From the year of 2000 to 2018, China-Africa cooperation has come to its “coming-of-age ceremony”. China is a developing giant power that is rising while Africa is a vast and mysterious land full of hope. In 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, leaders of two sides reviewed friendship, discussed cooperation and talked about future with 2.6 billion people’s trust. This summit’s theme is “Win-Win Cooperation, Working Together for a Community of Shared future for China and Africa”.
“In next 3 years and latter, we will attach importance to‘Eight Initiatives’ including people-to-people exchanges, which means that China has determined to set up China-Africa Academy to create a upgrading research plan for exchanges through deepening the mutual civilization learning; 50 cultural and tourism projects will be implemented to support the Africa’s participation in international theaters, museums, art festivals of Silk Road and other leagues; China-Africa cooperative network on media will be established; both sides are encouraged to build cultural center; the qualified education agencies are supported to apply for Confucius schools; more African countries are encouraged to be the overseas destinations of Chinese people” President Xi said in the opening ceremony of this summit.
Over the past 18 years, tourism exchanges and cooperation have enriched the connotations of strategic partnership between China and Africa. When we look into the future, new chapter will be created in tourism cooperation.
Since the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2005, China has been conducting tourism cooperation with Africa according to the requirements of The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation-Johannesburg Action Plan (2016-2018). It has achieved a lot in advancing visa facilitation, increasing direct flights and improving tourism quality and etc. Through holding many tourism promotion activities, Chinese enterprises are encouraged to invest in African tourism infrastructure so that the friendship between China and Africa will be strengthened. On September third, China Tourism Academy and data center of Ministry of culture and Tourism, along with Trip, Mafengwo, the Jingyu group and other big data laboratories, released the Statistics Report on China-Africa Tourism. According to the report, the number of both Chinese tourists to Africa and African tourists to China has kept the same level over the past three years. Throughout the whole year of 2017, the total number of tourists hit 1.426 million, in which Chinese tourists into Africa stood at 797.8 thousand and African tourists into China amounted to 628.3 thousand. Chinese tourists into Africa through major travel agencies enjoy a high growth rate. Tourism has formally become the pioneer in people-to-people exchanges.
Nowadays, both China and Africa are facing greater opportunities with the prudent development of comprehensive strategic partnership. ”
Doctor Yang Jinsong, vice researcher of Institute of International Tourism Development, pointed out that this summit inherited and developed the Johannesburg’s achievements, which will serve as the guideline for cooperation in next 3 years. “People-to-people exchanges demonstrate the new phase of China-Africa cooperation, and the integration of culture and tourism has become a basic model. The mutual learning of two cultures will be improved with the content. The selected projects are complementary to Belt and Road Initiative, thus to be a model. By virtue of this, cultural and people-to-people cooperation in BRC, as well as the people-to-people exchanges and other tourism exchanges in “Ten Cooperative Plan”, have been deepened and promoted. The cooperation in culture and people-to-people exchanges will cover more areas,so as to take a more firm step.
“The content of people-to-people exchanges, which is proposed by president Xi, meets the needs of time requirement. Tourism shoulders the mission of going global and folk exchanges.” said Zhou Weihong, the vice general manager of Shanghai Spring International Travel Service Co. LTD. He added that the current tourism products attach much attention to natural resources but lack people-to-people exchanges.
“The most attracting part is the collision between peoples and cultures in that the‘emotion’ is an important factor of tourism. Tourism products, including visiting Confucius Institute and communicating with local students, have been designed in North Africa. They should be strengthened in the future as well.”
“The successful hosting of Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation will promote the cooperation in economy, trade, culture and tourism and etc. With regard to tourism, the number of Chinese tourists into Egypt hits the record high of 300 thousand in 2017. I believed that more Chinese tourists will set foot on Egypt to enjoy our history, culture and natural landscapes.” Tourism Counselor Abu from the Egypt embassy in China still believed that Chinese tourists into Egypt will continue to rise in 2018 and hospitable Egypt people welcome their arrival.
According to the Chinese representative Zhu Zheng from Namibia Tourism Administration, it is a good opportunity for Namibia Tourism Administration to introduce its tourism resources to Chinese tourists. “This summit will enhance the mutual understanding between China and Namibia. As a mature, safe and high-level destination for trip, Namibia will be acknowledged by more Chinese tourists.” added Zhu Zheng.
