On September 4th, the Fourth China-Arab States Tour Operators Conference, co-hosted by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, kicked off in Yinchuan. Nearly 240 guests from home and abroad, including Zhang Xu, vice-minister of Culture and Tourism, Yang Dong, deputy head of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and Vinsensius Jemadu, Indonesia Tourism Ministry's Director for Chinese Market, attended the opening ceremony.
On behalf of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Zhang Xu congratulated on the commencement of China-Arab States Tour Operators Conference in his speech. As President Xi Jinping noted, tourism serves as an important strength to promote exchanges and mutual learning between China and foreign countries, and also a bridge for spreading civilizations and boosting ties. Under the guidance of “Belt and Road” Initiative, China and Arab states have established the mechanism for political strategic dialogue and conducted in-depth cooperation in various fields. Zhang said that the Ministry of Culture and Tourism is willing to join hands with Arab states to further enhance governmental exchanges and cooperation in culture and tourism by virtue of strengthen policy synergy and sharing advantageous resources. Meanwhile, China will commit great efforts to dig out the essence of cultural heritages along the silk road so as to develop cultural and tourism products that spread fine cultures of both sides and reflect traditional China-Arab states friendship. Besides, China will focus on improving market competitiveness of its cultural products, and jointly push forward exchanges and cooperation in various fields including culture and tourism.
“‘It is right to develop all-for-one tourism and we should stick to this path.’ President Xi noted when taking a inspection tour to Ningxia.” Yang Dong said in his speech. Relying on its ancient silk road and unique resources, Ningxia will step up efforts to build China demonstration area for all-for-one tourism, push forward high-quality development of tourism and promote the integrated development of culture and tourism. In the meantime, it is hoped to further enhance mutual understanding and friendship through a series of activities, as well as build consensus on tourism development to encourage mutual visits, information sharing and win-win cooperation.
Vinsensius Jemadu felt grateful to be invited to attend the conference. He said that tourism is a major impetus to promote economic development. Indonesia attaches great importance to conducting tourism cooperation, information sharing with countries in the world especially China. This conference is of great significance to reinforce tourism exchanges and cooperation between Indonesia and Ningxia. In 2018, 5000 Indonesian tourists visited Ningxia while Chinese tourists to Indonesia amounted to 1,200,000. He hoped to open more air routes between Ningxia and Jakarta to facilitate more tourists.
At the opening ceremony, a promotional video of “Beautiful China and Amazing Ningxia” was released and many signing ceremonies for cooperation were held. Besides, the tourism promotions of Morocco, Chad, Indonesia as well as Jiangsu and Ningxia were organized as well.