and other new concepts of health services, relying on high-quality forest and wetland ecosystem resources, with diversified combinations, industrial integration, and business symbiosis." Li Yihui, Vice Chairman and Secretary General of China Forestry Industry Federation, Forest Rehabilitation Branch, introduced the development trend of forest health care industry in China, forest health care therapy, and occupational requirements of forest health care teachers, centering on the theme of "Progress and Future Trends of Forest Rehabilitation". She said that the construction of forest health care pilot bases has driven social capital to enter, promoted the construction of mountainous forest areas, and injected strong vitality into rural revitalization, ecological construction and the development of large-scale health industry. With the support of national policies and the continuous development of the industry, forest health care has great potential.
Li Yihui, Vice Chairman and Secretary General of China Forestry Industry Federation, Forest Rehabilitation Branch
Source: IMTA
Ma Wenbo, Deputy General Manager of Yunnan Tengchong Volcano & Spa Investment and Development Co., Ltd. and Vice Chairman of the China Tourism Association, Hot Spring Tourism Branch shared the path of format innovation of Tengchong Volcano & Spa National 5A Tourist Attraction with the theme of "Exploration and Practice of Scenic Spot Format Innovation in Mountain Tourism". Tengchong Volcano & Spa has rich mountain tourism resources, integrating sightseeing, hot spring recuperation, catering and accommodation, geological science research and outdoor sports. Ma Wenbo introduced that Tengchong Volcano Hot Sea took the hot spring resources as a breakthrough point to create a hot spring health care highland, launched a series of distinctive theme hot spring health care products, and promoted deep science research with unique geological and geothermal landforms, committed to building tourism industry and leisure production industry.
Ma Wenbo, Deputy General Manager of Yunnan Tengchong Volcano & Spa Investment and Development Co., Ltd. and Vice Chairman of the China Tourism Association, Hot Spring Tourism Branch
Source: IMTA
After the lecture, the participants went to Xiling Snow Mountain, China Railway Huashui Bay, Bailu Music Tourism Scenic Spot, Baoshan Tourism Scenic Spot and other places to investigate mountain tourism and hot spring tourism projects, and observed typical cases of community co-construction. The participants said that they had gained a lot from the training. Business training is an institutional activity that the International Mountain Tourism Alliance has been continuously carrying out. Previously, the IMTA had established sharing column of "The Development of Mountain Tourism in the Post-pandemic Era" and a sharing column of "Building a New Pattern of Mountain Tourism Development". The thematic training workshop of "Mountain Tourism Pattern Innovation and Community Co-Construction" was the first training session held offline. Subsequently, the IMTA will regularly or irregularly hold expert symposiums, organize expert visits and business training activities at home and abroad to serve its members, lead the development of mountain tourism, transmit the latest industrial development information to the world, and cultivate excellent professional mountain tourism practitioners.
Participants inspected Xiling Snow Mountain and Baoshan Tourist Area
Source: IMTA
The IMTA was initiated by Guizhou Province and is the world's first international organization with mountain tourism orientation. It is committed to protecting mountain resources, inheriting mountain civilization, promoting mountain economy, benefiting mountain people, and striving for sustainable mountain tourism development. The IMTA will be based on its purpose, face the future, adhere to the platform's excellent service, shape its image with brand, constantly optimize the alliance member configuration structure, constantly explore the method path of mechanism innovation, and work together with the industry to actively participate in and promote the reform and construction of tourism governance system.
Editor Ⅰ: Zhang Wenwen
Editor Ⅱ: Wu Dan
Editor Ⅲ: Liu Guosong