In recent years, China-Africa exchanges have become frequently. Twenty one tourism ministers and dozens of experts from African countries attended the High-level Dialogue on Chinese Travel held by Ethiopia in April, 2017. The attendees focus on how to seize the opportunities of China’s outbound tourism market. The first World Conference on Tourism for Development was held in May 2006 with representatives from 46 African countries.
“We really focus on china’s tourism market.” said Abu. In recent years, the Egypt has always left no stone unturned to showcase its own tourism and produce many characteristic products to meet different demands of tourists, such as Egypt civilization tour, Nile river tour and Red Sea leisure tour. All these have received good feedback.
Zhu Zheng said the Administration has offered many suitable routes according to the preference of Chinese tourists, such as golden tour of middle Namibia, green tour to North Namibia and mysterious desert tour of Namibia. Besides, it set up many channels to let local agencies, hotels and spots know about the favorites and habits of Chinese tourists.
At present, tourism exchanges between two sides have been more frequently with the joint efforts of tourism departments.
According to statistics released by Trip, the number of Chinese tourists into Africa has increased year on year over the past three years. In 2017, tourists reserving the group tour, self-funded travel, customized tour and other projects rose by 60% compared to last year, 2018 more than 70% from January to July.
According to AoYou website, Africa has become the first priority of Chinese tourists who focus on exploration, quality, personification and adventure. There are more than 50 thousand tourists into Africa through the AoYou website over the past five years. It enjoys an annual growth rate of more than 40% over the past two years.
“Currently, customers demand more African tourism products which are gradually recognized by many tourists. There is good news about visa application, such as the Morocco visa exemption in 2016. Tourists to Africa enjoy an annual natural growth rate of 70% to 80%. Some hot spots are Egypt, Mauritius, Morocco, South Africa, Chile as well as Kenya” analyzed Hu Wenyu, a manager of Trip who is responsible for middle and east Africa, Australian, New Zeeland and South Pacific.
In addition, the fastest increase in the first half of this year appeared in Tunisia, Morocco, Ethiopia and Madagascar according to the research results from Mafengwo website.
Ma Yinan, a lecturer of Chinese Language and Literature in University of Botswana, has finished the 2018 Visiting Program for Young Sinologists and returned to China a few days ago. He still keeps Beijing in his mind and pays attention to the progress of this summit. “I am from Africa while my wife is from China. I really appreciate that opportunity of being in China, thus meeting her.” said Ma Yinan. At present, he wished to deepen the China-Africa cooperation in tourism and culture by virtue of this summit. He also hoped that his hometown Botswana will attract more Chinese tourists.。
As Li Li, Chinese ambassador in Morocco, said in an interview, this summit will become a booster to promote China-Africa cooperation. It is said that the number of people into Morocco has surged since its visa-exemption policy to China in June, 2006. A large number of Chinese tourists pour into Morocco, which promotes the Morocco’s development and enhances the understanding between two peoples.
“As the popularity of Namibia continues to increase, Chinese tourists demand better transportation.” said Zhu Zheng. We really hope that two governments can simplify the application of travel visa for Chinese tourists into Namibia through further coordination. On the other hand, we need to increase flights to help Chinese tourists into Namibia freely.
Xu Xiaolei, who is the Chief Brand Officer of AoYou, noted that the market share of African tourism product not only depends on its own charm, but also depends on good relations between china and Africa, as well as the easy visa policies. “Tourism consumption demands upgrading for Chinese citizens, thus theme products full of connotations and culture should be created to adapt to this change in Africa where they can feel at ease and improve their connotations as they enjoy the beautiful landscapes.”added Xu.
Yang Jinsong advised that we need to integrate the mutual cooperation in culture and tourism with the shared community of China and Africa and Belt and Road Initiative. Meanwhile, we really expect the new breakthroughs in visa facilitation, direct flights and encryption, language and payment environment optimization, safety guarantee, mutual learning of tourism development as well as the tourism rights.
“Distance cannot separate true friends who feel so close even when they are thousands of miles apart.” The 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation attracted the attention of two distant peoples and integrated the Chinese dream with African dream in this moment. As an important carrier of people-to-people exchanges, tourism will inject significant impetus to next “Golden Age” of China-Africa cooperation. (Original article from the China Tourism News)